Refinished Gate Leg Table

 This is a really cool table, but when it came in to the shop,  it's unique qualities were overshadowed by the damaged old finish.  As you can see, the table top had quite a bit of water damage and in some places was getting flakey.   There were areas where the wood grain was barely visible through the finish.

We stripped the table with our high tech water based finishing system and it came out so well, that there was really no additional work needed to fix the water damage.  We did however need to do quite a bit of work on the base. It has a swiveling 'gate leg' which allows the table to open up into a square.  This wooden mechanism needed work as well.

The gate leg feature is what makes this table really unique.  This table can be used against a wall, or behind a couch, but then can open up for more table surface.  It is almost like a drop leaf, but when it is closed, you would never notice it's special talent.

The stain on this table is our darkest shade, called 'Jacobean'  It is almost black and you have to look closely to see the wood grain.  The dark finish gives this table a very formal/modern vibe, but if you are wanting to see the grain easily, then it is not the stain for you.  Over the stain there is a 'Semi Gloss' sheen finish, which adds to the formality of the table.

Now all this table needs is it's new set of shiny casters and it is ready for display!

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.

'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.

Table Leaf with Plasticizer Damage

 This leaf belongs to a beautiful table that has suffered 'plasticizer' damage.  You can see from the photo that it has a strange 'oily' appearance in the finish.  This happened because the owner of the table put a plastic 'table cloth' over it to protect it, and then left in on for a while.  

The problem is that most finishes have a plasticizing agent in their chemical composition to keep the finish from becoming brittle and shattering when dry.  When the plastic cover was used on the table there was a chemical reaction and it actually broke down the finish.  This can create either the weird oily looking surface that you see here, or it can actually melt the surface so that you can pick the finish off with our finger nail.

Usually the only way to fix plasticizer damage is to completely strip and refinish the table.  But before we took that step we tried a less extensive procedure, just in case.  In this situation it was enough.  We began by removing the top layers of the table's finish where the damage was.  We then stabilized the finish and top coated it with a new water base topcoat in a 'Matte' sheen.  Our client is very happy with the results and has also learned a little lesson about plastic and chemistry.

 

Danish Box Weave Folding Chair

This low folding chair is woven with a 'Danish Box Weave' pattern.  Clearly it had suffered some significant damage to the seat.  Maybe someone tried to use it as a stepping stool?  Just for future reference, woven furniture should never be used under foot!  It is sturdy enough to sit on, but when you have your entire weight on one small (foot sized) area of the weaving,  especially if the fibers are old and brittle, then those fibers can break.  Once one strand breaks,  the surrounding area becomes weaker and other strands nearby tend to start breaking.  Then you have a problem!  And then you need to do what this client did and bring that chair in to us.

We re-wove the seat of this chair using traditional danish weave materials.  This material is called 'danish cord' and is actually made out of paper!  The cord is waxed so it has something of a protective coating, but if it is really soaked then those fibers become weak, just like regular paper.  As long as you keep furniture woven with danish cord inside, then it should last you for years and years to come.  If you look closely at the 'finished' side of the top picture you can see that the back of the chair is darker then the seat.  This is because, like all weaving materials, it darkens over time.  Eventually you will not notice that the seat and back are different shades. 

 Hopefully at that point no one breaks the weaving in the back, because then we would have to start all over!

'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.