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Furniture restoration
Visual inspection of the furniture
This allows us to plan the various restoration phases and the main difficulties we might encounter (drawer slides, missing veneer, etc.)
Choice of materials and techniques to be used during the restoration
This step must include: the choice of veneer depending on the style and period. It is useful to know that when restoring a piece of Louis XV style or period furniture, the woods most often employed are oak, cherry, walnut, chestnut and olive for furniture frames, and mahogany, rosewood, kingwood, palissander and purpleheart for veneers (in 10/10 mm and 12/10 mm for the thickness of the veneers) but also the choice of wood for solid pieces of furniture.
Gluing of the structure and repair of solid parts
After carefully inspecting your piece of furniture, we clean and glue defective assemblies, repair mortise and tenon joints and replace parts with excessive wear (e.g. bottoms of legs, uprights on chests of drawers and wardrobes, etc.).
Repair of veneers
Any missing veneer is replaced by a piece of the same species of wood, matching the wood grain whenever possible. Swollen areas (or blisters) are slit open then reglued.
Stripping and sanding
Over time, and under the effect of the sun and the moon, wood becomes discoloured, yellows or whitens. Stripping restores the original colours of the furniture, which we then sand lightly so as not to affect the natural patina of the wood.
Interior and exterior finish
The finish is determined firstly by the customer's wish, but also by the style or period of the furniture. A waxed varnish will generally be applied on solid furniture, while an oil varnish or French polish will be applied on marquetry furniture. The inside of the furniture is vacuumed then cleaned with alcohol for a perfect finish.
Materials used
Bronzes
Once removed from the piece of furniture, they are cleaned then varnished to delay reoxidation before being refitted. If a bronze is missing, it will be remade identically.
Hardware
Locks, hinges, leys and other hardware are kept and repaired. Missing keys are recut, respecting the style and period.
Glues
Fish glue, hot glue (bone + rabbit skin glue heated in water bath), epoxy glue for breaks.
Miscellaneous
With a vacuum press, we can veneer all surfaces, whether convex or concave. We also work with plaster, latex, alginates, gilding wax, etc |
