Edwardian Console

Console Before Refinishing

Console After

This console was an extraordinarily large piece of furniture. It's hard to judge the scale of this piece standing alone, but it comes up to the center of my five foot frame and is approximately six feet wide and twenty-one inches deep in the middle.

It had many surface scratches and had seen some wear, mostly on the top where the veneer had worn off and on the sides where the veneer had peeled off on one side and was half gone on the other. Before anything else could be done, I needed to repair that veneer on the one side and add a section to the missing left side. Luckily I was able to match the existing veneer pretty close. With veneer it's a gamble, because most of these pieces were done many years ago and the veneer they used was quite different from today's selection, but I was satisfied the veneer was appropriate for this piece and blended quite nicely.

Bavarian Hand-Carved Table

Bavarian Before

This table came to me as a referral from a woman who'd

Bavarian After

purchased the "Petite China Cabinet" from me. She told her friend about my work and soon, her friend called me and asked me if I could refinish a table for her. She then brought over this very challenging project; a table that looks like something you'd see in Frankenmuth. To those of you who live in Michigan, you've probably been to, or at least heard of "Frankenmuth," known as "Little Bavaria." The two restaurants, "Zehnders" and "The Bavarian Inn" have famous chicken dinners that lure thousands of visitors daily, filling up on the excellent German cuisine and enjoying the ambiance of "Little Bavaria," shops and all. Anyway (sorry for getting off-track) this table reminded me of something you'd see at The Bavarian Inn because of its intricately hand-carved legs. It also had a removable glass top, which was interesting, since one of the items I'd sold to the other woman who also bought my china cabinet was my oval table which too had a removable glass top which had doubled as a serving tray. To see another table with a glass top was really amazing. While the glass on this table was in pretty good shape, the the frame was scratched up. In order to make this look pretty again, I had to completely hand-sand the frame and re-stain it, then spray it with semi-gloss polyurethane. The results were amazing! I can't believe it's the same scratched frame she brought over.

Top Before

The table was another story entirely. It was pretty scratched up,

Top After

top and legs, but again, I was up for the challenge and began the tedious task of hand-sanding, a time-consuming job to be sure, but the only way to get the results to make this piece glow again. Once I had completed sanding, I carefully applied a walnut stain to the legs and cherry stain to the top. This table had at least three different types of wood. The top veneer sported a burled maple, which was gorgeous in addition to smaller bits of birch.

The end result was a table that was void of scratches that will last a long time. What an outstanding piece this turned out to be! So you be the judge: Bavarian or not?