Services

As of September of 2022 I have included the convenience for customers to pay for my services with the credit cards listed below when they pick up their repaired furniture. Those credit cards are: Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. Debit cards are not accepted.

While my workshop has gone through major refurbishments, I have not! I am no longer able to accept large pieces of furniture. Larger pieces are too heavy and bulky to contend with and space remains an issue.

1. Weaving for furniture seats, backs and panels: We provide press cane, fiber rush, binder cane and Sea grass or Hong Kong grass. Single strand weaving will continue but at a slower completion rate. As of Sept 2021 my sister Judi will begin taking on some of the caning tasks our brother Terry was doing.

2. Furniture repair: Antique and modern - Items on the list, but not exclusively, are chairs, rockers, bureaus, tables, stools, chests, wooden lamps, grandfather clocks, wooden toys, and more. We re-glue assemblies, reproduce missing pieces, and repair or rebuild damaged parts and refinish them as appropriate. As an update to this area of I will no longer agree to repairing furniture that has been subject to dry rot.

Just as an F.Y.I. the Victorian chair you see to the left and right is a task I would not do again. It was seriously dry-rotted and was a task I would not duplicate in the future. As nice as it looks finished, it is not very safe to sit in for a full sized adult. I did caution the customer that it should be used only as a show-piece, which it certainly is.

So, if you have anything in a similar condition you think can be repaired, know that I will not accept one that has extensive dry rotted components as the one shown here.

3. Furniture refinishing: We color-match lacquer, varnish, polyurethane, and shellac finishes. I try to avoid painting projects in general and you will find my fees for painting reflecting that policy. You can consider stripping your furniture yourself if you wish, but you might be better off having a professional do it for you, if you can find one. Older painted furniture often contains lead pigment which remains highly toxic forever and there are a myriad of laws regulating its removal and disposal. You can find out more about this area by looking online. Unfortunately, the sad part of this scenario is that folks are deciding to throw away furniture because they can't get it refinished. It's a shame actually. So much newer furniture is made from pressboard types of material which have little to no durability. Save as much of the older furniture as you can. Hardwood species are in minimal supply. Please note... As of 2022 I am only stripping small pieces of furniture in preparation for refinishing. All local craftsmen who used to strip furniture have gone out of business.

Send an email to me @ [email protected] if you have any questions that are not addressed on this site presently. You may send me photos of the furniture you need repaired by using the Contact Page on this site. It does make a cost estimate evaluation a little easier and quicker. The photos will also help me determine if your job is something I am able to undertake and when I might be able to get to it.
If you want to ask me questions about my business or your project, call me during work the hours of (8 to 5) @ (401) 932-4589

Another issue for you to consider is when you are asking me to repair and refinish an older piece of furniture, make sure I understand exactly what you want it to look like when I'm done. A while back I had a customer who needed a major repair to a rather beat up table top that had shrunk and one of the drop leaves replicated because the original was missing. I purchased the best hardwood maple boards available at the time and the finished product came out very nice. When the customer saw the table she was disappointed because it didn't come out looking old which is what she wanted but didn't explain to me at the time I took on the repair. I found out only after she came to pick up the table that was not what she wanted. I'm seldom asked to purposely make furniture look old. I had to strip it, sand it, and stress it and apply a wax finish to make it look old. Repairs to furniture are usually expensive because of constantly increasing prices of hardwood and dealing with the cost of doing business in the new COVID XXX environment.

My site also contains four DIY instruction sets for those wanting to try their hand at doing their own weaving. The 5 DIY sets are listed in the header. Feel free to email me with any part within the DIY that is confusing to you and I will make every attempt clarify it.

Recently I came across a fascinating YouTube channel that provides historic information about New England Forests and the history of the importance of the White Pine Tree to the settlers of the new world. I'm including a link to it here...
New England Forests 0 v
You can click on the link and peruse the selection for some wonderful information. If you are a woodworker and possess an inclination to appreciate the history of New England and its beginnings this is a channel worth watching.