Summertime always hits us hard - people are vacationing and preparing for the next school year. A lot of people are moving as well, so business will pick up when the furniture is unwrapped and the damage found.
I would like to take this opportunity to give you a few tips to help protect YOUR furniture while you are away.
Before you leave make sure your water faucets are all totally turned off - you don't want to come back to a flood. This is not a really great idea for your wood to get saturated. (This applies to the washing machine as well - a big flood machine in its own right!) Remember - if you have water in the floor it can soak up into the legs of your wood furniture and create high water marks even if the water isn't that high. Also, especially for long vacations, make sure you plug the drains. If you are gone for a long period of time and the water evaporates out of the pipes you could come back to a house filled with gas fumes from the sewer. If you have a house sitter make sure they understand and are careful to turn off what they have turned on and close back what they have opened.
Check your furniture tops to make sure noone has left a drink on the wood finish. Coming back to a damaged table top would take some of the fun out of the great vacation you just had. Especially in humid climates water can condense on the outside of glasses and cups if there is moisture inside them and can create a water spot.
Unplug electrical appliances that are not necessary during your absence. It would ruin a vacation to come home to water AND fire damage due to an electrical problem. Remember - power surges can occur more often in the hot summertime due to spiking electrical demand for more air conditioning and refrigeration.
Please be safe in your travels and remember to watch out for the other guy. A good defense is the best offense while out on the road!
Is it wood.....
Lately our shop has encountered an issue that I think we need to discuss regarding that 'high dollar' furniture you just bought from the quality furniture company down the street.
When you buy furniture you are paying for whatever the salesman tells you are buying. This is not necessarily the furniture you get. You must do your research and due diligence BEFORE any money is exchanged.
On the market now is furniture that is not pure wood. Trust me on this, we have seen plenty of furniture that is sold as 'wood' that is not the real thing. Okay - technically it started out as real wood - but the form it ends up in your lovely table or dresser may not be what you believe it to be.
Let me explain by example. Yesterday we received a large dresser and headboard/footboard combination that had been in a fire and needed some slight repair and refinishing. The finish was a dark brown/black coating, and when we were surveying and estimating what the pieces needed the client was astonished - and a little upset - when we showed him the fact that under all the darkness of the finish the top of his dresser was actually pressed cardboard. According to the gentleman the furniture was sold as solid oak (with the price tag to match), but due to the heavy finish and the lack of knowledge on his part he did not get what he believed he had purchased. He was not particularly happy with this. Since the dresser was not really solid wood we could not strip and refinish the pieces and make them like the client had requested.
We also got a student desk that had a paper coating that was printed to look like wood, and the client also wanted a strip/refinish. Not possible. Under that paper is chopped/pressed wood held together with lots and lots of glue. The only real wood was the drawer fronts and the pine strips that held the desk together. The only viable option would be to cover with a quality paint.
People in the market for new furniture need to know what they are looking for. There are so many choices that I think the look is the most important thing to most people, not necessarily quality. If you are wanting something that will last a lifetime (and more) make sure you know what you are getting. Just because it is heavy it does not mean it is solid wood. Glue is heavy in large quantity too! If you need to call someone that works in wood in order to be a more knowledgable consumer, then do so. It will not only save you money in the long run, but it will also save you some embarrassment and shock when you find out that you've made a great mistake and will eventually have to replace what you thought would last forever!
When you buy furniture you are paying for whatever the salesman tells you are buying. This is not necessarily the furniture you get. You must do your research and due diligence BEFORE any money is exchanged.
On the market now is furniture that is not pure wood. Trust me on this, we have seen plenty of furniture that is sold as 'wood' that is not the real thing. Okay - technically it started out as real wood - but the form it ends up in your lovely table or dresser may not be what you believe it to be.
Let me explain by example. Yesterday we received a large dresser and headboard/footboard combination that had been in a fire and needed some slight repair and refinishing. The finish was a dark brown/black coating, and when we were surveying and estimating what the pieces needed the client was astonished - and a little upset - when we showed him the fact that under all the darkness of the finish the top of his dresser was actually pressed cardboard. According to the gentleman the furniture was sold as solid oak (with the price tag to match), but due to the heavy finish and the lack of knowledge on his part he did not get what he believed he had purchased. He was not particularly happy with this. Since the dresser was not really solid wood we could not strip and refinish the pieces and make them like the client had requested.
We also got a student desk that had a paper coating that was printed to look like wood, and the client also wanted a strip/refinish. Not possible. Under that paper is chopped/pressed wood held together with lots and lots of glue. The only real wood was the drawer fronts and the pine strips that held the desk together. The only viable option would be to cover with a quality paint.
People in the market for new furniture need to know what they are looking for. There are so many choices that I think the look is the most important thing to most people, not necessarily quality. If you are wanting something that will last a lifetime (and more) make sure you know what you are getting. Just because it is heavy it does not mean it is solid wood. Glue is heavy in large quantity too! If you need to call someone that works in wood in order to be a more knowledgable consumer, then do so. It will not only save you money in the long run, but it will also save you some embarrassment and shock when you find out that you've made a great mistake and will eventually have to replace what you thought would last forever!
Caning, Weaving, Spline and Other Such Nonsense!
Continuing on with the discussion of lost arts, let us talk seats and backs for a moment, shall we? I'm talking about the methods of seat and/or back replacements for chairs or settees that have been used for many, many years in the furniture world. It is an art form of a most practical nature - replacing the worn or broken (or in some cases disappeared altogether!) sitting parts with authentic, original styling of seat.
In our modern times many people who have inherited (or found in swap meets or flea markets) articles of sitting furniture that have grooves, holes, or just bars around the four corners may not realize what the original method of covering must have been. The next step they will take is normally to have a board cut and upholstered to complete the piece of furniture and make it functional.
To anyone who is familiar with the OTHER methods of seat replacement, this would seem like a disservice to the furniture and it's original design. But then, when was the last time you ever stumbled upon a caner or weaver in the business of replacing just this method of seat? They are very few and far between, but normally they are very busy at their handiwork. Making a chair authentic to its creator is their stock and trade, and it will usually take the keen eye of a professional to tell you what kind of seat was intended for the furniture piece - we have one of these artists who has been replacing all sorts of chair bottoms for 20 years!
In our modern times many people who have inherited (or found in swap meets or flea markets) articles of sitting furniture that have grooves, holes, or just bars around the four corners may not realize what the original method of covering must have been. The next step they will take is normally to have a board cut and upholstered to complete the piece of furniture and make it functional.
To anyone who is familiar with the OTHER methods of seat replacement, this would seem like a disservice to the furniture and it's original design. But then, when was the last time you ever stumbled upon a caner or weaver in the business of replacing just this method of seat? They are very few and far between, but normally they are very busy at their handiwork. Making a chair authentic to its creator is their stock and trade, and it will usually take the keen eye of a professional to tell you what kind of seat was intended for the furniture piece - we have one of these artists who has been replacing all sorts of chair bottoms for 20 years!
Furniture Restoration is Becoming a Lost Art
Repairing and refinishing are a large part of what we do at Hawg Country Furniture Restoration. One of the specialties we strive to accomplish is chair caning/rush/weaving. There are very few places left that have the ability and the know-how to bring back these chairs and rocking chairs to their original style and form. We can refinish the entire chair or just do the cane/rush replacement for your particular piece.
There are many, many of our old trades and professions that are becoming extinct due to the lack of knowledge being passed down from generation to generation. For whatever reason most people do not learn the jobs and gain the skills and knowledge that their parents and grandparents used to make life more comfortable. Perhaps it is because we have become such a disposable society that we no longer care for our possessions as our forebears did - or because of our excesses do we believe that there will always be more and cheaper merchandise for us to purchase? In the past people would work long and hard to be able to buy quality furniture, or the materials to make the furniture. Then they would preserve that furniture, by refinish or repair, so that it would last a lifetime or two. Quality furniture will do just that if properly maintained. (Our disposable society requires less quality in exchange for lower prices so replacement becomes the norm - instead of maintenance!)
In our business we would rather bring back the furniture piece with its history and family ties and stories instead of seeing these fantastic pieces destroyed and lost forever. We are losing enough of our history as time goes on and this is our effort to help those that follow to understand who they are and where they came from - and how those that came before them lived. Please try to save as much of your family history in furniture as you can - it may just come back into style!
There are many, many of our old trades and professions that are becoming extinct due to the lack of knowledge being passed down from generation to generation. For whatever reason most people do not learn the jobs and gain the skills and knowledge that their parents and grandparents used to make life more comfortable. Perhaps it is because we have become such a disposable society that we no longer care for our possessions as our forebears did - or because of our excesses do we believe that there will always be more and cheaper merchandise for us to purchase? In the past people would work long and hard to be able to buy quality furniture, or the materials to make the furniture. Then they would preserve that furniture, by refinish or repair, so that it would last a lifetime or two. Quality furniture will do just that if properly maintained. (Our disposable society requires less quality in exchange for lower prices so replacement becomes the norm - instead of maintenance!)
In our business we would rather bring back the furniture piece with its history and family ties and stories instead of seeing these fantastic pieces destroyed and lost forever. We are losing enough of our history as time goes on and this is our effort to help those that follow to understand who they are and where they came from - and how those that came before them lived. Please try to save as much of your family history in furniture as you can - it may just come back into style!
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