The Wooden Anniversary

Clarence and I celebrated five years of marriage in March. In some ways it feels like we have been married for longer (as in it's so normal), in other ways it has gone by pretty quickly. The traditional fifth year anniversary gift is "wood". Wood?? What do you get your spouse made out of wood that they will actually like and find remotely meaningful? A photo frame? A jewellery box? Somehow I don't think Clarence would be overly thrilled with either of those options.

As we approached our fifth anniversary we made a significant purchase. As apartment dwellers we haven't really had the need or the space for a dining table. We wanted one, as it's much nicer to have people over for a meal and sit at a table, but we had nowhere to put one. That is until we mounted our TV on the wall and re-shuffled our furniture! So we started the hunt for one. We didn't want to get one off the production line (mass produced), that we would see at other people's houses. We didn't want to rush the decision and get something we didn't really like either. So we waited and kept our eyes open, Then my mum told me about this recycle shop and we went and had a look and found this old table that had been restored... and found it was 20% off... double score! So we bought it.

Then began the hunt for chairs! I am a fan of mismatching chairs. Country style. Then my mum (again, thanks Mum), saw these four old chairs at an antique barn in the country and bought them knowing they would match the table. They were pink, with about three layers of different coloured thick paint on them. 

With the help of Dad and Bunnings, we set about stripping them back and restoring them. I started with painting them with paint stripper. A tedious task that only takes off a layer at a time, yet strangely enjoyable. Then Dad found a tool he picked up at a country hardware store that scraped the paint off in one hit. Fabulous. That was a job for he and Clarence hahaha! Then they each needed sanding back and then we started to varnish them. Three sands and three layers later, we had four beautiful chairs! Polly Pocket oversaw all of the restoration work.

All this took a while and ended up being finished just before our anniversary. We decided to go away for a night and call the chairs and table our wooden gift. We love them, we got them five years into our marriage and we had fun restoring them.

Now I am on the hunt for two completely different chairs to go at either end of the table...

The chairs pre restoration

Taken apart and paint stripping commenced

Mid varnish and pre varnish

The table is set! I had to buy napery, we didn't have any! (We were having people over for lunch,  I didn't set the table for a photo)...

So Clarence, happy anniversary. Being married to you is absolutely wonderful. You are my bestest friend in the entire world and I love you more now than I did five years ago (and that was a lot). I look forward to many more years with you. And we enjoyed restoring furniture together. Who knows, we might enjoy a renovation together one day? We could certainly put Ikea furniture together without a domestic after this!

And thanks Big G for all of your help, and Mum for sourcing the table and chairs! Wonderful finds! And Polly, for overseeing all of the restoration work. Good job guarding the backyard and catching the mosquitoes.