Jessica writes with a question we all likely ask at one time or another in our collecting (and dumpster-diving) lives:
Hi there! It goes without saying that I love your blog or I wouldn’t be reaching out.
So, I have this little set. It’s a Heywood Wakefield table — missing its leaves — and two chairs. One with arms and one without. We found it free on the side of the road. The original labels and paperwork are still stapled under one of the chairs. Anyway, the poor set has been badly abused. The Champagne finish has seen better days, and obviously parts of the set have been lost along the way — the other chairs as well as the leaves. The table top has some spreading between the pieces of wood likely because it was left in the rain or somewhere moist. And lots of rings. *sigh*
So, my question is this.
Do I pay to have this refinished in the right stain, and see if they can do anything about the spreading and stains. OR, do I have it done in something fun like a black lacquer? Its role is likely going to be an art table for the kids in their super cool retro playroom. At most, it could end up being my desk in my office.
The chairs are cat eye style. I’m not sure on the table. Trying to look that up now.
Any thoughts?
Jessica
Hi there back, Jessica! Thank you, and good girl, dumpster diver! Excellent question — and a great one for our team of smarty readers weigh in on.
What do you think, readers?
Is it righteous to restore wrecked vintage furniture back to its original finish?
Or, can we get creative?
I definitely have an opinion, but family hold back.
Restore it back to original. Its’s the law of 99. Every ten years they say 99% of things are destroyed. If that really hold true, then take what you have and restore it back to original condition. It’ll be worth more and it’s the way it was intended to be!
Search on eBay and you’ll find ways to restore Heywood pretty easily. Good luck!
I agree, I would refinish it and search for 4 more chairs to complete the set.
I’ve used one of the kits on eBay for a Heywood Wakefield coffee table that was damaged, and it came out great.
Jessica — ohmigosh — were you just SO excited when you found your table and chairs? I found a bookcase on the side of the road just yesterday and got out of the van in my pj’s to rescue it! (Doing the infamous “drop kids off at school in your pajamas” move.)
My thoughts are this… if your treasure was in pristine condition when you found it, it would seem “wrong” to paint it. (To me, anyway.)
But your set needs some lovin’! It just depends on what you like. Those pieces of furniture are so gorgeous when the transparent finishes reveal the wood below! It would be very pretty to do it in the original manner…. you certainly could do that.
But you have rescued the piece from the dump! If you want to resurrect it with a super sturdy coat of paint and let it be an art table, I say go for it! The nice thing about that kind of furniture is its good bones. Either way, it will look great!
I am all for original finishes, but your case is different. The nice thing about wood furniture is you can always redo it. If you need to use the set now and don’t have a lot to spend at this moment, I would paint, especially if you do not have experience refinishing furniture in a natural finish. I feel it is more difficult and can look bad if not done very well. So you can paint it now for the kids, and when they grow out f the art table, you can redo it professionally. Having 3 kids of my own, I would not spend a lot of money refinishing something that small children will use as an art table as it will likely get scratched and drawn on. Then you will fell badly about the money issue.
As Chris above says, you rescued it from the dump. I’d paint it and have a nice table and 2 chairs for almost nothing.
Paint and enjoy it! If you buy for investment, you always buy original finish. The value is always in the original surface. No matter what you do to the table it will always be restored and its value will be low. For pieces like tables and desks, items that I use daily, I choose refinished. I don’t want to worry about what I put on them.Unless your table and chairs turn out to be a super rare prototype, its loss of surface will always hurt the resale price.
You can always seal the table before you paint it, which would make removal of the paint easier down the road if you choose, but maple is so dense the paint probably wouldn’t get into the pores anyway.
Have fun with your find. Congratulations.
Refinished still fetches a pretty penny. Checking out nicely refinished pieces on eBay (such as the JL Moller chairs) a set of six will generally get 3500 on average. I bought a set of 6 Moller #77s for $600 at a Chicago liquidator. All they need is a little scuff-sand and teak oil to the wood plus new upholstery.
Plan to recover in black leather. Total investment (my husband gets the leather comp as he works in the auto industry) will be about $900 for 6. Brand new through DWR would be about $6000 if you *could* get them in teak with leather. They only offer walnut/leather.
SO….for $900 and the going rate on eBay at 6qty. for $3500+, I would say the whole “it loses value if refurbished” does not really hold true. The market will pay for something in demand and something rare with a name.
I don’t understand why you are comparing 70′s Danish Modern teak to 50′s HW but teak has very little finish, it’s mostly oil. Looking at past prices a similar HW set sold at auction in original finish with a table and one leaf, 6 chairs, a china and a buffet for $600. http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/5902048
The damage described on these pieces is pretty extensive. The cupped wood and chunks missing make it a tough job, especially if Jessica needs to pay someone to do the work. Whether it is cost effective to pay for that work to 2 chairs and a table when a whole 10 piece suite could be had for $600 is up to her. I surely wouldn’t feel bad about painting it.
Wow, hey sorry – I was not trying to offend you in any way. REALLY
~Cheers!
I was merely trying to point out that if it was in reasonable-enough condition, refinishing does not always kill resale. I did not know about some of the issues in her particular set from looking at the pictures and until her later post giving those details.
While comparing JL Moller Danish Modern furniture designed in the 1950s (http://www.jlm.dk/produkter/produkt_info_tekster/engelsk/stol_71.htm)
to the Heywood Wakefield may be off in price comparison, in general the rule of refinishing is not always a bad thing. I’d still rather have the solid wood look than painted, which needs repainting much sooner than hard finishes do when you have kids (and I have two active boys ages 3 & 7!) Solid wood is good no matter what, especially in the era of cheap IKEA and laminant stuff from China from local box stores! LOL
Natural wood whenever possible so the true beauty of wood grain can shine through. Howard’s restore-a-finish and Howard’s beeswax conditioner will go a long way to making this piece shine in its formal glory again!!
Ultimately do what makes you happy.
I have nothing against paint, but the woodwork is gorgeous in this piece.
It is usually true that refinishing devalues a piece, but that isn’t so with Hay-Wake because the original finish has a tendency to flake and not hold up well, so it is OK to refinish it. You can get stain kits, champagne or wheat, specifically for Heywood on eBay. You should be able to correct the separating with wood glue and clamps.
Good advice on refinishing Heywood Wakefield pieces. If it was just a generic piece that is more forgiving regarding a painted finish. You can use a black desk top cover and accessories to give you a nice contrast with the champagne or wheat finish.
Hi Jessica,
Aren’t you a lucky girl? Finding it in your jammies is sort of like Christmas morning ;o)
I used to work in a small reproduction furniture shop and wouldn’t even try to restore the top. If it’s special you could pay someone with lots of experience in doing this particular brand but to take it on yourself will be prohibitive unless you already have an out of the house very well ventilated dry work space, bar clamps, sanding tools, and the patience of a saint. With the joints of the table panel blown open due to lots of water to get it perfect you should probably take those joints apart, scrape them or run them through the jointer, sand them and reclamp before you even really get started. (Be very sure to get to be vigilant with glue removal as you clamp, it will not take stain) Extra special fun if there’s any warping at all, if it’s bad you can have it commercially planned once it’s together before you put the skirt back on. You can make a summer project out of it as you probably have a life as well or do you really just drive around town in your jammies? ;o)
As it is I’d sand it, fill all the cracks with filler, sand again and paint the top. If the legs and chairs only need refinishing you could do those, or just the chairs which in the big world of vintage/antique furniture tend to be rarer and more valuable. Win win.
For the water damage, if you paint, you want a white-pigmentated shellac primer, drys fast, works beautifully, but the fumes!, take it outside to do the work.
Maybe frame the paperwork….a little collage maybe…or sell it on eBay?
You done did good, girl!
I would rather have natural myself, but if you are going to give it to the kids to paint and draw on, it will get mucked up again anyway, so painting it seems harmless, especially since there are issues with the wood.
If you decide to go natural, Formby’s refinisher or something like that would do a good job of just making it look better for not too much money, then you could decide to spend more and get it restored all the way. AS BBIll said, it is not going to be as valuable as original either way.
Story: I spend $10 on a dresser at a garage sale way back when. It was a heavy thing, black with little decals on the drawers. Several years later, I decided to strip the paint off. I used something by Formby’s to get just the top layer off, and it was a solid OAK dresser, from the 30s, just the kind of thing that people were snapping up like crazy around then. I used Formby’s refinisher to pretty up the finish and it looked original. Well, it was, really, all I did was take off the paint and pretty up the finish. A few years later, I put an ad in the paper offering it for $50. I had one lady there about an hour after the paper came out, she gave me the $50 and was about to grab the dresser to take out when another lady came up. I told her it was sold and she said, “Wait, I’ll give you $100. Sell it to me!” I told it wasn’t mine any more, so she started negotiating with the other lady on the way down the sidewalk. I’m not sure who ended up with it, but Formby’s gets the credit!
I’d refinish it myself. What would you have to lose other than a few bucks, which you could consider as invested in a learning experience.
If your DIY refinishing doesn’t work, paint it. You’re going to win either way.
Congrats on a terrific find.
What an awesome find!!! I agree with Annie B. Try refinishing it yourself and if it doesn’t turn-out well, you can always paint it. When I bought some Heywood Wakefield chairs, I found all sorts of stain for them on ebay, specifically for the Hey-Wake stuff.
In the past, I found Airstream trailers and worked on them. If the trailer was in decent condition to begin with, I believed it should be restored. If it was missing most of it’s original features, I changed it and gave it a new life. Both ways are respectful and keep things from adding to our landfill problem. It is very rare to find an Airstream that is pristine from the past, there is always things that need to be updated for safety (like the old furnaces in them).
I think this table is the same. If the condition was better, then the expense and time would be worth it to bring it back. You also have to figure in whether you are going to LOVE the process, time and money it will take to restore it. Will it bring you more joy to restore it and have to keep it pristine….or to repurpose it to the way you can actually use it for your kids to do happy crafts on?
Again, I think both ways are respectful. The table managed in this whole world to find its’ way to you. You own it now, it is your decision. William Morris said “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”. Choose to make the table both useful and beautiful to your family and you will be happy with your decision.
Since you rescued it from the dumpster, and it’s condition is poor at the moment, I think you need to do whatever will work best for your family, house and style. If it were in pristine condition and you wanted to paint it, I would yell NOOOO! but since it needs to be reworked anyway, I think you need to do whatever will make you the happiest. If it were me, I would refinish it with stain, but I was not the lucky one to find it!
I would try to work with the original finish, using a product such as Restore-a-Finish or Formby’s. I have watched too many Antiques Roadshow episodes where people are so disappointed to hear their furniture is worth next to nothing because they stripped and refinished! Anyway, I’ve used those products on several furniture projects and they are a dream to work with…very easy and the results are fantastic…and some of my salvaged furniture was pretty nasty and beat-up.
Also I am digging your “family hold back” comment, Pam…brought me right back!
You could do a little of both — paint only the top, and do the rest in a light stain. That way you would get to enjoy some of the lovely lines of the piece in its original appearance, and the worst of the wear on top would be covered over. Great find.
I recently found 2 Heywood Wakefield chairs that had been painted, were missing the seat cushions and were thrown in the dumpster. on a whim I took them to my refinisher and and asked him to strip and stain them for me. luckily he was careful when he stripped the chairs and found both the HW stamp and the date that the chairs were manufactured. what a find! we restored the chairs to as near their original finish as possible and also created new seat cushions. no, they are not worth nearly what they would be if they were in original condition but I now have 2 Heywood Wakefield chairs that are solid maple and that I will keep forever. Total cost to me: $170 per chair which, I think, is a steal considering I could never afford these chairs in their original condition.
bottom line, restore this to their original charm and luster and have a piece of iconic american history!
best of luck!!!
Hi Everyone!
It’s me! So, I think it’s important to note a few things. The table actually has a chunk taken out of the edge and the planks that make up the top are separating and a bit warped. The chairs also have some pretty deep grooves in the backs in various spots. I don’t know what the previous owners did to this set, but it wasn’t nice.
I think that is hard to tell with the photos that are posted how poorly treated they were.
Also, with three children and a full time gig, I do not have time to refinish myself. I’m going to have to rely on a local refinisher.
So, do you still feel the same?
Jessica
Well – yes. I have little kids too and they are tough on furniture. However, paint will look all scratched up and dinged very quickly and be more noticeable than wood.
Ooh! I love this question as I have my owner inner battle in answering it. First, I say that if you think that you might like it unpainted, get some Howard’s restore-a-finish and see what it looks like afterward. You might be really surprised! We’ve brought home some pretty dried out and mistreated pieces around here and even just a simple wipe down with orange oil has yielded results that have amazed us.
I mean, it’s not ever going to be showroom new looking unless it’s completely refinished but who says that every piece has to be that way? A little conditioning of the wood might make that set very pretty again. I definitely wouldn’t completely restore it if you’re going to use it as a desk or art table for the kids. Don’t feel like you *have* to restore it because it’s a Heywood Wakefield set.
As far as painting, if you think that painting the set would yield something that you’d definitely want to keep forever and enjoy, than by all means paint away. You found it. It’s yours and that’s how it goes. : )
Jessica, listen to Eartha, she is wise. Everything old is not capable of being what it was again and even if it could be close it’s quite simply not worth the effort in time, money and chemicals. More mid-century stuff is coming on the market every day so the degree of rare is becoming less all the time.
I wish I’d read this before I bored you with the post above. Sorry, blush.
I would attempt to clean the top as best as possible first. Nothing to lose there but tons to gain if it works. However, if that fails I would consider just painting the top and leaving the legs. They seem to be in decent shape and the two-tone may be a nice effect. Then again a rustic look isn’t that bad if you can deal with it.
The ongoing trend of spray painting vintage lamps and light fixtures neon colors has always bugged me, but even I have broken with that opinion in one instance (though I didn’t choose neon). And for some reason with furniture I’ve always been a little more flexible. You have “name” pieces for nothing. Great score! I tend to agree with people that trying to see if you can restain the piece would be the way to proceed at first, just because of that name. The wood is so pretty it seems a shame not to at least try. There are some things you can try to get rid of the rings. But I also don’t think it’s a sin, if the piece really is in rough shape and the stain doesn’t work, to go with paint. Sadly, sometimes we can’t undo the neglect of previous owners, but if you can give the pieces a new lease on life that it wouldn’t have otherwise gotten? I think that it’s okay in this case.
I have lots of rescued pieces that I have restored and acquired many pieces that I love from my Grandmother who painted EVERYTHING, so I go both ways. Your find would be gorgeous restored and doesn’t look like it would be that hard, but if it is loved that’s what is important!
HW furniture is made with good quality, solid wood. Consider that if you paint that table and chairs, it will be next to impossible for you or the next owner to remove all of that paint later on and restore the table to a natural wood finish.
Consider also that HW furniture has at least some value with damaged original finish, because it can be refinished. If you paint that table, it will be worthless except as a functional piece.
I would echo AtomicHipster’s recommendation to use Howard’s restore-a-finish and/or Howard’s beeswax conditioner to make the table at least somewhat presentable. Also, you could use a waterproof tablecloth or other resilient covering (e.g., we use loose sheets of spare linoleum) that will hide the flaws and protect the surface from further damage when the table is used for work and play. That way, you will still have the option of having the table professionally refinished at a later date.
I vote for FUN=the BLACK Laquer!!! You could keep the legs the original color and then it would be like an Art Deco/Hey Wake cross-breed:) Yes….Hey Wake has vintage/value….but heck…so does your life with the kids and family. Deck it out in the glossy, glossy black and let the kids enjoy a stylish, high fashion art table. It will make them feel special….they are more precious than a “potential” heirloom. Go for the extraordinary.
I agree! Paint the top black lacquer!! Especially if kids are going to use the table. Nothing destroys wood more than kids doing art projects! If I had to pay top dollar to have it refinished and restored I’d probably never let my boys touch it!
I think you should do whatever makes YOU happy … obviously, whomever left it on the side of the road didn’t appreciate what a nice piece of furniture it could be. Or maybe they didn’t know how to fix it. But you’ve saved it from a worse fate of being tossed in the landfill. So make it beautiful to YOU and enjoy! I love the idea of saving old things, but by the same token – we don’t live in museums (or at least we shouldn’t) …
In my opinion, painting these pieces never looks quite right. No matter how nice a finish you put on it, to me it sticks out like a sore thumb when mid-century wood furniture is painted. It might just be me-but I see stuff at thrift stores and on craigslist all the time that someone has painted, and I’ve never liked it. I’ve painted my share of furniture from other periods, but I wouldn’t do it to this set. This must really push one of my buttons, I was just ranting about it a few days ago. But they’re my buttons-so have fun with your find!
I wouldn’t pay someone to refinish that, but I would give it my best effort. 1. Hit it with a chemical stripper, per the instructions, 2. give it a reasonable sanding, nothing crazy here, 3. stain it with a reasonable blonde, 4. give it a protective top coat.
That’s not a ton of work and I suspect that it will give you a nice result without dropping the kind of cash that a pro would want.
Cheers,
Scott
Man… Heywake in the dumpster?!?!? We collect HW and have the cats eye chairs in our dining room. Haven’t checked in a while but I remember the cats eye chairs with arms were actually pretty rare. So I cringe to think about painting it. I would definitely refinish the chairs, you could even sell them, I’d be interested, btw! And look for something fun for the kids instead. The table definitely seems like it’s on its way out. I don’t think Heywake looks right painted at all. The beauty is all about how the lines of the furniture works with the wood. Just not right to paint it!!
Please do not paint it! I have come across several pieces of HeyWake furniture and restored them easily! There is a dealer on Ebay that makes an exact match to Wheat or Champagne that you just wipe on with a cotton cloth after the wood has been stripped and sanded. I have ordered from them twice and I have been thrilled with the results.
Here is the link here- http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHAMPAGNE-refinishing-stain-HEYWOOD-WAKEFIELD-/150759947327?pt=Antiques_Furniture&hash=item2319fe3c3f
Heywood Wakefield furniture is solid wood so you can easily strip it and sand off any rings or splitting. My first piece was a horribly water stained and moldy vanity which came out great and gave me the confidence to take on another project. Here are a few before and after shots of a thrifted dining set we did.
before- http://www.flickr.com/photos/sputnikhousewares/4519046437/
after-http://www.flickr.com/photos/sputnikhousewares/5072214304/
Seriously please don’t paint it, put it on Craigslist and someone will give it a great home, you can then spend the money on a black lacquer set if that is what you really want.
Min-Wax Antique furniture restore, and Howard’s Feed and Wax will have this brand gorgeous in just one afternoon in your backyard, and for only about $30 ( $15 + $10 + some rubber gloves and 0000 steel wool. ) IF you paint it, it’ll take day and days of hard work to get back to that gorgeous wood, instead. I’m begging you!
Save that wpod.
You found it. It’s yours. Do what inspires you! Although I am a HUGE proponent of preservation, we’ve become a little ridiculous in our “standards”. Pretty soon all creativity will be lost if people feel like they must conform to some arbitrary set of rules passed along the internet. Repurposing, reusing, recycling, etc.: these are also admirable contributions. Have fun with your found pieces!
AMEN!
I agree with both of the posters above. It’s not like you’re planning on painting a clown portrait over the Mona Lisa here.
Some things can be easily restored but some just aren’t worth the time, effort and money. Yes, even the chunks can be fixed though you’ll know they’re there but at what cost? I’d try very hard to save the wonderful scarce chairs but the table is pretty basic and it’s unlikely you’d ever recoup the cost of your efforts unless some kind of HW rapture happens and your table gets left behind. ;o)
If this were just any ugly wood dining table, you could paint it but a true, quality mid-century piece deserves better.
I have never had enough money to pay anyone to restore furniture for me, so all of my pieces I have done myself. I have to retore 6 Moller Teak Dining chairs right now but I know I will have AWESOME pieces when I am finished. Nothing makes me feel so good as to look at my finished products afterward and know “I did that!”
While it does take some time, elbow grease and patience, you can do it!
I have done it in very small apartments even. Just get a mask or take the worst parts (like the staining or finishing) outside.
Best wishes!
Please consider restoring this. That way it will become a piece you treasure for a long time rather than something to enjoy for the moment. However, if you do paint it make sure you do it well and seal it so the finish is lasting. Enjoy. @MidModMen
You are lucky! I’ve been looking for the cat-eye chairs for months and you find them for free on the curb! As anyone says, you found them, they are yours and you can do what you will with them! I’ve seen them restored with “new” vintage upholstery and they look incredible. You can’t find wood like that now. Even new HW doesn’t read the same. I’m sure that whatever you do they will be a conversation piece and look great in your home!
Depending on your area’s appetite for Heywood-Wakefield, it’s easy to imagine that it would be worth more as is than painted. There are plenty of ways to get any old painted table and chairs; there are few ways to get the style that Heywood-Wakefield aficionados salivate over.
Actually, Heywood Wakefield sells new furniture in these vintage styles.
PLEASE don’t paint Haywood-Wakefield table and chairs and use it for a kids craft table!!! Oh my god, I’m having a heart attack just thinking of that. You should restore it and sell it to any of the plethora of Hey-Wake lovers out there if you’re not a fan. Part of what makes Hey-Wake furniture so beloved is the wood. Please, please, PLEASE don’t ruin that precious antique by painting it.
Moe, if you want good deals on this kind of furniture search it spelled incorrectly on eBay…..Ha instead of He….
Someone in California missed a boomerang drop leaf for 99 cents in much better condition than this table.
Please don’t paint Heywood Wakefield! I say don’t paint wood in general, it looks awful, but if it’s a cheap piece it’s one thing…if it’s Heywood Wakefield it’s another! You have a gorgeous piece there that many people including myself would have LOVED to have found. If all you want is a kids table, refinish it, sell it for a few hundred bucks and buy them something junky at the thrift store!
My mom used to buy cheap vinyl tablecloths and sew elastic around the edges to make them fitted to put on the dining room table for me & my brother to do ‘projects’ when we were little. Maybe do something like that until you Definitely decide what you want to do with the table. Ultimately it is Your table and you can do with it as you please…just my 2 cents.
How about sanding and putting on Watco Danish Oil for the top. It is pretty easy to keep up. Follow the directions using the wet/dry sand paper for your final coat and you won’t believe how beautiful the finish is. You can buy some laminated cotton to make a tablecloth to protect the table. Some of the fabrics are 54″ wide and very pretty. Someday, if you want, you can refinish it easily with a more era appropriate finish. Waterlox is a great finish too that will not chip and is easy to keep up.
Blonde furniture goes in and out of style, up and down. A dealer, who sells MCM at high prices, told me a couple of years ago that the bottom suddenly dropped on his HW furniture along with the economy. He lost money on some and had to sell it at an auction house to move it. Now I see he’s got more in his store.
I plan to paint 2 HW pieces with the Rust-Oleum Cabinet Transformations in a slightly darker shade than the champagne. I don’t want to sand, strip, etc. If the first piece doesn’t turn out good, I won’t bother with the 2nd, my favorite.
My mom bought the pieces new in the 50s and she would be happy to know I was interested in using them. Even if the don’t turn out like I hope.
It’s yours – do what you want. Use it as firewood if you wish — just check to make sure there are no toxic fumes.
REFINISH!!!
NO NEVER paint WOOD! I have NO painted wood in my house! (Except molding in the basement -honest)
One more thought — someone may have said the same thing above… but this idea occurred to me.
What if you have it refinished, then get a piece of glass cut to fit the top? That way the piece would be restored, but your kids could still use it for crafts.
Just another idea.
OR — maybe you could try to sell it to someone who is in love with HW! Then you could buy a sturdy craft table and maybe even some storage cubbies!
How about refinish the top (large flat surfaces are usually pretty easy) and then paint the legs and the chairs? It’s a little unexpected, but with a small eat-in size table with two chairs you can get away with a little whimsy?!
Follow your heart. Get creative. Go with your vision.
It’s a piece of furniture. Yes, original vintage is beautiful. But so are up-cycled pieces.
I’d restore it- I’d restore my $35 bargain Heywood Wakefield end table (turned tv stand) if I could afford it.
If you can’t afford a pro job, it might be a good solution to cover the top with oilcloth while it’s a play-table.
Painting it black gives me the willies because it will be very difficult to ‘undo’ someday.
I also do not like the look of painted H-W furniture.
I bought table, dogbone chairs, and hutch off eBay, and I’m willing to take on the restoration. I’m hoping I will actually have the time over summer to do it.
Thank you to everyone who provided links to products. This is a huge help.
I would definitely NOT paint this furniture. I actually refinish and restore modern furniture for a living and have for about 15 or so years now, and I am one of the few people around that knows the Wakefield finishes (and the Brasilia furniture I have done a lot of as well and it is a nice Claro Walnut underneath, which is hard to come by these days)…Also, that Wakefield you want to cover up with paint is solid Maple underneath. It is a preservation issue for me. No offense but you are destroying it by painting it, or making it very very difficult to restore if you (or another owner) ever decides to. I have reversed this many times and it is not an easy task. You can look at my online gallery and see some good before and afters. (http://www.toshmahal.com) Lots of designers like to do this, but I wouldn’t advise it for any mid-century pieces, or anything of value, and I have raised many of these pieces from the dead. The fact that they are really well built and Solid Maple helps quite a bit. Anyway, that’s my two cents.
The “retro” Heywood Wakefield of the 50s is birch. Maple was only used in the early 1930s. They also made Early American/Colonial style Earlier they used wicker/rattan. See their website for more info. This style looks like the 50s to me, but I’m not an expert.
Oh, and whether it is in or out of style is really not an issue is it? I have been doing this (restoration) for years, way before MCM was all the rage and to me it is timeless, as especially are the Heywood Wakefield pieces, because they are so well built, well thought out/designed and executed as well as being built of a beautiful solid hardwood with excellent joinery. To me it is the place where Deco meets Modern and sometimes it’s not sure which it is, and I love that.
Hi again,
Thanks so much for all the responses! I’m loving reading them all!
For the record, I’m mid century obsessed and my first desire is for it to be as it should be. I always freak out when I go into a mid century home and it’s destroyed (some people call it remodeled).
But in the case of this table, the chunks missing from it are fairly large. I don’t know how refinishing it is going to help that. We’re talking about a large chunk out of the edge. And then, there are the planks making the top. They are puling away from each other and warped. Again, it will take a LOT to address that and likely, the top would end up smaller in order to fix all of these issues.
The chairs have more of a possibility of being near perfect even with the gouges. Hard to believe, but the seats have not been recovered since they were made in 1959.
And believe me, I know the value of Heywood Wakefield. I have loved it for a long time. I live in MA where it was made and these are not my first pieces. I have a basement full mid century items waiting to be refinished and reupholstered. And you can tell I love it because I drove by the set to drop the kids off at daycare, called my husband and told him to grab it on his way by since I couldn’t fit it in my car, nor could I lift the table alone. I’m also considering calling the real estate company that is selling the house to see what else may be inside.
You Should ask about the inside of the house
That could be a treasure trove. Sounds like the table is pretty rough. Once the spline joints start breaking down, there is not a lot you can do to save it. Probably exposed to way too much moisture. Solid wood always moves and cups, but that really expediates the process. Sounds like you have a serious love for the stuff, I have for a long time, it’s good to love what you do. As far as the material its made of, I wouldn’t necessarily trust the website, as the company was sold and i think (my opinion, as I have seen a few newly made pieces) the quality has really suffered. I also have restored dozens and dozens of wakefield pieces and I know my woods. It is my firm belief that they probably used solid rock maple (the joined pieces would include curly maple, birdseye and straight cut in many cases ) and not birch as some would have you believe. birch may look similar, but has many different physical characteristics and reacts differently when worked. I think maybe they just had a surplus of this material before they switched and used what they had before they completed the changover, probably a transitionary thing. Anyway, the chairs will probably be restorable. the fact it is solid allows a good restorer to ‘raise the gouges out’, possibly fill in some cases. Anyway, good luck with it. Sorry for the long winded response.
I’m going to be totally cynical here and say that if you want to paint it, then absolutely go ahead and paint it.
It’s right in that grey area where it’s good enough to keep, but it’s going to take a lot of effort to get it back to a totally restored state. I’m not sure it’s worth the trade-off to bring it back. Can you find the pieces necessary to have a complete set? Absolutely, but that means that someone else who wants those pieces won’t get them.
You could check with Chris over at Strictly Hey-Wake:
http://www.strictlyheywake.com/
about restoring it and IF its worth it. If not, I’d strip it and maybe do a clear lacquer, but I love the used, loved look of furniture even if they are dented, scratched, or broken. Heywood Wakefield quality furniture isn’t made anymore (IMHO), so use it!
So a full restoration or refinish might not be within your means. It might be out of your comfort zone financially or ability wise. I am of the opinion that it really Should be refinished or restored. What you could do is sell the set for whatever price you see as appropriate and use that money to buy something that either doesn’t need work or would suffer less from being painted. It’s free money!
Also, if you are in the Florida area you might wanna contact A Modern Line. He refinishes Hey / Wake AND gives classes on refinishing your OWN Hey / Wake!
It’s an art table for the kids ! Let them paint it. No matter how young they are, you can figure out a way to involve them in painting it, and it will truly become your family’s heirloom.
I was just looking at CL, and lo and behold I see a set of painted H-W dining furniture.
http://charlotte.craigslist.org/fuo/2936028339.html
What a pretty piece! I think it could be really lovely left as wood. Have you thought about trying a product like Restor-a-Finish? I’ve had really good luck with bringing back damaged finishes so that they look much nicer. It doesn’t really seem like it would be worth it to have a full strip and stain done, particularly if your kids are going to use it as an art table.
Good luck whatever you decide! It is a lovely piece–what a find!
What about a coat of chalkboard paint on top and glossy black for the rest?
I actually ran across this post and comments while looking for Hey-Wake online.
For what it’s worth, (and it’s worth ALOT apparently these days!), I had seen 2 different yet complete sets of dining tables with chairs in two different states.
I was drooling, trying to figure out how long it would take to save up for one of them! One set was priced at 7,000, and the other was at a local store that needed to get rid of it, priced at $4,000!!
Needless to say, I decided to wait and see if they would come down in price.
Lo, and behold, I walked into a retro furniture store in Lubbock, Texas and there in the back warehouse (where they store their newly acquired MCM pieces to clean up before they go in the showroom), sat a Hey-Wake dining table, two chairs, and a complete bedroom set with headboard, footboard and two nightstands!! All were in need of a little cleanup work, but at the price of $350 for the whole lot, I jumped on it!! (My biggest problem was going to be finding a way to get it all home!)
My point to this is – Yes, you can do whatever you want with it, but it is a valuable piece of furniture that deserves to be restored. If you don’t want to, then pass it along.
I’m in the processing of restoring ALL of it myself, and I purchased the Hey-Wake stain off of Ebay, too. I’ve stripped all the pieces, and about to sand them. Yes, it takes a little elbow grease, but in the end, it’ll be worth it for me to have these collectibles in MY collection! And for me, the icing on the cake is doing it myself…
Good Luck!