Antique Marquetry Game Table Restoration

A customer brought us this peculiar game table for restoration. We haven’t seen one with this type of build and mechanism before. Highly unique item!

As you can see, the rosewood was deeply sun bleached indicating it must be pretty old. We did a full restoration that included touching up old repairs to the marquetry from a previous restorer. We greatly enjoy these types of projects that allow us to be as detail oriented and careful as possible.

Seeing the end result is always satisfying.

We put together a quick video of the process.

Stripping Paint From Antiques - 1880's Walnut Closet Faces

Ever wonder what’s underneath those layers of white paint covering our beloved antiques and wooden architectural home moldings? What you find may surprise you.

The result of the paint stripping process can often reveal beautiful grain and highly unique character of the wood beneath, previously sacrificed to decades of shabby chic paint trends. Now don’t get us wrong, there are times when painting furniture is acceptable. Certain lower value vintage items are ripe for a good updated trendy paint job! But keep in mind, if you must paint a furniture item, please avoid most antiques, high end designer pieces, or furniture hand made from solid wood.

And if you’re still intent on painting, consider having a professional do so. We have a shop capable of doing this the proper way to ensure the least damage is done to the wood as possible. We do tend to be picky with the painting projects we accept and can help advise you on the matter.

Now, on to the project below.

A customer from Wyoming brought us these exceptional closet faces circa 1880 he sourced from Philadelphia and aren’t we glad they ended up in our hands! He asked us to strip the paint and prep sand these bad boys.

Check out the before and after transformation below.

As you can see, these closet faces were covered in a variety of different paint colors before we got our hands on them.

This project was highly labor intensive. It involved chemical stripping in the tank as well as by hand. We also carefully sanded all the nooks and crannies of each crevice and carving by hand.

We no longer have feeling in our fingertips but would you look at what was hiding under all that paint!

We are happy with the end result. The feeling of satisfaction and joy we receive in seeing projects such as these restored full circle, is what this line of work is all about.

Top 10 Furniture Restoration Projects of 2018

2018 was a big year for us here at Kin Furniture Co.

In May 2018, after stumbling across the perfect warehouse space by accident, we moved our company to Denver CO, and dove head first into growing our business within a new big city. This meant long work hours, immersing ourselves into a new city business network, studying the art of marketing magic, learning to communicate well as both siblings and now business partners (which did not come without hard intentional work!) and of course, engaging in those monthly dreamcasting meetings where we allowed ourselves to dream big while also assessing issues and creating new growth strategies.

We somehow were able to do all this while also keeping up with customer projects!

Here are a few of our favorite furniture restoration projects from 2018.

1. Mid century dresser designed by John Keal.

   We did a full refinish to get rid of the old yellowing finish and surface scratches and polished those groovy brass pulls.

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

2. Pair of mid century teak Danish designed lounge chairs.

We did a full restoration on this pair of danish mid century teak lounge chairs that included replacing the loop springs. See our tutorial video here.

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

3. Art Deco vanity

Here’s another restoration that included a full refinish, polishing of those beautiful orange bakelite knobs and new glass. We believe these art deco vanities will come back on trend within the next few years and hopefully we will see a few more in the shop. Art Deco vanities often vary slightly in their design and some of the more simple ones blend well within both masculine and feminine design environments.

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

4. Mission style quarter sawn oak antique rocker.

Quarter sawn oak furniture is a favorite of ours here at Kin Furniture Co. Our father was a collector of furniture made of this beautiful striped looking wood during our childhood so we are a bit bias. The simple, rectangular angles of the mission furniture style is also pretty hard to dislike in general.

Our restoration included cleaning, re-gluing of the joints, sanding, a good deep oiling to get those ray flecks to shine and new seat cover upholstery in a sleek black leather.

SWOON!

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

5. Massachusetts governor’s chair from 1953.

Ouch! This stately chair was brought to us in need of some immediate medical attention.

These 2 broken legs were restored to the best of our creative ability by our in house break repair medic, Jake. This chair has a bit of a historic story. It was given to the then Governor of Massachusetts, Christian A. Herter, as an inauguration gift in 1953. Happy to see this beauty all stiched up and her history preserved!

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

6. Secretary desk circa 1770’s.

One of the best parts of furniture restoration is having the opportunity to preserve some very old antiques.

Here we did a restoration to this antique secretary desk circa 1770. That's about 250 years old. Our customer brought this family heirloom to us for some repairs due to shrinkage over time. 

We did our best to ensure this antique was repaired properly while also respecting the beauty and character brought by it's old age.

Notice the ink stains in the drawer from the use of an inkwell for writing.

And that 250 year old key is beautiful!

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

7. Solid Maple Dining Table Set

This dining table set refinish project was a stunning transformation. The table top was covered in surface scratches and scrapes and the finish had begun to peel. It had also darkened to a deep yellow over time, which of course wasn’t too pleasing to the eye.

We did a complete refinish on the table and chairs to reveal the true color of that beautiful bright maple. All those surface scratches were sanded away and a new matte coat of finish topped it all off.

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

8. Milo Baughman Credenza

This mid century Milo Baughman credenza repair made it on our list simply due to how beautiful it is.

We did some minor repair and touch up to some chipped veneer.

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

9. Depression Era chest of drawers.

This customer brought us a few family heirloom pieces that belonged to his grandfather. We particularly enjoy projects that involve restoring and preserving the stories held within family heirlooms. We did a full refinish to this handsome dresser and are glad to see it ready for another generation of use.

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

10 - Asian Coffee Table.

We did a complete refinish on this piece. It was in pretty bad shape when it was brought to us. There were quite a few water marks, scratches and what seemed to be a textile imprint.

We got it looking good as new!

Scroll to see the before photos of this project.

On to 2019!