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.

Climate Based Wood Shrinkage

Shrinkage is a major problem we see with furniture that comes into our shop.  We are in a somewhat dry climate in California and much of the furniture we see has come across from the more damp climate of the east coast.  Wood is made like a sponge, it holds water so that it stays at equilibrium with the humidity of the climate around it.  As wood goes from damp to dry climate, over time water leaves the wood which causes the wood to shrink.  

This shrinkage causes seats to split, dowels to come loose, and certain kinds of glue to fail.  The best way to deal with an issue of this kind, is to disassemble the item as completely as possible, clean all the old glue off and then glue the piece back together.  This way we can make sure that all the joints are tight and re-fitted for a now ever so slightly smaller piece of furniture

As you can see with this chair,  even though it may have come to us in complete disrepair, we can still make it tight, beautiful, and safe for use again.

Besides having newly tightened joints and seams, this chair also has a beautiful, safe new water based exterior.  We began with a Warm Cherry Stain, and then applied a Semi Gloss Finish over the top.  It is now ready for daily use for years and years to come.