Furniture Making

About half of our work consists of designing and building new furniture. We can work from a drawing or photo you provide, duplicate an existing piece you may have or just contact us with an idea and we will design a piece for you. Typically, after listening to your ideas and requirements, we will provide a concept drawing for your consideration, listen to your questions and concerns and then modify the design until it fits your needs. We repeat this process until we get just what the customer desires.

Most of our pieces are made from select domestic hardwoods, although we also do quite a bit of veneer work. Joinery is chosen with strength as well as aesthetics in mind. All work, from milling of the rough sawn lumber to the final finishing, is done right here in our shop. We regularly build just about any type of furniture from an upholstered sofa to dining room furniture to church furniture to a period staircase. From the commonplace to the very unusual.

Restoration

We have restored just about any kind of furniture there is at one time or another. On antique pieces, I do believe in doing just as little or as much as is really needed to not only make the piece useful but to also preserve it for future generations in as original a condition as possible. We first examine the piece and determine just what has to be done. We evaluate the structural integrity of the construction; a chair that is going to be used must be strong. Mechanical components of a piece; worn drawer sides and runners are going to cause much more damage with future use. Loose veneer must be glued back down or it will be lost. And then there is the finish. Whenever possible we generally prefer to simply clean the surface, touch up scratches and apply a paste wax. The next level would be to restore the existing finish to the degree necessary. If a piece is in need of refinishing we remove the old finish by hand, simply clean the surface and apply a new finish that will replicate the old look as much as possible.

Upholstery

We offer a complete upholstery service. However, we do specialize in antique upholstery. We are proficient in the old style upholstery methods used in eighteenth and nineteenth century furniture. Stitched edges (sometimes referred to as a French edge or double stuffing on Victorean seats), piping and tufting using flax tow and curled hair padding. Many of these old techniques were used well into the twentieth century also, although on different styles of furniture.