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Before and After Photographs
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This was classy in its day, but when this old empire chest arrived nothing worked; drawers were all binding and tilting. The finish was so cloudy you couldn't tell what kind of wood it was.
After refinishing I was pleasantly surprised that under the nasty old finish was beautiful and vibrant "crotch" mahogany on all the drawers. Now the owner has something of value.
A a woman called my shop to say that she had a roll top desk she was bringing in. What she brought me, in reality, was a truckload of rubble. The writing surface was chewed-up by bugs and couldn't be used, and the roll top tambour was rotten too. It was ALL fallen apart. These "before" pictures taken from different angles show what she gave me! She asked, "Can you fix it?" This old desk had belonged to her late husband and had been poorly stored in a couple of barns for decades. Apart from sentimental value it had no value at all, and needed to go to the landfill. I told her, "Yes, I'd be glad to fix it up for you." After 29 hours of work, installing a new flexible roll along with a new writing surface and refinishing, it was ready to go. With all the grunginess removed and the two mouse nests cleaned out it's really a nice old desk that I'd be happy to own.
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A man gave me a set of 6 run-down antique chairs in awful condition. I could see through the cloudy finish that there was fine inlay on every surface, but because of neglect and poor storage the veneers were popping off and the inlay was loose and missing in places.
From the 6 chairs I was able to salvage 2 of them and restore them to beauty and usefulness. These are truly spectacular rosewood chairs with exquisite artistry. How could anyone mistreat them so!
Take a close look at this inlay. Just click on the photo.
The photos on the left show the BEFORE version of a recent project. You would never guess that this used to be a buffet! That is, until someone cut off the legs and threw them away, then applied purple paint, then lavender, then aqua! This is what it looked like when the current owner inherited it from a relative.
Our first objective was to remove all the paint to see what kind of wood was lurking under there, then try to rebuild a leg assembly to look like the original may have looked. We had to guess at their shape and style.
Removing the layers of nasty paint revealed handsome walnut wood. With new legs added, the owner hardly was able to recognize it when he came to the shop to pick it up.
The owner of this old clock found it in his late mother's garage where it was hidden for at least 50 years behind some boards. So he decided to let Restoration Workshop try to make it presentable again. Our slogan really applies here: "New Life for Neglected and Abused Furniture."
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