Did you save some furniture today?

Happy New Year!

Yeah, I have been out of the blogging loop for the last couple of months. Hell let’s call it like it’s been, a year. 2008 was crazy work as we welcomed my son Kooper into the world (AKA“the Chairboy”).

Just an up and down year in the shop with the economy slowly going down the drain but we survived and are stronger for it. With the economy the way “they say” it is, it’s even more of a reason to restore your furniture and save some money. Even buy used furniture or an Antique and restore it. At the end of the day you’ll have a like new used unique piece that is better quality and cost less than anything you’ll buy new. Check out these pieces below that I am selling.

Here is a great example of a used furniture score. Six solid mahogany shieldback chairs, what a deal. They have fantastic needle point seats and carved detail on the backs. They will however need to be restored.

her is the deal I offer on restoration projects in my shop..

They will cost $175 each refinished and $85 each for the seat redo. The only other cost could be for new fabric if the new owner isn’t into needlepoint. Bottom line, the cost would be $260 each for chairs that would retail at $400 or $500 each. That’s reusing and recycling baby!

Here is another great side of the road score. Yeah, the chairman can’t just drive by. He’s saving one piece of furniture at a time! Again recycling and keeping another piece out of our landfills.
This leads into what’s new for the Chairman in 2009! I will be offering environmentally friendly restoration options, safe non-chemical stripper as well as finishing with no or low VOC finishes. We have finally found some water based finishes that work! Also some fantastic oil and wax fishes that rock!
This roadside table was stripped with an eco-friendly stripper and finished with an oil and wax finish! For more info shoot me an email or leave a comment.

See ya next time.. save some furniture folks!

The Chairman Update

Howdy kids !
Yep it’s the Chairman, guy , dude. I am back for what I am hoping this will be a semi long haul!
Things have changed since I last Blogged baby..
I will Give you a quick Hits list !!

1) Meyersville developer update, It appears the developer has backed off for now. We believe he is waiting for the dust to settle (people to forget), as well as waiting for the Master plan changes to see if it will benefit him.
I started a low key campaign to create a park on two properties that are for sale, but have not been purchased by the developer. The park is a great idea the rub is trying to get the town to buy it. I will update the blog about this as wee move on..

2) The biggest news ! On 4/27/07 The Chairman got hitched .. He was married in Maryland, at The Gramercy Mansion . The Gramercy had wonderful Antique all around the building. It was the perfect night, everything went off without a hitch. We headed to Costa Rica for the honey moon that was incredible, if you haven’t been you need to go !










3) Work since the wedding has been insane I need to update picture & information. I will hopfully get this all done this week. I have some really great pieces to be restored in the shop. If you go to the feeds on the right of this page you can go to my Flickr account for Wedding, Costa Rica and work pictures.

Chairman & Bride in Costa Rica!








That's a quickly update.. Check out my website http://www.chairmanrestoration.com/ ALso the photos on the right.

Cheers
Chairguy.

“I want them to look like this”, she said!

“I want them to look like this”, she said! As she showed me a page she had yanked out of Better Homes & Garden.

Trends from magazines & doing requests… I love it all… bring it on. This was the other job this week, a trendy yet stylish number on an old set of plank seat chairs. It was romance from the get-go, a song & dance, a wine & diner. Phone calls, emails, drive bys. It never happens on the first time (getting the job). It’s hard for folks to change something, so sometimes you have to walk them through it, do a little hand holding.

These chairs have been in her family for years. They had two or three layers of paint of for each generation. When we stripped them we saw anything from that 1920’s green to the dark blues of the 1940’s/50’s to the 80’s greens of the 80’s & finally just black for the last 20 years... Needless to say they were a bear to strip. I won’t even go into striping them, it's still a little traumatic for me & more so for my Uumpa Llumpa.

Having to wine & dine a job is not usual. After seeing so many pieces of furniture transformed over the years. I forget that most folks can’t see beyond what a piece is right here & now. They can’t see its potential future or what it can could become. That’s why so many pieces are lost to the dumpster or landfill. It’s easy for someone to just toss it & buy a new one, god for bid they think about.

Here is a quick funny tail from the shop. I jumped in my truck one morning to run to the store. Its garbage pick up that day. I drive by a house & spot a small table. I stop and look, it’s a sexy little Victorian era side table, long turned legs with a turtle shaped top. It ends up one of the legs is broken, but all the pieces are there. It’s an easy fix, so I grab it. Being a good OCD’er I bring it back to my shop & fix it that day, I polished it up ( it looked beautiful). So I popped it in my shop for sale.

Not more then a 4 days later a guy stops into my shop. I realize this is the guy from the house that I got the table from (cross eyed). He says; I am looking for a small table to replace one that was broken!
Being a good wise ass, I say I think I may have one for you… We walked into my make shift show room and I show him the table. I say I think you threw this out on Tuesday and , Hhe’s says yeah I had broken it. I tell him I would be happy to give it to him for the repair cost (much less then the resale price). He gets all funny, I think really embarrassed that he didn’t get it fixed himself. He then goes I never liked that table… keep it. Then he departed with out the table...

BACK to the blue chairs we glued and & we stripped. Next, We sanded and filled. The nice thing about a repaint is you don’t have to do as much detail work, especially since it’s an “antiqued” look. Doing an antiqued/distressed finish, you want all the dents & dings and some of the rough edges all that equals character & that what we're looking for.

The color, this was funny. When she said we decided on spa blue I thought to myself, sweet baby hey-zues what did I get myself into. Then I saw the picture & it made sense. So spa blue it was !

I decided to do a rag it on & wipe it off, approach (karate kid style)to the staining/painting of the chairs; Oh and a little dry brushing to temp the blend (love saying that), It’s the perfect way to create all the different depths in that antiqued finish. When you “wipe off” I use a damp paper towel & work the areas that would have been worn over the years. The seat, center & edges and the back spindles & side edges and don’t forget the front spindle (pictured) That always has the best ware. After the paint dries I usually hit all the sharp edges with 320 wet/dry sand paper doing so that we can quickly expose the natural wood.

Finishing... On this kind of finish I think it’s very important to throw a clear coat or two to protect the antiqued finish, it also guarantee’s it will last for a good long time. I like to go with a quick coat of a shellac sanding sealer (best over paint), then a couple of coats of satin lacquer. Please do a quick sanding between coats (400grat wet/dry), the 10 minutes it takes will make all the difference in the look & feel of the piece.

After they’ve dried for about 12+ hours, we take superfine steel wool (0000) & a very soapy mix of water then rub the chairs down & dry them off. This smoothes the finish out & gets rid of any over spray.

~Chairman

The Original Chairman & Chairboy

The Origanl Chairman & chairboy
Originally uploaded by chairguy.

Welcome !

This is the beginning or the end, depending on if I keep up with my plan.

Ah yes the plan.. What could I guy with a name like the "The Chairman" have to say or write about..

Lots baby lots.

I can ramble, bitch & moan with the best.. I have all the bridge burning, hand grenade throwing stories that a 37 year old can expect to have.. Yeah yeah yeah

Come on that's not really why I am here. Much like the picture on the right this is the beginning of a new chapter for me. Yep, That's me & the original Chairman (my old man) back in the early 80's . Back then I was the chairboy the reluctant helper, hating every time my father yelled come on your going me. That always meant I would be doing so form of labor ,whether it was packing boxes or loading a truck with the contents of a house we had just bought.

Don't get me wrong i loved it ! From an early age I learned how to haggle & do the antique dealer shuffle.. Buy cheap & sell high.. Like my father always said "you gotta hustle kid" or "Double your money or don't bother". My favorite was "I am always thinking" (he'd tap his head) were the next buck was coming from".

Oh wait ,yeah, so the plan, my angle, my reason for this blog.( i get side tracked easily) Aside from driving readers crazy with my poor spelling, grammar & punctuation I am just here to help !

I am looking to blog about the work i do, show folks its pretty easy to restore a piece of furniture or do a simple repair to a chair. So if I stick with my plan I should have weekly updates of pieces I am working on as well as some pictures. I will also be happy to answer any one's questions about Antique & furniture repair/restoration. So if you have any question please let me know..

No worries I will be sure to post random & wacky stories about my customers. Like the time one told me she knew the differences in colors (jersey accent), because she was a hair colorist ! I may also brag about the chair you tossed out on the curb, that made me a quick 200 bucks.. see not much to blog about..

~Chairman