Ryan Fightmaster, MD

Writer. Furniture professional. Former practicing physician.

Of all our projects, this was one of the most rewarding.

When we found this set, they were worn. The rattan was threadbare. They’d been left for dead. But we saw they still had heart!

To start, I sanded smooth all the painted areas, removing scratches and dents while preparing the surface to adhere to the paint. Then I protected the rattan with tape before applying an enamel-rich and furniture-specific matte paint to the areas seen below. After a day of curing, I taped off and covered the paint, then toned the rattan with Mohawk’s Medium Walnut Ultra Classic toner until the envisioned color appeared.

Within a week, the set was gone off the showroom floor.