The occasional renovation project also comes along. This one was to reconstruct a church pew from pieces that had been salvaged during a church restoration. The client's family have a long association (four generations) with the church and wanted to preserve this as a memento of the family's involvement.
Firstly, here's the finished item. 145cm wide, 82cm high and 45cm deep. Stripped back to the natural pitch pine and finished with two coats of shellac sanding sealer, two coats of acrylic varnish and good coat of beeswax polish.
One of the side pieces arrived in two parts - both from different pews, and both the same handed side as the one attached to the seat! So the first task was to plane mating surfaces and glue in to make one piece. And of course fill in the gaping holes in the bottom.
New side created from the two non-matching pieces, holes filled and new base created from off-cuts from the seat
The seat had one side attached, but needed to be cut down to accommodate the new side piece
Work in progress on the new side piece. This required cutting a new housing for the seat, back, and back shelf. No room for error here!