Finale's Finest

Chair Before

Chair After

This chair is from the 1920's. One of three chairs, this one is my personal favorite. It's made of oak and had a great deal of detail in the framework. It was also dirty and so covered in grime and old varnish, that the only way to bring out its luster was to strip it and apply brand new stain. This was one of three chairs I acquired from a friend who had passed away last October suddenly. It was one of the many pieces he'd kept from family members. I knew the chair was worth the work and got right to it. The stripping process was long, messy and tedious, but I wasn't surprised to see the gorgeous wood that lie beneath the layers of grime. I've included photos of the chair during the restoration process. There was a great deal of detail sanding involved!

Chair After Stripping

Chair After Stain

I chose the printed fabric to coordinate with the other two chairs, featured in the above articles, that have complementary striped fabric. These chairs, while completely different, would make an eclectic group for a sophisticated dining experience.

Chair Seat Before

Chair Seat After

100-Year-Old Fabulous French Doors

French Doors After

These French doors were a rare find. Not only because of how uncommon they are, but how the doors look. Each door has 15 panels of beveled glass. The doors are made of solid oak and are extremely heavy at approximately 2" thick. I estimate that each door weighs in at 100 lbs. I asked an expert the age of these doors and he said they are likely from 1908-1910, over one hundred years old.

French Doors Before

If you know what "alligatoring" is, you'll have a visual of what the doors looked and felt like prior to restoration. The texture of the wood resembled a low-grit sandpaper. When you ran your hand over the surface, it was not smooth. The beautiful wood underneath was buried under years of grime and exposure to the elements. We believe the doors were used as an entryway to a library, study or den. It took a year to restore these doors. Their weight and the amount of work involved was time-consuming, and we wanted to do them justice. These doors will be used in a renovation project for a front entry.

Door Knob Side 1

Door Knob Side 2

Door Latch at Top

Doors Side 1

Doors Side 2

Door Foot Lock

1944 and 1945 Lane Waterfall Cedar Chests

1945 Cedar Chest Before

1945 Cedar Chest After

I got an unexpected customer, a woman who lives in Kalamazoo (one of my favorite places!) who was in town visiting her parents who lived in St. Clair Shores. She had a cedar chest she wanted stripped, so her daughter could use it for a coffee table. She brought the chest over that same evening. It was a 1945 Lane Cedar chest. She had asked for a darker stain, so after I stripped and sanded it down, I applied walnut, which brought out the dark wood. I then added two coats of semi-gloss polyurethane and made some minor repairs.

Nightstand Gets Painted Eggshell

Nightstand After

Nightstand Before

This little nightstand was a job for a customer who wanted it to match her dressers, however, the end result didn't match so I suggested painting it. As a traditionalist, I normally lean toward refinishing wood, as opposed to painting it, but sometimes painting is a great solution. This was a great example of paint vs. stain, as the wood didn't accept the stain very well, thus making the wood a great deal darker and no longer matching the dressers. This is caused by absorption, which determines the wood's ability to take on the proper color. When I suggested painting the piece, my customer agreed and purchased an eggshell white that matched her bed. The bottom line was a great little table that received a coat of paint and a brand new look! Be open to your finishes, because you never know how great something will look until you try it!

Here's another nightstand we've painted: http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2013/11/nightstand-gets-facelift.html

Side Table Painted Yellow

Table Before

I'm always on the lookout for small tables. I find them to be universal and highly desirable, so when I came across this small cherry table at an estate sale, I knew I found a treasure. I overlooked its shabby facade and saw the potential beauty underneath. I especially liked the "webbed" shelving, which I thought was a great design feature. That it had a shallow drawer made it even more appealing, so I snatched it before someone else discovered it hidden in hidden in a corner of a bedroom.

Table After

All in all, it was in great shape, but the wood was not in the best condition, so I hand-sanded it smooth, then painted it a with Sherwin-Williams "Glisten Yellow" to match the dresser I'd recently finished. It proved to be a great color choice, because the soft butter yellow changed this table from shabby to chic. The brushed nickel knob completes this table's transformation...perfect table for a small room.

Table Before

Drexel-Heritage Dressers Jump Into 21st Century

Drexel Heritage Dresser Before

You never know what treasures you'll find at an estate or garage sale. When searching for used furniture, look at the "bones." If it's structurally sound, the rest can be fixed and refinished, revealing a classic, beautiful piece of furniture that is hard to come by. This was a great example of how very important it is to choose the right hardware for any project, as the hardware really makes a piece of refinished furniture shine.

This proved to be a challenging, yet very rewarding job for a client who had purchased these dressers at an estate sale. They were of excellent quality, name-brand furniture, Drexel-Heritage, in great condition, however, my client wanted to get an updated look for these classic pieces, bringing them into the 21st Century.

Drexel Heritage Dresser After

The challenge was twofold; stripping the old stain from two different types of wood and making the new stain blend, as well as replacing the original outdated hardware with new hardware she had selected, that didn't fit the original holes. Not until we had finished stripping the dressers did we realize that the bronze colored hardware she had originally given us wouldn't work. The drawer pulls didn't line up with the surface of the drawers causing the ends of the handles to stick up.

1960's End Table

End Table Before

When I first saw this end table in the basement of an estate sale, I walked away from it, at first thinking it was just too ugly to put any effort into. After poking around, I decided to take a closer look and buy it. I'm so glad I did, because once I began sanding away the grime, I uncovered not only a gorgeous end table, but exposed two different types of wood! I decided to use the original handle on the drawer because it lent authenticity to the piece and I

End Table After

really liked it. I chose two stains to bring out the two identities of the wood and show off its grain. The legs once had metal caps on the bottom that were long gone, so I painted them black to differentiate them and give it additional character.

The linear look of the table appealed to me and I ended up using it in my living room, instead of selling it as I had originally planned. (I wished I could find another one and one day while randomly looking at Ebay, I found one...in Chicago! Darn!) I love this retro table and am so glad I kept it. Maybe someday I'll find its match closer to home...

Old Oak Dresser

Oak Dresser Before

Oak Dresser After Paint

A great estate sale find! We estimated this dresser to be about 80 years old and it showed as it needed more than cosmetic work. The interior was a bit chopped up and the exterior was in rough shape, so we chose to paint instead of refinish this piece. It was absolutely the right choice because the end result was a stunning old dresser with a "new" contemporary look.

We replaced the original wooden handles with modern glass handles, and replaced the missing center skeleton key lock holes with new brass ones. The knobs became the "jewelry" for this stunning piece of now usable piece.

When the wood doesn't look good, paint does the trick!

Check out another great dresser we've breathed new life into:

http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2014/12/charlevoix-cherry-antique-dresser.html

Petite Old Dresser Painted Black

Petite Dresser Before

Petite Dresser After

This little dresser was in really rough shape when we found it at an estate sale on Ursuline Street in St. Clair Shores two weekends ago, and we almost overlooked it. After we gave it a second glance, we knew we found a treasure. Seldom deterred by "ugly," Jim saw the potential in this unique petite piece and knew he could transform its outdated, rough look and give it a new and unique personality.
The dresser sports fluted sides, a rounded backdrop and the front two legs rest on rounded pegs for support. This little piece shows true craftsmanship of days gone by. Its five drawers were in excellent condition, but the exterior was in need of new paint. Given the luck we've had with black paint for the other dressers we've recently restored, we decided to use black paint again. We purchased new drawer pulls that we felt best suited the dresser's unique style and just as we thought, the dresser assumed a whole new identity, not at all resembling the sad little dresser we originally bought at the estate sale. It's now a respectable piece of furniture that anyone would be proud to own. With a little elbow grease, time and patience (of course vision), this old beauty has a modern, timeless look.

Here's another dresser that needed paint and TLC: http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2013/08/old-dresser-new-life.html

Antique Dresser Painted Black

Dresser Before Paint

I picked up this sad-looking dresser at a garage sale on the street I used to live on twenty years ago, right here in St. Clair Shores. It was smothered with kid's toys and dishes in the corner of their garage. I knew it was a buried treasure, so I asked the owners if they could pull it out for me. It was a little scary looking but I'm not that easily intimidated by old furniture. The scarier it looks, the better it turns out!) Bring it on! I had a vision and it was to be another black dresser with white knobs. So I bought it and had two young men load it into the back of the mini-van.

First thing was to take photos. The next step was to replace the sides as they had water damage and were deteriorating, but otherwise, this old piece was in amazingly good condition. After the repairs, Jim sanded the entire thing down to bare wood and primed, then painted it. Black was a great choice! Isn't it amazing what a little elbow grease and paint can do?

Here's another terrific dresser that needed paint and love: http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2013/08/petite-old-dresser-goes-modern.html

Dresser After Paint

Antique Recliner

Recliner Before

My black buffet customer had a second piece of furniture she wanted

Recliner After

refinished, this antique recliner. This was an unusual piece since it had a brass bar that held the back of the chair in place. The way to turn this from a sitting position into a reclining position was to lower the bar manually. (This was built long before the days of La-Z-Boy!) It was made of solid tiger oak, very solid and sturdy.

We replaced the hinges with new brass ones. Someone had butchered the original hinges, cutting one of them to make it fit. We cleaned up the brass bar and polished it as well as the rest of the brass on the back of the chair. This piece had some great details, which were greatly accentuated upon completion.

Buffet Painted Black

Buffet Before Painting

A customer on Craig's List contacted me about painting a

buffet. She was undecided on the color, so I suggested she go mat black. It turned out to be a great choice. You simply can't go wrong with black paint. It's a versatile classic that matches any decor. What a great piece of furniture!

This piece was solid mahogany and needed lots of TLC, sanding and patience, but the results speak for themselves. The customer decided to keep the original handles which take on an entirely different personality with the elegant black paint. After a lot of sanding and clean-up, this buffet is better than new!

Buffet After Painting