Restoration > Church Lectern
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It gets worse before it can get better...
My design for the drinks cabinet involved the two long sides becoming hinged so they could be opened and used to prepare drinks on. Therefore the first step was to take apart the lectern and establish the condition of the wood.
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Water damage
As the photo shows, there was extensive staining from water which required being treated with oxalic acid, re-staining it to match the original colour and waxing to produce the same level of sheen as the rest of the piece.
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Adapting it for its new use
Slight modification was required to enable the hinged doors to work. Due to the construction of the original lectern there were strips along the length of the lectern that had been chiseled out to enable the side pieces to fit. This was where the hinges would have to sit, so thin strips of oak needed to be glued in place in preperation for the hinges.
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Blending new with old
Once these oak strips were in place I aged them with a mixture of stain and paint to ensure they blended in with the surround oak.
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Putting it back together
The cabinet starts to come together. All the pieces of oak have been carefully cleaned and finished with a beeswax, the hinges are attached and flap stays will be attached on each side to take the weight of the doors when open.
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Finishing the outside appearance
Again a strip of oak was required to fill in an area along the top of the lectern. This has been filled with plyboard when my client found the item, through research I suspect there would have originally been some sort of decorative brass piece along the top. This also required planing down, staining and ageing just like the other pieces of new oak.
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A new handcarved design
My drinks cabinet design included a brand new hexagonal base upon which there would be a 'Lazy Susan' that the top section would sit on, meaning the entire cabinet piece could swivel 360 degrees. This base would also be storage for glasses and other drinking accessories. Only the front panel would open but I needed to encorporate a similar carved design that was already on the top section in order for it to blend in.
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Speeding up the ageing process
This is the finished base, all glued together, stained and aged to match the original lectern part of the cabinet so that there would not be an obvious difference between the two sections.
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Added storage
Inside were chunky oak shelves, the two top ones were designed so that the stems of wine glasses slotted into them and hung down.
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It's finished!
The finished drinks cabinet complete with rotating cabinet and glasses storage.
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