Melanie Heinrich Artist
Melanie Heinrich, Artist
Furniture Designs

Bench

Showing the mortise and tenon joinery

Before staining

This bench was designed as a replica of another bench that goes with an old French dining table. It has mortise and tenon joints that show on the top of the seat. In an effort to match the aged look of the original bench I roughly cut the new bench using a hand-held jigsaw, which helped maintain the distressed look. I also tested several different stains in an effort to match the original bench. Since the bench was made of pine, it absorbed the color at varying values. I tried using coffee as a stain but found it was too light, so I ended up using a conventional stain called Old English.

New bench on the left

Coffee stain

Banch

Old English stain

 

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