Furniture Restoration
If you have a loved piece of furniture that needs refinishing, upholstery, repairs or maybe just a good clean and polish, I can help.
Below are some examples of furniture I’ve had the pleasure to renovate and restore.
Morris Chair
This was a second hand store rescue that had a good solid frame but was suffering from years of neglect. A full strip down, French polish of the frame, new seat suspension and foam, and covered in a 100% cotton embossed upholstery fabric with matching gimp. Finished with several coats of scotch guard to protect it from spills and stains. I even managed to find a replica set of the original brass and ceramic castors for the legs. The client was extremely happy with the results.
Boudoir Chair
This chair had been rescued from the props department of a theatre company. The customer didn’t want the seagrass back panel touched, but the rest restored. The entire frame was scraped back by hand to remove many layers of different varnishes. The timber was then finished with Scandinavian Teak Oil. New hessian webbing and foam padding for the seat was then covered in a classic pattern hard wearing upholstery fabric. I believe this now resides in the clients bedroom as a feature piece for keeping their pile of clothes off the floor.
Drinks Cabinet
I found this fantastic drinks cabinet tucked away in a second hand store. It had suffered from sun bleaching, damage to the side panels and moldings and the mechanism for turning out the shelf panels was damaged and would not move.
After some very fiddly work, some repairs to the timber panels and the wooden gearing mechanism, and a good scrub down, I applied several coats of finishing wax and burnished it to a nice shine.
Chapel Harmonium
Possibly one of the most complex restorations I’ve undertaken, I found this Chapel Harmonium advertised for sale on a local Facebook page. It originally resided in the Church on Southbrook Road in Rangiora which is now a Mazda dealership.
This Harmonium has been fully disassembled and cleaned, fortunately the leather bellows was still in excellent condition with no air leaks. I installed new silks for the acoustic vents, sourced new knobs and replacement (second hand) ivory labels for the missing stopper knobs.
Repairs to the internal reed beds and risers involved fabrication of brass linkage rods and the use of fish glue to match the original construction techniques as closely as possible. I also arranged for an artisan to hand make replacement parts for the music stand and sourced original Urn moldings to replace the missing parts on the front supports. New Axminister carpet for the bellows pedals and restoration of the brass pedal frames completed the mechanical restoration. The timer was then finished in several coats of beeswax to feed and protect the wood. It now plays beautifully and is a fantastic feature piece of furniture in our lounge.
