Wood Refinishing Process

Furniture refinishing and wood restoration has always been popular. Antique furniture - dining table sets, bedroom furniture sets etc have always been trendy. Modern minimalism designers use wooden furniture everywhere, nowadays it is even more fashionable as the designers use rough wooden materials, like solid wood with raw edges or make the wooden furniture distressed. In order to maintain the wooden furniture in shape and good looking, we should do refinishing or restoration from time to time, especially if it is outdoor furniture. 

The first question after pricing many people ask what the process is and how does it work! 

Pricing. We usually ask our clients to send us a photo of the furniture, for example, if it is the table we need the picture of the whole table not a close up of a dent. When we get the picture, we can see how difficult the table is, how it is constructed, shaped, if it has curves and ornaments, what are the legs, how heavy it is. That is why when some clients send us the picture of a dent we cannot quote them as we don’t understand what they have. Once we get the picture and idea of that table or any other furniture we give a quote. 

After picking up the furniture the process begins. Our craftsmen sand down all the dents, cracks uneven spots till the wood is even and beautiful. If the wood needs repairing we do that, in some cases we use raisin or glue ( if it is minor), in the other we may replace a certain piece of wood.

 We never use nasty chemicals to remove the old stain, that spoils wood of the furniture a lot. If a chair or legs of the table are with an ornament or curves - we use a special tool or sanding in manually. Antique furniture is famous for its ornament, very often we sand it down with our own hands, it takes much longer time and as a result is much more expensive. 

After sanding and repairing the wood, we cover the furniture with stain (in some cases with oil, depending on the client's preferances) and put several layers of polish. In some cases, we may do five coats of varnish, in the other - ten. Usually, our masters see during the process how many they need to apply in order to make it beautiful. 

The process is not easy and fast, it takes time, patience and skill. While refinishing there are a lot of details that need to be taken into account. Some people consider it easy and start doing it by themselves as a result they may spoil the furniture to the point that it is irreversible or the whole part of the table needs to be replaced. If you feel you know little about the wood and how to work with it is better if you leave it to the professional. For further assistance do not hesitate to contact us +1(650)580-3897 or send an email to marina@marinascrafts.com.