Furniture Refinishing has been our signature service since I started this business in 1980. In the time since, we have steadily increased our knowledge base through 30 years of hands-on project experience and working with clients. We have also learned a great deal from attending advanced workshops at the National Institute of Wood Finishing and from our membership with the Professional Refinisher's Group.
Refinishing is the best solution for many of the cases that come to us. Most of
these items are in such poor condition or altered by paint or other previous
refinishing work such that stripping and replacement with an appropriate finish
is the only way to restore beauty and function to the piece.
Refinishing
furniture entails more to us than just stripping the wood, applying stain and
spraying lacquer. It starts with a
thorough inspection of the piece to understand what it requires to look great
and function as it should. An essential part of this process understands your
desires and expectation for the project.
An assessment
of repair work is essential before the refinishing takes place. Different situations call for different
methods or materials to be used. Quality
work involves the use of a broad range of professional coloring and finishing
materials, mostly unknown and unavailable at local home centers or paint
stores.
We can repair
wood parts and entire structures or fabricate new parts and structures as
needed. Broken chair parts can be
repaired or made new. Badly damaged
veneers can often be patched and glued down where loose, or we can reveneer or build
new veneer surfaces when needed.
A variety of
accessory services may be needed and these will be part of our written price
quotation. Hardware is cleaned and polished as needed or we can help you choose
replacement hardware that is appropriate.
We coordinate glass replacement and mirror resilvering or replacement as
needed. Chair caning and other types of seat weaving are available.
~
Our name is Macfee Refinishing, but we offer much more than refinishing. We want to be your resource for furniture care and restoration of all types- period.
To define what is entailed in “restoring” a finish is entirely subjective. My
personal view is that the word “restore” is an accurate general description of various solutions
we offer- and that includes stripping and finish replacement- but is not limited to that or to any one process. In fact we are finding more and more that each project seems to have unique requirements, and our menu of choices for solutions is becoming more broad. This is a good thing, but it does make it more difficult to describe what we can do in a brief outline.
We are constantly researching materials and techniques to further add to our knowledge base and improve quality. A prime example of this continuing effort in the last 10 years has produced a new menu of services and treatments we can offer to restore or improve older existing wood finishes that do not obviously need complete stripping and refinishing. Sometimes the existing surface has intrinsic value. More often there is personal historic value. Or, you may simply desire to clean and restore some luster to the piece that has faded over the years. Doing nothing can be an option, but in many cases when these pieces are being used, treatments are needed to prevent or limit further deterioration. We are finding a healthy and growing demand for this type of restoration treatment and we are pleased to offer alternatives to finish replacement
A good
friend of mine perfectly sums up the objective of this type of treatment- “Old.. but well cared for”