Dry Seak Freshen Up

Dry Sink After

Dry Sink Before

This little cabinet is commonly referred to as a dry sink. Before they had indoor plumbing, people would keep a large wash basin on the top of such a cabinet with towels and toiletries beneath for a quick freshen up. 

It didn't need an entire refinishing, just a little bit of refresh. This included replacing the top drawer bottom which was damaged and wouldn't close easily. Jim replaced the broken piece with new wood and strengthened it in the process.

Made of sturdy oak, this dry sink was in really great shape. After he cleaned and refreshed it, the natural beauty of the wood came through. Oddly enough, the cabinet door did not have a knob, so we're not sure how a person would have opened it without opening the top drawer and pushing on the door. It didn't even have a hole where a knob would have been. Luckily we had a glass knob in our repertoire of supplies which matched pretty well and looked great once it was installed. 

The customer took the "before" photo, so it looks much darker than the "after" photo due to the lighting. The "after" photo is more representative of how the actual dry sink looked, which was a much lighter shade of oak and looked terrific.

Six Chairs Get New Seat

Chair After

Chair Before

This was one of a set of six oak chairs. The chairs were a bit wobbly, but overall in good condition. At one time these chairs had caned seats, but the caning was long gone and replaced with a thin board and covered with vinyl. That was also a long time ago and the vinyl then needed to be replaced. In addition to replacing the seat, we tightened up the loose joints and gave each chair a good cleaning. The customer chose a dark brown vinyl, which was much like the old covering. She’d wanted to keep the same look.

Sometimes jobs are tough and other times they’re fairly simple. This was was a combination of both. The tightening of loose joints can be time consuming because in addition to gluing up the joints, the correct way to repair them is to glue and clamp them, usually overnight. It’s essential to use the right glue (you’d be surprised how many chairs we get with the wrong glue!) Wood glue is preferred, but you can use other glue, as long as it can be used for wood in addition to other surfaces.

This is called a “ladder back” chair. It has curvy horizontal back support with simple spindles on the bottom four sides. These chairs are one of many styles we have worked on over the years. We try to keep each chair as original as possible, when it’s what the customer wants.