Just a Before & After

Sometimes it's fun and maybe even helpful to gloat just a little.  This very practical piece,  a closed dresser,  is of 1920's-1930's vintage.

It's one of several pieces,  one piece of a bedroom suite  I was privileged to refinish.  It had been well taken care of through just a couple owners,  including the years my customer has had it. And just like the rest of us,  stuff gets tired and begins to need some cosmetic--and even structural help. 

This piece's structural issues were my biggest challenge.  Several of the wooden drawer slides inside the case were "done." They were broken, and parts of them were even long lost.  Making those functional repairs required some care and some ingenuity. But it was doable and the final product is a happy outcome for everyone involved. 

The pictures I've posted here give you some idea what the piece looked like fully stripped, and then when it's all finished before all the doors are hardware are replaced, and then finally it's all back together.  Please notice the two little decorative pieces, one on the top's "fence" and the other on the first middle drawer. 

Check out the pulls on the drawers,  right and left,  and on the two doors.

These pulls are solid silver! That was a surprise to me,  but even more so to my customer.  When she acquired the piece many years ago they were already tarnished,  so she had no idea they were anything more than dark grey. When I polished then up and showed them to her, wow,  was she  surprised...and delighted! It was a feels-good moment for us both. 

Ok,  about those two decorative pieces. These two were made of oven-baked moulded resin. I couldn't find exact replicas,  so we left these (for now) just as you see them there,  cleaned and finished.  But,  and just for your information,  facsimiles are available. 

Ok.  That's WoodTalkin for today.  Keep listening, and remember,  your pieces have stories to tell!

Monday's Update.

I'm back in the shop starting TODAY.  YAAY!

And that's today's WOODTALKIN. See you soon. 

Dick 👍👍

720-350-2992

Danish Ingenuity

When was the last time you saw or sat at a table like this? You may not have known it was one of these. Danish in design and ingenuity, it expands and shrinks by sliding the end sections out from under or back under the center section. There are no gears or locks; it's all slip action and easy...ingenious.

This antique beauty has a dual pedestal base. It's all solid oak. It was probably a proprietory clear varnish on this oak. It appears to be a shellac now. It's elegant and simple and very special. This one came to the shop to make a minor but complicated adjustment in how the closure fit on one end.

Probably influenced by time and some predictable shrinkage, the curvature on one side of it's "leaf" didn't tightly match the corresponding rounded corner of the center piece's rounded edge. (see the pic) We did not completely eliminate the gap, but we were able to almost close it...almost. It looks much better! What do you think? (Right, how it looked before; left, how it is now)

Ok. That's Wood Talkin for today. Keep listening. This is fun!

Dick

Just Hangin Around Again

I'm baaaaaack! Of course that's the line every anxious movie goer anticipated in response to Arnold Schwartzenneger' famous line, "I'll be back."

Well, this beautiful door is hanging around the neighborhood again; it's back. It's in a difficult spot in a difficult climate under a comparatively small stoop...little protection from the elements. So our customer wanted to have it refinished in a quality oil, a product they could easily and routinely maintain and one that could handle the temperature extremes and the ultraviolet at 5600 feet elevation.

So there it is all handsome and bursting with character....and that's Wood Talkin for today.

KEEP LISTENING...because wood talks.

Dick

A Front Door

Everybody coming to the house sees it up close and personal. So we all tend to take them for granted. This one is no exception. It's on a home built in the 1980s and as design would dictate, it's on the home's southern face under a small covered stoop. So it's taken an environmental beating. Hot sun, dry and ultraviolet extremes with little reprieve day after day....taken for granted.

So......what's a faithful and dependable door to do? Well this handsome maple sentry is getting a long deserved face lift. Boy is it happy, and he's telling us as much and enjoying every minute of this pampering.

This handsome guy, with leaded-in glass lights, trimmed panels and moulding surrounds has every reason to be confident. He's had his down season, but it will soon be history. He'll be able to strut his stuff across the neighborhood! We'll offer an update in a forthcoming blog.

So, here is to listening, because of course Wood is Talkin.

DICK

Memories Restored

Here's a1900's little beauty.This little tray table came to us in pieces....12 of them! The only missing piece was the top surface. Our customer found this little promise at a garage sale placed in an open cardboard box. She immediately recognized it as identical to a little table she cherished from her own home as a child. It's not the same table, but one of the same design. It spoke to her heart, "Please rescue me."

She did. She bought this cardboard box of promise and brought it to us at Wood Talkin. "Can you put this back together and refinish it like it would have looked back then?" Sure thing.

So, about ten days later....here it is (through several stages of finish), now ready to go"back" home...to the love and affections of someone who will do just that, love this little table, a promise...realized again.

Ok then. That's Wood Talkin for today.....please keep listening.

An Eastern Beauty

Here's a remarkable beauty. Keep this thought in mind. This amazing piece of art is well over 200 years old! Throughout the centuries she has remained under the loving watch care of one family. For two of those centuries she was in Srilanka, then she was transported across the Atlantic, and then across the United States!

Standing nearly seven feet tall, she sits assembled in thee pieces; a foundation, base cabinet, and top cabinet. Of course she is all hand made by an artist of incredible patience working in far Eastern hard woods, e.g., mahogany and ebony. And she has seen multiple repair efforts. The evidence of those efforts, probably by family members through the years, were of course more utilitarian and well-intended in the moment than they were artistic or skilful.

All that heavy hard wood atop just four carved legs, and moved (probably uneasily shoved about), an effort punctuated by grunts and protests--both from those shoving and by the base--had left the base's joints increasingly broken and loose. So, she had gradually become a danger to be around. A timely and patient strengthening of her base was the order off the day.

As you see her here she sits poised and proud again, and back home where she belongs. She is all ready to preside in her new home where those who know, love and respect her will again, God willing, appreciate her through several more generations.

That's Wood Talkin for today. Are you listening?
Dick