Gorrila Yard Sales

  Shannon and I sometimes take a little cruise looking for garage sales. Shannon is on the hunt for decorative plates these days and I, as always, look for tools and repairable furniture.

  While pulling up to a sale one Saturday in late June, I spied what looked like some mid century modern style furniture. I figured it was some stuff from Sears that someone bought in the late 70's. 

 The table and two chairs were definitely not from Sears or even Eaton's for that matter. Solid teak all around.

The find !!!!!

  
  I sought out the person in charge of this sale which as often is the case, the lady of the household. I asked her, "How much for the table and two chairs over there". 

 She pushed back her hair and wrinkled her brow and said, "Oh, hmmm........how about ..... "

Well lets just say I couldn't buy two meal deals at Mc D's for the amount she told me.

    I backed the truck in the driveway and we started loading up. I felt like the woman in the Ikea commercial. 

  The lady of the sale said, "There used to be four chairs but two of them are long gone."  I wish those two hadn't gone but we still have the two that are left. 

 The chairs cleaned up nicely using some Murphy's oil soap. Just some juice spills and crayon on them. Oh yeah and a few dents and a nick on one leg. Not much damage considering these were made in 1979.

While cleaning the chairs I found this manufactures tag on one of them. 

 Turns out these items were made in the UK. I did a little looking around and found this reasonable explanation on G Plan. Go here for a brief explanation. 

 In a nutshell, G plan offered suites of furniture that would be available over years allowing people to purchase as they could afford too.

  Original examples of G Plan furniture are in high demand in the UK today. I suppose the pieces we purchased came across the pond with someone moving to North America.

 Following are some photos after cleaning. The table top was stripped and finished with varnish oil (danish oil finish).

Table with leaf in place. Nice new finish on the top.

I love this folding leaf, just awesome.

With the leaf hidden away

Nice chairs. The round legs make for some challenging joinery.

  These pieces now reside with a collector of modern furniture after he parted with a nice little sum for them.

  Well that Saturday was a bad day for plates but not for furniture.

As always thanks for reading.
Ken