My husband and I agree that it looks like pine. The grain looks pine. The colour is odd, but it looks like it may have previously been painted and later stripped, or something. Or it's just old pine.
Thanks! The table ended up selling...I feel better, and my friend said benches are a pain for dinning tables so the search goes on.
I can't seem to find styles I like, I'm sure they are out there but not in my budget. I haven't really seen like the barn door trend I saw a lot of back home on HGTV shows. I see a lot of crushed velvet everything and that is not the same as the nice blue chesterfield velvet couches that are trendy. I'm not sure if the crushed velvet is a trend of the north, feel it's a bit tacky. Since we are on a budget I spend my days looking on facebook market place and gumtree...our rental is looking like a granny's house lol. I have found some pieces for cheap which are good quality build that we probably would not have been able to afford new. Furniture here seems way more expensive and I'm not sure that it's any better quality than the states.
I just tried to restore an Alberto Nieri leather set that my husband's friend gave us to help us out, the leather was very cracked on the two seater....if anyone knows of a good product let me know. I went down the rabbit hole of leather cleaners, how to restore, ph of leather and in the end bough renapur leather balsam and now I don't know if it was a mistake...it looks a little better but the cracks are still visible. I guess I was hoping for the miracle I see on the youtube videos. Maybe I should have gone with Meguiars cleaner and conditioner instead. There is a leather tech person I keep seeing on facebook but I imagine it is expensive to have it done professionally.
