Restoring an Old Front Door

We strip a lot of woodwork and doors here at our shop, but it is much less often that we get to complete the job and have a beautiful finished door to show you.  So I am excited to have this lovely piece to put up on the blog for you.   As you can see from the pictures, it came in to the shop painted blue!  This isn't really a problem for us though since we have the tools, the chemicals and the know how to get that blue paint off the door, and out of all those little crevices.

We then did our 'prep' sanding which is a two step process we have come up with .  With our two step sanding we have found that we get a really smooth wood, that still takes color very well.  

The door is stained with a special exterior quality water based product.  The stain color is a combination of 2 parts 'Coffee Bean' and 1 part 'Cedar'.  It is a really beautiful deep reddish brown.  Over that stain we have applied a water based, exterior quality finish in 'Satin'.   The result is a really beautiful, classy looking door that will stand the test of time.

'Touch & Top' Job For an Old Finish

I know I just put up a post about a coffee table, but this is a completely different kind of job,  so bear with me on this.

This time we didn't strip and refinish the coffee table, but instead performed a 'touch and top' job.  This means we went in and touched up all the scrapes and scars by hand.  This is the kind of work that needs an artist, someone who can match and blend color and grain patterns so that the touchup repair disappears.

After the touchup work was done, we top-coated with a clear water based finish that will protect not just our repairs, but the rest of the finish as well.  This top coat gives a new lustrous sheen to the coffee table and almost looks like we refinished it.

If you have something lying around your house that is showing some ware and tear, but you don't want to change the color/finish, we can still make it look a lot better for you by performing similar work.  Bring that piece in to us and we can go over your options.

Protective Gear and Sanding

All geared up and ready to start sanding!

 After my last experience sanding with a flap wheel sander, which left me completely covered with sanding dust, (which I have chronicled in this post ... Lessons In Sawdust And Sanders) I decided I needed to prepare a bit better this time.

This time I brought a bandana to keep the dust out of my hair, wore proper eye protection, and used an actual dust mask instead of a rag tied around my face.  I also had in a pair of very effective ear plugs!  It is amazing how well those things worked!    They completely blocked out all the chuckles and laughter of the 'real' workers in the shop as they watched my stumble through sanding this old trunk.

The sanding queen!

I also put on a pair of anti-vibration sanding gloves after a while, to keep my hands from suffering to much.  This experience with a non-dust collected sander was much better then the last.  I didn't get as much done as I would have liked however because my arms began to get tired from trying to control this unruly spinning sander.  Oh well,  the 120 grit sanding is almost done.   Just 4 more of the wooden straps to go and then I will treat all the wood with Oxalic Acid to get the grey out.

 After 130 years, the metal has turned the wood a bit dark, so the Oxalic Acid will help lighten it up a bit.  Once the wood has been treated, I will sand the entire thing again with 180 grit and then I get to the fun part, staining!  I have so many options with staining, I have to think about that a bit.  What would you choose?

Fabricating a Carved Settee Leg

 From time to time we have something come to us that not only has a broken leg, but the broken off part is completely gone!  Now usually we like to put any broken off parts back onto the piece, as then the wood is all the same age, and it will continue to age at the same pace as the rest of the item of furniture.  But, in a situation like this, where the broken off piece is completely gone,  we have to start from scratch and do our best to choose wood that will blend with the rest of the piece.

 In this case,  we had a beautiful Settee come in with one of  the more decorative front legs broken off.  The Settee is made out of mahogany so we put together some small pieces of matching mahogany and attached
them to the leg, as you can see in the first picture.   You can see in the second picture that we have taken some of the excess wood off and have drilled holes along the inside curve of the leg to make hand carving a bit easier.  Next a template of the leg shape was attached to the leg, for more refined removal of excess wood.  You can see in the 4th picture that all the excess wood has been removed and the fine shaping is ready to begin.
 The leg carving turned out very well.  It looks almost exactly like the other two on the settee.   Now it is off  to the finishing department.  It is their job to make the epoxy line disappear and of course to stain and finish the entire settee.  It is not particularly often that we have to do this kind of work, but fortunately we have the guys with the skill to pull it off.   Do you have a job you think is impossible?   Bring it to us, clearly this job was not enough of a challenge, so your impossible repair might be just the challenge they need!

Stained Cedar Chest, Looking Good!!!

 I am so excited to show you this 'before and after' set of photos.  I wrote a post recently showing you all what this wood looked like after the paint was removed,  and it was pretty beautiful.  Now that this cedar chest has it's finish work done, it is a piece that is worthy of being the highlight of the room.

The chest received a water based 'medium cherry' stain which really brought out the beauty of the Cedar.  Over that we applied a water based satin finish.  The inside of this cedar chest was left unfinished so that the the aroma can still be enjoyed.  Growing up, I always wanted a cedar chest of my own (my mother had a beautiful hand made one with her name carved on the front).  I still don't have a cedar chest, but if I did, I would want it to look just like this!

 What do you think of this transformation?  Do you have a treasure of your own that is just crying for some TLC?  Bring it to us, we would love to bring it back to life.

Peeling Veneer on Intricate Marquetry

 Boy do we have work to do on this table!   It holds the unique distinction of being a hand made table,  crafted by the brother of it's current owner.  The marquetry on the top is not an easy thing to do, by any means.   It is done with several different varieties of veneer intricately cut and put together in a star pattern.  Some of the veneer was flaking off when it was brought to us for repair and restoration.

Our task is to strip the old finish off,  do any repairs to the veneer needed, and then re-finish it.  We knew it was going to be a big project, but we didn't get to see just how big, until that old finish came off.

It has been put through our stripping tanks, and we now see the true state of the veneer marquetry. The veneer is peeling off badly all over the table.  Some of the veneer pieces are missing completely.  This means a lot of delicate glue work, and quite a bit of very careful, exacting  veneer cutting.  It is like trying to make a piece for a puzzle when one has been lost.  Can you imagine how hard that would be?  Fortunately, we have very skilled craftsmen here at our shop, but I do not envy them the job of fixing this table.  I will put more pictures up as the work progresses on this pice!  Do you have something with peeling veneer? Maybe a 30's era bedroom set, or a dining table that someone was not kind to?  Bring it to us, you will be amazed at what we can do!

Beautiful Cedar hiding under Paint

At first I did not recognize this beautiful cedar chest.  I was walking through the shop the other day, and saw this trunk and thought to myself 'huh, I wonder where that 3rd cedar chest came from',  Then all of a sudden it hit me,  This beautiful chest, with the wonderful smelling cedar and the many knots in the wood had once been covered in paint! I am so excited now to see the look on the owner of this chest's face when she sees it, all stripped and sanded and pretty.  Looking at the 'before' picture below, I wonder why anyone paints such beautiful wood.  I know there is a time and place for painted wood,  such as, when there has been burn damage, or when the wood itself in completely unremarkable and boring.  But with beautiful wood like this, I think it should  never be covered in paint.  Of course, that is just my opinion.  You are entitled to think whatever you want.  Perhaps you should tell me in the comments below, just what you think of painted wood like this.

30's Art Deco Table With A New Stain

 This lovely waterfall style 'Art Deco' table came in looking pretty, but went out looking beautiful!  When it came to us, the center leg had fallen off and needed repair so that it would be useful again. So we stripped the golden hue finish off of the table, and repaired the leg.  Then we applied a Jacobean stain to the legs and table top, and as an interesting accent we applied a Natural stain to the banding around the bottom of the table top,  the corner caps and the accent 'wing' pieces.   The entire table then got a 'gloss' finish which made the wood look wet.   It came out so beautiful.  I really love the new stain choice our customer decided on.  I think it gives a more modern sophisticated look than the old gold hue.

As you can see, the color combination we used really made the corner details stand out.  Before, the corners were pretty but not particularly noticeable.  Now with that dark color on the corner cap and wing details they are a beautiful interesting feature.  To me, it looks like a bird, with the dark head and wings.

Roll Top Desk Gets Some New Pieces.

 Work continues on a Roll Top desk which came to us in so many pieces, I playfully called it the 'Humpty Dumpty' desk.  We put the entire thing together and once we did, the discovery was  made that it was missing a few slats on the tambour unit.  The owner of the desk gave us the go ahead and we had 3 more slats custom made to fit the originals.  Now we have to cut them to length and drill holes to match the rest of the unit.  A wire runs through these holes to keep them together, instead of them all being glued to a cloth.

Another project on this Roll Top desk is that of creating new drawers for the cubbies.  There was only one drawer left.  We were able to use this original drawer to  determine what the styling of the new drawers should  be.  The 3 smaller drawer still need a handle, then all the drawers,  and the new tambour pieces, need to be stained to match the rest of the desk.  This should be an interesting task, and  the finish on the rest of the desk is pretty old an worn.

Tell us about  what projects you are working on right now.  We would love to hear!

Child Sized Rolltop Desk with a Chalkboard!

This adorable child sized roll top desk just got it's repairs completed today.   I wish I had thought to take a picture before it was repaired!  But I can at least recount for you what we did to get it in it's current cute shape.  You can probably see a pale line across the top, that is where the wood was broken in two.  We could have done color work to make that line  disappear, but the owner's of this desk decided not to have us do it.  We also repaired the tambour unit,  made the chalkboard writing surface be able to slide in and out,  repaired the falling apart cubbies and put the stand back together.

This is such a cute desk.  I envy the child who gets to spend their hours playing school at such a neat little workspace.

Double Victoria Weaving Pattern

If you were to walk into our office right now you would see three chairs, all identical in build, but with three very different finishing styles.  They also have three different weaving styles on the seats.  One has a traditional '6 way' weave in the usual natural cane.  You can see what a '6 way' weave looks like in the left picture.  Another of the three chairs has the traditional '6 way' weave but there are some black painted strands woven in on the diagonals.  This gives the chair such an unusual look.

The third chair we did a completely different weave.  It is so unusual, I don't think we have done it a single time for a customer!  This weave is called a 'Double Victoria' and can be seen in the right photo.  This 'Double Victoria' doesn't create all the little octagons in the weaving but instead creates little squares filled with Xs.  I really like this different woven pattern and am hoping someone walks in, sees the chairs and decides to have their entire set woven that way!


Soon, we will also have a wall covered with small examples of each of the weaving patters that we can do.  We are about halfway done with that project so you can expect to see more posts about that soon!

Overcoming the Power of an Old Berry Stain

We have a few pieces in, from different customers, which offer us a unique challenge.  These pieces came in to be stripped of their old finish, and have a new finish applied.  All of  these items went through the stripping process, after which we discovered that part of the original staining work would linger.  You see, these pieces were colored with a dye, that could not be removed in stripping.

This dye is a Berry based stain and penetrates the wood fibers to permanently color them, as opposed to a pigment color, which we would use, that sits on top of the wood.  You can find this dye used in old furniture as well as modern, so we never know when it will pop up.

 Sometimes this kind of dye is used on a lighter colored wood, such as Poplar to make it match, say a Mahogany wood, then a pigment stain can be applied over both, and it will look like they are the same kind of wood.

In the case of this Piano Stool, we were able to remove some of the color during the prep sanding process, which left the red in the crevices.  Instead of letting this be a problem, we used the red as a natural 'highlighting', to give the stool some extra character.  Then we used a medium Cherry dye which helped to even the color out without making the stool to dark.  Of course the stool has our super earth friendly Water Based Finish over all of that!

How do you think the stool looks?  Have you ever had to deal with a dye stain like this?  If so, what did you end up doing with the new  finish?  We would love to hear, in the comments below.

Completed Work on Headboard Extension

A while back I was telling you all about a project we were working on, then I completely forgot to show you the final product!  Well here it is, a beautiful bedroom set which we refinished.  But the biggest part of this project was the bed.  It started out as a Full sized bed, and we turned it into a Queen sized bed.  Can you see from this picture what we did?

In case you can't figure it out, you can check it out in these older posts...  

http://furniturerenewalist.blogspot.com/2011/02/update-on-full-to-queen-bed-project.html

http://furniturerenewalist.blogspot.com/2011/02/bed-extensions-making-full-into-queen.html

Now that the set is done,  I think it looks very good.  You can hardly tell that one of the dressers is not actually from the set! What do you think of the work?  Do you like the design for the headboard and footboard extensions?

Old Steamer Trunk After Complete Restoration

This old trunk came to us partially dis-assembled by it's good intentioned owner. They had wanted to fix it up themselves, but realized it was way to big of a project for them.  It still had a little bit of the green painted canvas and a few strips of metal left on the box, but other then that, it was in pieces.  They had been able to salvage almost all of the original hardware. The tin strips were rusted so they would need some work, but the cast brass edge and corner pieces were still looking gorgeous. We treated all the tin sheeting that went on the trunk with a rust arrestor. This would keep any rust damage from spreading. All the tin was then painted a shiny black.  All of the wooden slats that decorate the trunk had been marked for us so that we would know where they went once the trunk was re-assembled. This was a big help, and saved us from needing to solve many puzzles. We re-glued any cracks and breaks. Then the slats were stripped, sanded and given a beautiful new water based finish.

We also applied a new canvas cover over the box and painted it a green, very similar to the original green color.  We then put the shiny black tin strips on,  and all the renewed wooden slats.  The brass hardware looks amazing now on this trunk. We don't often get to restore a trunk from it's base, we usually try and make it look as good as possible, without taking the entire thing apart.  We are so please with how this trunk turned out though, that hopefully we will get to do more trunks in such a thorough way!

Our Color Wizard Strikes Again

Often, items come to us that are not broken, do not need to be refinished, or some other major work.  They simply have a dent, gouge, scrape or ding on their beautiful surface.  Fortunately we have the man for the job.  He is a color wizard and can make imperfections disappear.  After smoothing the dent with various fillers, the color touchup began.  Three different colors were used to achieve that red you see on the table.  Our Color Wizard used  red, a canary yellow and a white, it is amazing to me how people can see in their mind what colors make up another color.  I always end up with a whole bunch of dud colors before finding the right one.  I suppose that is what makes our Wizard so good!   Once that red is dry a rich gold will be applied over it.  You will still be able to see some red underneath, which is part of what makes the effect on this table so cool.

Do you have something with a dent that you have been wishing you could get fixed?  Well now you know where to take it.  Bring it in, we will be waiting for you!

Another Interesting Faux Finish In The Works

 We are getting more and more 'faux finish'  projects in, here at the shop.  This latest one is quite a bit of fun, and took some creative thinking to come up with the design.  The couple who owns this piece has decided they are tired of the dark, heavy quality of their current decorating scheme and has brought a cabinet and coffee table to us to 'lighten' in some way.  After discussing the customer's vision for their home, we came up with an idea which made them happy.

We are beginning with a creamy color,  almost a pale yellow, on certain sections of the pieces.  We will also be using green tones and a vibrant red pepper to accent.  I know in probably sounds a little crazy, but just wait until you see the finished product.  I have learned that faux finishes tend to look a little odd at some stage, but once the steps are completed,  the finish looks stunning. Check back in a bit to see the completed look!

Re-Canvasing an Old Steamer Trunk

 The work continues on our most recent trunk project.  Once all the repairs were done to the trunk box we moved on to the next step.  Yesterday our Repairman began to re-canvas the box.  It is so exciting for us to be working on a trunk to this extent.  We usually don't get to do the re-canvasing part.

Our Repairman began by using wallpaper glue on the wooden portion instead of on the cloth.  We found that by applying in on the box instead of the cloth it didn't soak through as much, which will be good for when we need to paint it.  Once the glue was smoothed on the wooden portion, the canvas was stapled onto one side,  smoothed across, then stappled on the other side.  Then we smoothed the canvas again before adding more staples.  Once the canvas is securely glued, we can remove the staples and paint the canvas.

To see the last post on this trunk you can look here.....

http://furniturerenewalist.blogspot.com/2011/04/restoring-trunk-from-its-core.html

Bentwood Rocker Gets a New Fancy Weave

 This seat belongs to a lovely bentwood rocking chair. While the seat is broken, we can still see an interesting grid pattern that was added to the weaving of this chair.  This grid is very unique, and we have not had a chair with this pattern come into our shop before.   Me being the curious person that I am, I had to do some research and find out what it's origin might be.  I learned quite a bit!

The design for this appealing bentwood chair goes back to the company’s founder Michael Thonet and his sons. In 1860, in the Moravian town of Koritschan, the Rocking Chair No. 1 was first manufactured using the new bentwood technique that is still being used today. The wood is heated with water vapour and then bent into the desired shape, which gives this rocking chair its particular charm. Michael Thonet developed the technique of bending solid beechwood in 1856. With his revolutionary Café House Chair No. 14, he was to receive worldwide acclaim.  These chairs often had hand caned seats and backs, and Thonet was the one to introduce this pretty grid pattern weave. It also has a double blind caned back, which is very fancy!

Our Furniture weaver did a lovely job on this seat and re-created that fancy pattern beautifully.   From  reports by the chairs owner,  This rocker has put to sleep many a child, and now with the seat in working condition again,  this rocker is ready for many more sleep inducing sessions!

Art Deco Chair gets a Unique Treatment

I am very excited about this project.  This chair is going to go in our office when it is completed, so there is a bit of a 'personal' investment I suppose.    Three matching chairs were dumped on us when the owners decided they didn't want them anymore.  We are finishing them each differently, and this is the last one.

We started out by painting it with a cream colored Milk Paint.  This Art Deco chair has interesting carving, so we are filling in all the little groves with red.  It is going to look so good.

Then once that step is completed we will do some glazing to add texture and a final coat of a Van Dyke Brown over the entire chair for an aged look.   I am sure I will post again as progress on this little chair continues.

I think the red is looking good!   What do you think?

An 1870's Steamer Trunk comes out clean

 I have blogged about this trunk previously, to talk about it's age and such, but we just did some work on it and I am pretty impressed.    The owner of this trunk already had a good thing going, because there really isn't much structurally that needs to be repaired.  The leather handles and pull are shot and the locking mechanism is damaged.  The leather that once covered the outside was removed and we still need to make a new lid-stay to keep the lid up.

But the biggest thing that this trunk needed was a cosmetic face lift, which we made major steps to accomplishing recently.  After the old leather covering was pulled off we put the trunk through our cleaning tanks.  Not the stripping tanks mind you,  just the two cleaning tanks.  The wood came out so clean that all of us here at the shop have marveled at it,  it almost looks like new wood!   We have also treated it with 'Rust-Stop' which gives the metal a bluish-black look.  I like the look, but it is up to the customer to decide the final treatment of the metal, and of course the rest of the trunk.


Do you have an old trunk hiding away somewhere?  Bring it to us!  Let us make it beautiful for you again.