Furniture Refinishing by Tom

Furniture Refinishing by Tom

123 Tomagene Drive Bourbonnais, Illinois 60914
815-933-9857

Welcome, thanks for stopping by!
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Please take a moment to see who I am, what I do, how I can restore your wooden furniture to its former glory, and check out some the my recent projects.

About my Business
My focus now is on the restoration of wooden furniture, tables, chairs, desks, dressers, case pieces, mirrors, shelves, and pretty much anything else made of wood. I remove layers of paint, repair or replace broken or missing pieces, glue up, sand, stain, then finish coat. I do all of this work on my own, so I can control the quality, in my very modest shop.
Just this year I added two new processes. I can now re-cane pieces using either pre woven cane or by hand caning and I can replace fiber rush seating.

How I can restore your wooden furniture to its former glory
I do all my work by appointment only. Please call, and I will be happy to come out and give you a free estimate.
815-933-9857

About me
I have been repairing and restoring wooden furniture as a hobby of sorts for some time now. Mostly, for the cost of materials only, I have been restoring and refinishing furniture for family and friends as much as my busy schedule would allow.
Last year I had had enough of corporate politics, long commutes, layoffs, closings, mergers, acquisitions, and bad bosses. But, the biggest reason for leaving my previous profession was that I created nothing of any real value! You see, I used to "fix" computers, design and write computer software.

I come from a long line of craftsman. My grandfather, father, and uncle where all skilled craftsman. I also interned and held several positions at Kroehler manufacturing.

                                                           Currently in the shop

    01/28/2004

I am currently working on a 8 piece dining room set for a client. Included in the project are 6 chairs, a table, and a sideboard with hutch. At the moment I am working on the chairs. The chairs are solid maple, sturdy, a little sun faded, with heavy wear in the usual places. For this project I used three different strippers so I could compare results. I will post my conclusions later. I was pleased to find that the backs of the chairs were done in birds eye maple.

project progress images

before, stripper application, ready for color(1,2) , checked seat, missing stretcher(repaired), loose peg,
birds eye back
.

Some of my recent projects

Ladder back chairs I found these at an antique mall. They where all beat up and the rush seats were destroyed. I removed the old finish, sanded, stained, top coated then wove new seats. There are 4 of them, and they are for sale.

Player piano            I did this for a client, they bought it, had it moved to my shop, then I removed the old finish, sanded, repaired broken panels, removed cigarette burns, dyed, stained, top coated, and replaced the brass hardware.

Drop leaf table        The table was badly sun faded, and the client wanted the color changed. I removed the old finish, sanded, dyed, stained and top coated.

Piano bench           refinished to match the piano, the inside lid had a surprise, figured maple veneer.

Dining room table   This table came to me with a top where the finish had rubbed off near the edges and the varnish had been melted to a big wavy puddle. I removed the old finish, sanded, stained and top coated.

Captain Chairs        These came to me with the finish in bad shape (worn and gummy), and the cane backs needed replacing. I removed the topcoat, applied a toner to the finish to even the color, installed new pre woven cane, colored the cane to match clients wallpaper, then top coated.

Bed side chest        This came to me covered in many layers of paint and a drawer front made of pine. I removed the old finish, sanded, fabricated a new drawer front, stained and top coated.

Child's desk chair This came to me covered in many layers of paint. I removed the old finish, sanded, left the maple its natural color, top coated, then wove a new rush seat.

Oak Rocker             This came to me with both rockers broken in two, the veneer seat had a hole in it, and the entire piece was covered in several runny coats of polyurethane. I removed the old finish, sanded, installed new rockers, re-veneered the seat, stained and top coated.

Mahogany Chair            This came to me with a broken back side rail, a piece of plywood covering the hole where the cane used to be and covered with a dark brown almost black stain and varnish. I removed the old finish, repaired the broken back side rail, applied a transparent walnut stain, then hand wove a new cane insert. Finally I applied 3 coats of lacquer.

Blue side chair                This came to me mostly as you see it here except that the cane insert was missing. I installed new cane using pre woven cane and new spline. Finally I cleaned the chair to remove years of grime, and applied 1 coat of satin lacquer to brighten the finish.