Posted 5 years ago
luciendesign
(1 item)
Green tufted, bought at an estate sale. It folds down into a bed. Dimensions are roughly.
78" width, 40" height, 36" depth. 22-23" seat depth.
I have no clue what I have. Not sure what this is and any info would be helpful.
I know this will sound odd but you can find them on Pinterest, google etc. As long as I can remember people have convert old church pews into beds. I think this may be one. They aren't terribly common but I just looked them up and found one made in 2019 so people still do it.
Gotta disagree w/fhrjr2 (not something I do lightly BTW) but the wooden ends of this piece look way too big to me to have first been church pew ends -- I've seen *a lot* of church pews in my career and don't recall any ever that'd be that wide. I'd actually suspect that luciendesign has some sort of original piece, from whatever era (1930's-40's??) and only wish some other CW member with more 'vintage furniture' expertise will speak up... :-) ;-) :-)
By all means feel free to disagree. In the 80's I bought ten church pews so big I had to take them on my one ton truck one at a time. The seats front to rear were just over 24 inches and they were one and three quarters inches thick. All one solid slab of oak. I didn't want the pews I wanted the oak because a slab that size is unheard of anymore. The ones I bought I paid $12 each for and they were made in the late 1800's. Not sure I ever measured the ends but I did save them.
Thanks fhrjr2 and AnythingObscure. My hunch is it was made this way originally. I'm going to look for a makers mark or tag later tonight. While it could be a converted pew, the spring cushion with burlap and horsehair lead me to believe it was converted many many years ago if that's the case. Do you think this worth holding onto to restore or find a buyer?
luciendesign if it were mine I would keep it as is until I had a firm answer to exactly what it is and an approximate age. I believe pew conversions began during the great depression as a means of making something more functional at low cost. While never terribly popular, people still do it even today. If you can establish it as a conversion that would make it unusual and quite rare. If it was factory made and mass produced it is nonetheless old and odd. Finding another probably won't be easy either way.