This page includes some interesting, unusual and fun items of furniture and decor, items you are unlikely to see in a lifetime of looking. Because people are bringing things to us every day, we see things that most people will not. We share a selection of them with you here.
This rocker was in pieces, with parts missing, the most significant pictured to the right. The upholstered back with two holes at its bottom for the back slats arrived--without the slats and broken off at the elbows. We fabricated the slats and the pedestal. The slats are curved to match the curve of the back and of the seat. The pedestal was necessary to anchor the slats.
We also refinished this rocker.
The lion decoration was popular around 1900. Sitting on a chair with lions standing on each side was a privilege of ancient royalty. This rocker gave the man of the house the feeling of being the king in his castle.
After doing some research, the owner of this carousel reindeer drove over 400 miles to have us remove the paint before he gave it a new look. The paint was in great condition, as you can see. The antlers were genuine deer antlers but as the photo above reveals, one was missing when it came in. Replacing that antler would be another part of the owner's makeover of this beautiful beast.
This "Explorer Rocker" is another example of a furniture style popular in the early twentieth century. It had some obvious repair needs, which were the task assigned to us. You can see by the tangle of clamps that the re-gluing job had to be planned. The completed chair to the right shows that no touch up was done on the raw wood created in the process of repair. This customer felt competent to take care of that detail without assistance.
The image on the back looks like it could be Cortez or Ponce deLeon. A sticker under the chair indicates it was built in Grand Rapids. Half the sticker is worn off and there is little other helpful information left.
The Celtic Cross to the left and the Kneeling Bench to the right were both created by local woodworkers for their own use and enjoyment. However they each realized their limitations and once done forming these pieces, brought them to us for finishing.
Each owner designed and built these pieces himself. The execution of the design in both cases displayed a high degree of skill and attention to detail.
If you look closely you can see six dots on the flat knee rest. Those six dots are holes for screws inserted from underneath into a pad sitting on top of the board. The upholstered pad was attached by the owner after he took this piece home.
These two pieces are great reminders that we are all presented with a cross that is empty. A cross that meant the death of one but can mean life for all of us who look to him to bear our burden for us. If you are still trying to carry your own burden, give it up! When we release our burden to Jesus, he releases his life into ours and we discover what it means to truly live.
TOP OF PAGE
Now that you have seen what we have done for others, what can we do for you? CONTACTING AND FINDING US
This is one of the original Windsor style chairs dating from the second half of the 18th century. It was wobbly and needed strengthening for continued use by a descendent of its original owners. Wood expands and contracts seasonally. The back spindles are inserted into the back hoop through a hole passing all the way through the hoop allowing this dimensional change. However the through holes also become a point of weakness and you can see the crack in the hoop behind one spindle in the detail.
According to the stamp which you can faintly see in these photos, this is an "Empire Clothes Dryer," manufactured by the American Wringer Co. in New York. The trade mark symbol is a downward pointing horse shoe with the company initials pressed in the center of the shoe. What an ingenious solution this is!
This is an Asian sampler chest, exhibiting the incredibly precise work of some master artist skilled in marquetry. Our contribution was simply to replace the mesh in the middle left center window. The light colored cane gives our work away. It will amber with age to match the rest. The detail below gives a better idea of the intricate detail of this work.
This is a toddler chair made in Norway and painted in a Norwegian folk style. The detail and balance of the decorative work is impressive. The back leg was loose because a little section of wood had broken off at the back. You can see the unpainted section we added. The owner opted to use someone else to repaint it.
This is a quite small counter top swivel mirror, about 14" tall. The most impressive thing about it is what you see when you look into the glass. Something pretty awesome!
You have to have a certain love of the old craft of spinning to create a lamp base out of a miniature spinning wheel. We do love the imagination.
We wonder whether anyone reading this knows the special use this fairly plain metal box was designed for. Do you know? Anyone reading still use coal to heat your home? This box held a load of coal, perhaps a month's supply. The exterior metal surface had some issues. We evened out the appearance and applied a coat of clear paste wax.
This unusual corner chair is unusual because it was remade from a love seat or larger chair. In the two center photos above you can kind of make out the dowels from a previous cross piece that was removed when this was put together. Part of our task was to make that evidence disappear as we have done in the photo to the left.You can also see that both of these legs that were formerly without casters, now have a way to keep up with the one leg that had one coming in.
The above photos were taken inside with a flash and the the two photos here were taken outside without a flash. We did work on all the wood surfaces to give them an even luster but did not change the color as much as it appears. We used a gilding paste to add a little glitter and gloss. One interesting thing about this chair is that all four sides are different. It is very rare that a furniture item has so little symmetry. There is a reason for that which we disclose to the right.
You never know what you might find under a coat of paint. Inside the narrow partitioned sections at the bottom, you can still see some of the blue paint we struggled to remove. With the paint removed, the name and date were suddenly present. The recessing was very slight and the blackening very faint. We re-blackened the letters and numbers to show more clearly. All the light colored wood you see is replaced. Only two of the five finials arrived. We turned the others and mounted them. By the way, this was about 100 years old when we worked on it. We have no idea what use this was designed for. Do you?