A Refurbished Ladies Chair

This intricate crest belongs to a dainty little ladies chair. It is so small that by our standards we would think of it as a youth's chair.  But then people are a lot bigger now then they used to be!  Now it is just the right size for an occasional bedroom chair  or for sitting in when you are putting your shoes on.  

The chair came to us with broken cane on the back.  Enough was broken that we really couldn't repair it, we needed to completely replace it.  It was woven with a 'blind cane' method, so the holes that the cane goes into don't go all the way through to the back.  This is much more challenging then regular hand cane.  Once the cane work was done, the 'blonde' looking natural cane needed to be colored to better blend in with the chair.

We also refurbished the chair.  This means that we refreshed the existing finish rather then applying a new one.  Depending on the method used, refurbishing isn't always a job that requires high levels of skill, but it does require high levels of labor.  For this chair we chose a wax color that would fill in where the old finish color had worn off.  This wax is applied by hand, left to dry, and then polished by hand.  This polishing process is quite labor intensive and not for the weak of elbow.  And in addition, this chair has so many little nooks and crannies that the polishing task was bumped up several notches in difficulty.  No one wants a glob of wax stuck in one of those pretty carved leaves!

Imagining the Origins of an Old Bench

 We got this really neat bench in for work recently and it has really captured our imagination.  We are going to be stripping the beat up paint off of it, so it is not the work we are doing that has our imaginations going, but it is the interesting details which peak our curiosity.

It has been in our client's family for many generations so we have a rough estimate as to it's age.  There is plenty of speculation about where the bench came from but the current theory is that it was probably a 'salvation army' pulpit seat.  The shield was probably not always blue, and the carving was likely added later on.

The style of the bench is quintessential 'early american' with it's rustic lines and home made appearance.  And with it's tall back, it does make sense that it would be up at the front of a church for the preacher to sit on, rather then a low back that the congregation would use.  At some point it was likely taken home and the inscription was added.

Of course all of this is just theory, guesses, based on the little information we have.  But that is probably part of why our imaginations have gone wild.  We have just enough information to speculate, but not enough to know for sure.   Do you have any guesses about this bench's origins?  We would love to hear them!  Leave us a comment below!

'Pie Crust' Tilt-Top Table

 We just completed work on this beautiful Mahogany 'Pie Crust' table and I thought I would share it with you all.

When it came to us it had a broken leg and very bad water damage on the top surface.  There are two kinds of water 'rings' we see.  The first is a white ring, usually from leaving a cup on your wood surface.  A white ring is much more easily fixable because the damage is still in the finish.  Check out this blog post for more info on fixing white water rings.

Black water damage is much more difficult to fix because the damage has gone through the finish and into the wood.  The minerals in the water turn the wood black.  To fix damage such as this, we have to strip the finish off completely.  In the photo to the left we have stripped off the finish and can now deal with the black rings.  As you can see they are diminished, but not gone.  Sometimes we have to then use an Oxcalic Acid to bleach out the stains,  and sometimes they can be removed simply by sanding the wood.  We never know though until that finish is off.

 As you can see, the stain is gone!  We can now prep the wood for finishing.  At this point, our client can come in and see stain colors applied directly to their furniture.  This way they can actually see what their piece will look like, instead of trying to guess from a hand full of stain swatches.  We also had to do some repairs to the table leg before any staining began.

For this Mahogany table our client chose a Cognac stain color with a Gloss sheen finish over the top.  The color choice really looks beautiful on this wood.  To enhance all the beautiful little carved details we highlighted the pie-crust edge and the legs with a layer of Black Mahogany Glaze.   As you can see from the photos below, the highlighting was just enough to push this table from beautiful, to show stopper!

Two Of A Kind Louis XV Desks

There are some styles that come through our shop  that come in so often that become quite familiar.  We see quite a bit of Duncan Phyfe tables with broken legs.  We see lots of Oak Pressback Chairs with loose joints or broken spindles, and frequently we have brewer chairs come to us with big holes in the seat.

What is quite Uncommon is for a beautiful Louis XV writting desk to come in, and then before it leaves to have another Louis XV writting desk to come in.  But that is just what has happened.  They have their differences,  one has straight sides while the other has curved sides,  but they both have intricate marquetry, Cabriole legs and brass decor on the corners and drawers, and they both have three drawers on the front and 3 faux drawers on the opposite side.


Not only are these desks clearly made in the same era,  but we are also doing very similar repairs on each one.  They both will have new leather applied to their writing surface.  (Each customer get to choose the color of leather and the gold tooling design around the edge.)  We are also doing repairs to the veneered wood band around the leather on the top surface of each of the desks, and both desks will have their bases refurbished.  The refurbishing will not make them look brand new, but will instead give them new life, while preserving their old antique finish.

Be sure to check back soon, so that you can see the 'after' pictures of these Louis XV writing desks.

1930's Dining Table

 We just completed work on a stunning 1930s dinning room table and buffet server.  We only worked on the top surfaces, as they were the parts that had become worn and marred with age.  We took the finish off so that we had bare wood to work with.  It was then sanded and and prepped.  This time our 'prepping' required some extra work because our client really wanted the smoothest appearance possible for their pieces.  We used a purplish 'pore filler'  which goes on like putty and then has to be sanded off.  This filler makes the surface really smooth and hides the porosity that is a normal wood characteristic.

We used a 'natural' tone stain on this table, which means all that gorgeous color is from the Mahogany wood itself.  No dyes on this table!  Over that stain we applied a 'semi-gloss' sheen finish.  This finish was then hand polished to bring up the shine.   The hand polishing + the pore filling gave this table a very high shine. It is almost reflective.

The photo below really shows off that 'reflective' quality of the table's new finish.  I can't help but imagine the elegant dinner parties of old that were centered around this dinning table.  It is now in beautiful enough condition again that hopefully it will host many more festive soirees.

A Resurrected Parlor Organ

We have been going through some of our old film photos and scanning them into our computer.  This beauty came up in the stack and boy did it bring back memories.

This Parlor Organ was in pretty decent condition when it came into our shop.  It didn't really have any missing pieces or significant structural damage.  The key reason it's owner brought it to us, was because it was black in color.  He thought it was painted and wanted it stripped and refinished.   We would have happily performed this service for him... but instead we suggested to him an even better rout to go.

You see, once we raised the music stand, we could see a beautiful walnut veneer underneath which gradually faded to black as it got closer to the edge of the stand.  We realized that this Organ was actually coated in an original shellac finish.  Shellac will oxidize and darken with age,  and on this piece, it had oxidized so much that it looked like black paint.

So we used our special chemical blend to clean the shellac. This cleaning/revitalizing process is extremely labor intensive and requires a significant amount of elbow grease.    But all that work produces a beautiful reward.  Once we had rubbed and rubbed and rubbed, the shellac came back to life and began to glow again.  We love being able to preserve a historical finish such as this.  It isn't always feasible but when it is, we sure like to take advantage.  This Parlor Organ is one example of a restoration job done very right!

Secret Finish On An Old Rocking Chair

The owner of this rocker came in with the intention of having it stripped and refinished. This is an example of one of the rare instances where we do our best to persuade the customer to take a different approach. The alligatored finish on the seat of this chair is not a worn out aged finish, but a very intentional decorative design. She was easily persuaded  to save the original, and we simply cleaned waxed, and polished the chair.

While the chair looks beautiful, and we were clearly able to preserve the finish,  the customer really just didn't feel happy with the black.  So she brought it back to us to see if there was anything else we could do to keep the chair's historic quality, but not have the chair black anymore.   

We could see a little bit of a greenish color under the black, and where the black was more worn, we could see little areas of green.  So we decided to try and remove just the black by scrubbing by hand, without having to put it through the stripping system, which would have removed everything!  Once we got below the black layer, we could see a beautiful old green painted finish appear, and a very cool red 'alligator' painted finish on the seat.   What also emerged was some striping over the green paint, and what looks to be an old decal on the center of the back.   Once we successfully removed all of the black coating, we cleaned the rocking chair and then proceeded to wax and polish it.    Waxing and polishing is very labor intensive work, especially on a piece such as this with all those spindles and stretchers.  But, it really is the best way to make an old finish look beautiful again, while still preserving the historical value of the piece. 

The chair really looks beautiful now, and we have succeeded in making our customer happy.  We retained the original historical value of the rocking chair, while getting rid of the black she so disliked.  Of course,  this chair's own unique history helped us achieve that aim.  Without that beautiful green and red layer hiding under the black coating, we would not have been able to accomplish our goal. 

Refurbished Music Cabinet

 At first glance, it looks as though this music cabinet has some fancy faux finish work on the front.  But on second glance, we noticed that the door front used to have a raised trim, which at some point had fallen, or been taken off.  This left a lighter decorative area where the stain had never ben applied.  It makes for a very interesting effect.

The cabinet also had considerable damage to the top surface, to repair that damage, we stripped the old finish off and completely refinished it.  As you can see from the photo to the left, the top now looks gorgeous.  The rest of the cabinet received some minor structural repairs,  and a very thorough refurbish job.

When we refurbish a piece of furniture, we begin by cleaning the piece with a mild soapy detergent.  This gets any dirt, grime and oils off the wood.  Also, if any of the old finish is going to flake off sometime down the road, this procedure removes that weak finish.   Once the piece is clean, we can assess to see if any additional color needs to be applied where weak finish may have come off.    We then will wax and polish the entire piece.  While this is not technically difficult work to accomplish,  it is really a workout!  If you tried to tackle waxing and polishing yourself you probably wouldn't have to go to the gym that day, you would have gotten all the exercise you need while working on your furniture!   One of the nice things about refurbishing vs, refinishing is that you get a nice satiny finish, but still have the character of the dents and scrapes and history, in tact.  Not everyone wants that, but if you don't want to change the color, and you don't mind seeing 'character' then refurbishing  may be the way to go for your furniture.

Eastlake Chair Overhaul

This gorgeous, and very old Eastlake style arm chair suffered an unfortunate accident when it came loose of it's strappings and fell off of a truck.    It experienced a 'slip and slide'.  Slip off the truck and Slide on the road.   The chair obviously needed some hospital time so it came to us for care.  After doing a thorough evaluation and consultation with the chair's owner, a plan of action was decided upon.   One option was to completely restore it to it's original condition.  This would have required extensive repairs to the entire back section as well as the legs and arms.  This would have been a big job and pretty pricy.  So it was the second option that we are going to complete.

Since the back is so badly broken, both aesthetically and structurally, we removed the back all the way down to the lower rail which was still strong.  The next step was to repair the broken areas just behind the arms where the wood had been broken off by the pavement.  We were able to re-pupose wood from the top rail of the chair (which we removed), to fill in these broken areas.  Once the epoxy glue on that repair was set and dry, the wood could be shaped to match the surrounding area.  You can see this repair in the photo below.

We also needed to replace the wood on one of the legs, which had been completely destroyed by the fall.   To repair this area, we had to use a new piece of walnut, rather than a re-purposed piece, as it was quite a big chunk that was missing.    For the leg repair,  we again epoxied on the new wood, and clamped it into place.  Once it is set and dried we will shape the piece of wood to match the other back leg.  You can see this repair in the picture below.

 We still have a lot of work to do on this chair.  Hopefully when it is done it will look just as beautiful as it did originally.  Although now it will have a new adventure attached to it's history.   The time it went for a slip and slide and ended up which a whole new look.

Unique Techniques On An Old Radio Cabinet

 This beautifully designed old radio cabinet has had it's interior re-made into  a shelving unit, which is a great idea!  The exterior though needed some work.  The finish was worn, so the first thing we did was to strip that off.   This revealed beautiful veneer, but also failing glue.  That failing glue caused the veneer all over the sides to lift away from the cabinet, and the beaded trim to fall off.  So our next step was to glue the trim back in place and to carefully go underneath the veneer and re-glue that without causing any damage.  Veneer is very delicate and could easily have cracked or broken.  Once all the repairs were completed, we could do our prep-sanding and get it ready for a beautiful new finish.

The finish work on this Radio Cabinet really is interesting.  We began by applying a water based Dark Pine stain. We then hand painted all of the trim, beading, florets, and grooves on the legs with a glossy black paint.   We also did some decorative shading all the way around the cabinet top as well as the lip around the base and legs.  And finally we finished it with a gloss top coat.  There were quite a few techniques done on this cabinet and the overall appearance now has a modern look, but at the same time retains the integrity of the beautiful old styling.

New Veneer on a Cedar Chest

 Cedar chests have such a sentimental appeal for me.  They are something that you put cozy winter coats in, store leather baby shoes in, and that vintage dress of grandmother's.  Cedar chests seem to store memories inside.  

This Cedar chest came to us because, while the inside was doing it's job quite well, the outside had fallen into dis-repair.  The veneer was damaged, peeling, and in some places missing.  The finish was old and worn. It was straying dangerously into 'shabby' territory and needed some help coming back to 'beautiful' territory.   We began our work by stripping all of the old, worn out finish off, using our brand-new water based stripping system.   

The next step was to complete the repairs to the chest.   The entire strip of gorgeous walnut burl veneer around the base had to be replaced.  Our craftsman did a great job with that walnut, it turned out beautifully.  There were also damaged areas of veneer on the top surface that had to be secured down, and a large discolored area where the veneer had a stain which we had to hide.  Hiding discoloration is a very tricky task, but it came out looking very good on this particular piece.

Lastly, we applied a beautiful new stain and finish.  The stain on this chest is a water based Pecan with a Satin sheen over the top.  It is really a beautiful color choice for the piece.  Because it is a lighter stain, the colors in the various types of wood are really able to shine through.

I think the outside of the cedar chest is now just as beautiful as the inside, and is now once again ready to house tangible memories for years and years to come.

A Drum Table That Got Some Luvin'

 This Duncan-Phyfe drum style table came to us as part of a large collection.   This table has a unique rotating base and false drawers.  We see a lot of Duncan-Phyfe, but this is the first time we have seen this feature.  The table's owner had just inherited her mother's estate and the furniture was all high quality, but badly in need of  some restoration.  We have done our best to bring her pieces back to life.

We started out by stripping the old worn out finish off of the piece.  The old leather top had stiffened and the gilding had turned to black.  We knew we would be replacing it, so we weren't worried about it during the stripping.    When we replace leather, each piece is cut to order, so our client gets to choose the color and the gilding pattern.  It then arrives at our shop already in the basic shape, with the gilding exactly the right size. This particular leather is called 'Oxblood' and has two different gilding patters around the edge.  Prior to attaching the leather, our craftsmen have to treat the wood surface to ensure that it is perfectly smooth.  We can then glue the leather on, and trim any excess.

The finished result of the new leather and the beautiful new water based stain and finish is just gorgeous.  The stain on this table is custom 1/2 Teak 1/2 Brown Cherry with a Gloss sheen finish over top.  The wood grain on the false drawers and around the leather really pops with this treatment.   With this restoration that we have done,  our client should be able to enjoy her furniture for many many years, and pass them along so that someone else can inherit them one day.

Restoration of a Chippendale Chair Set

Chippendale is probably one of the most well known furniture makers and we had the pleasure of  working on a set of Chippendale style chairs in our shop.  Actually these two chairs are so old, they may be originals.

As you can see, they came to us in really bad shape.  One was completely in pieces but they both needed to be thoroughly re-glued.  As we have worked on this set of chairs some really interesting things became apparent to us.  These little things such neat historical clues.

The chairs have identical styling, as though they were made by the same furniture house, but they are also subtly different, as though different craftsmen made each one.  Notice how the arms are the same curve, same pattern, but one has a wider flair than the other.  One chair is also a tiny bit taller than the other.  They both have the same shell motif on the front of the seat, but one is carved a little more shallow then the other.  When we put together the way the joints were made,  the tight grain of the mahogany wood (which means it really has to be very old)  and the hand made details,  we begin to see that these are very very old chairs.

With a little bit of digging about the history of Chippendale design, it begins to look as though these are original, late 1700's chairs, probably made in the Chippendale design house itself, and definitely made in England.  English Chippendale furniture was made of Mahogany, whereas American manufacturers generally used Cherry.  Thomas Chippendale also employed 40+ craftsmen who all used the same patterns, but each worked on a piece until completion.  American makers used a more assembly style process which means that the slight variations in this chair have to be from English manufacture.

After we performed the extensive repairs and regluing that these chairs needed,  we prepped them for staining and then our customer came in and chose the stain color herself.  The color she chose, and that you see on these chairs in Dark Pine stain over Mahogany wood which gives a gorgeous rich  red color. After staining with our water based stains,  a glaze was applied so that the intricate carving that Chippendale chairs are known for,  could be fully emphasized.  Now all the chairs need is a new seat and they will be ready to grace the most elegant living room.

It has been such delight to bring these chairs back to life for our customer.  They were her grandmother's chairs and have been in dis-repair for as long as she can remember.  With such a beautiful history,  it is good to have the chairs look beautiful as well.

Second Life of a Lamp Table

This table has been a little pet project of mine, and I am so glad to finally have it finished.  It kept being put off, as there  were more important things to work on.  It came into our shop about 12 years ago and the customer decided not to have the work done and abandoned it.  After eyeing it for  years, I finally decided it was (potentially) to beautiful to sit lonely on our shelves any longer.  It needed a lot of work.  The first thing we did was strip it so any remaining finish or accumulated junk was gone.  I then completely dis-assembled it, sanded it with 120 and 180 and then it was ready for repairs. The old top was so badly warped that I ended up cutting a new one instead of trying to fix the old.  I was able to keep the raised edge pieces, but all the corners had to be cleaned up.

The new top received a redwood burl veneer treatment with a band of walnut around the outside edge.  Once the table was re-assebled,  we attached new beading around the top edge, as the old had pretty much disintegrated.  So there is old beading on the legs and the bottom edge, and new beading on the top.  Not ideal, but there was no other way.

For a stain I chose to use a 'natural' (or clear) stain on the redwood/walnut top and a teak stain on the rest.  This helped to balance out the color between the 3 different kinds of woods.  The color is really beautiful and vibrant.  The burl veneer needed a pore fill treatment to smooth it out a bit and fill in the voids, and that treatment actually helped to bring the grain out even further, which is of course a plus!  The beading is highlighted with a Van Dyke brown glaze and a water based Semi-Gloss finish was applied overall.   The table looks gorgeous, I am so pleased with how it turned out.  Now instead of sitting lonely and broken on a shelf it can stand proudly in the finest living room.

Headboard with a Shrinkage Problem

 This beautiful 19th century headboard went through some unfortunate wood shrinkage when it was brought from the moist eastern climate to the more dry western climate.  The center panel shrunk from side to side.  This caused it to fit it's frame vertically but not horizontally.  A prior attempt at a repair was done, whomever did it added a round strip of wooden trim into the seam between the panel and the frame, to try and hide the ill fitting wood.

This really was not a great fix, it hid the problem but did not actually repair it.  So the bed was brought to us for a more permanent restoration job.   What we are in the process of doing is quite a bit more complicated.   We started out by cutting and contouring a piece of wood to fit each side of the center panel.  Since the bed has veneer on both sides,  we had to plane down our new piece of wood so that it would be thin enough to handle two pieces of veneer and still be the correct thickness.  The next step was possibly the trickiest.  Veneer had to be cut to match the angles of the existing veneer on the headboard.   The patch was then glued to the center panel and we will next have to do color touchup so that the pieces  appear to be one.  Once all that is done, the frame can go back on and the work on the headboard will be completed.