Vintage Chairs and Its Trends

One of the best things about owning wood furniture is that it can always be refinished. No matter how old a piece looks or how damaged it is, having a piece of wood furniture refinished can literally cut years, maybe even decades off the appearance.

But just as with any process that involves restoring something old to look new, there will always be steps and procedures that must be followed to ensure that the furniture is getting only what it needs.

Dean Camenares is the owner of East End Wood Strippers in Holbrook, NY, a family-owned business since 1959. He is an expert woodwork restoration specialist who has more than 20 years experience. Like most experts, Camenares is a strong advocate for making sure that the furniture you are about to refinish actually needs to be refinished.

"I think the first thing you have to do is determine if it is just a regular run-of-the-mill chair that has been in the family for 50 years or whether the finish on it is sound or not," Camenares said. "That might lead you to refurbish it rather than refinish it. I will tell you what that means by determining how it sounds. It means that the finish is not flaking, cracking, or the wood is not discolored."

Also, Camenares suggests checking the status of the furniture that is being refinished. If the chair is an antique, having it refinished can dramatically reduce the value of the chair. But, if it is just an old chair that has been around the house for 30 years, a good refinishing might be exactly what it needs. Just be sure that you are not removing the original finish of an antique.

"So, if you like the color that it has, but you kind of just want to revive it, you do not need to strip it," Camenares said. "You can use solvents that just clean the surface without softening the existing finish."

"There are two classes of solvents: one would be a mineral spirits that knaps the solvent and the other would be a water-based solvent, kind of like a detergent or wax," Camenares added. "That pretty much covers the gambit of what you can use to clean off the surface of the finish, without taking it off, and without softening the finish."

"So if you want to do that, you test some areas first to see what kind of response you get by doing what you want," he said. "Go ahead and clean it and see what you have. You might have to do some touch-ups of color, if they are mixed. You could buy furniture touch-up crayons and touch-up magic markers to add a little color where it might need it. You can just go ahead and re-coat the finish."

"Most of all finishes are probably either shellac or varnish, possibly lacquer depending on how old the chair is," Camenares said. "But in any case, you could pretty much re-coat it with any common coating material that is available like a whiting varnish or Tung oil varnish. The idea there is after you clean it, clear the surface. Do any color touch-ups to refresh the finish, and bring back some sheen to it. That is probably an easier and simpler method of helping to restore old wood with clear finishes."