Antique Repair & refurbishment

 Restoration is a science. Refurbishment is an art. With refurbishment he intention is for the piece to still have a story, to show evidence of the changes it has been through over many years without the distraction of seeing neglect or damage. Making it possible to appreciate more of it’s original beauty. 
Original construction and patina are always a consideration, however most of the time there is some innovative creativity necessary to achieve the end result. 
I care about the integrity of a piece and want to preserve the patina. This type of work is not for the faint of heart. It's far easier to just strip it, refinish it and be done. I employ any and all means to get the results I want.  Refurbishment takes a piece from beat up to looking old and loved. 
I am also well equipped to do earth quake securing of furniture and art.  

  Sometimes the client does not want to replace the original broken part of the piece with new wood. If it is too far gone to be reglued I might cut a trench in the two parts, lay in steel supports and put on a piece of wood over it. No one will know but you and me. It will cost less too.

The only way to align and glue up all the broken pieces was to do it all at the same time.

For: Downtown. Robert Wilson Art & Furniture

A badly broken opal and ironstone carved crocodile. I fixed the jaws and carved new opal teeth and claws.
For: The Schwebel Co.

The beetles ate too much of it.

A candle burned down too far and the shellac finish on this antique chinois table smoldered out to the size of a salad plate before it was descovered. I cleaned and filled the area, gold leafed it and built up the black shellac and lacquer. Then repainted the art and carved in the crackle lines.

So I replaced the bottom rail, cleaned and polished the rest.

Cast iron horse before.

After. The Schwebel co.

Clay statue before..

After. The Schwebel Co.

Here's a really bad job of '"repairing" the damage to a pair of painted demilunes. I didn't do it. I fixed it just enough so the table is flat and the repairs blend .

For: Tom Stringer Design Partners

The jacobean table was badly broken. The little pedestal table had one leg that was so badly eaten up by beetles that in just crumbled.

This is outside. The wind blew the door off.

All fixed up.

A badly rusted decorative tole display case. I removed the rust, painted it and put in antique glass.

I stenciled shingles on the roof &and painted birds on the interior ceiling. Note that I did not try to repair the roof ridges. For :Tom Stringer Design Partners.

A twenties composition mirror .

I love these old 20's movie prop finishes

There are eight of these plaster corbels separating different areas of the bathroom.They are from the twenties. I stripped, primed, and repainted them. With a heavy coat of matte finish, they will last even longer now.

These are ' Calenese' furniture. Made in Caifornia with a chinese accent. They had been sitting a basement for many years. They required a complete striping. Filling and sanding of the damaged wood, reglueing of loose joints, a heavy primer, colored laquer, antiquing, a clear laquer for protection a wax polish. I only cleaned the carved panels.

Thanks to David Williams for this job.

 I do not consider these pieces to be restored, but refurbished. I repaired all damages, stripped, gessoed, and repainted them to match the original paint exactly but glazed the new paint so that it had the look of age and built up patina that the old finish had. I also patinaed the brass to look old.

Before refurbishment

I cleaned & polished the bakelite hardware.

A large painted leather screen. The original paint was falling off. The bright areas are the silver leaf that was put under the paint. It gave the colors a glow and if they wanted to have part of it look like rich gold leaf the silver could be painted with asphaltum. When I was done repairing it, I coated it with a heavy varnish and wax. For : Tom stringer Design Partners