Bringing back the beauty of old furniture

Hi, and thank you for visiting this blog. I have decided that I would like to share with you some of what I have learnt over the past 35 years dealing with the restoration and re polishing of antique furniture. Over the following weeks I hope to share with you many aspects of the furniture restoration industry including buying, fixing and polishing old furniture. For a more in depth view of what we do at riverside restorations  please visit our main site at  Cornwall Furniture Restoration

Cleaning and re baizing a rosewood card table

This early nineteenth century rosewood card table was purchased in very good condition, except for some minor blemishes around the base. Unfortunately the baize was the worse for wear and needed to be replaced. Deep blue baize goes well with rosewood. After minor repairs the table was then lightly cleaned and re polished and finally waxed

Restoration of antique Windsor chair

An old chair repair

This early nineteenth century Windsor chair had suffered much damage to the extent that the back arm joint had been severely weakened ,resulting in this somewhat basic repair probably carried out about 50 years ago.After dismantling the old repair ans cleaning, the joint was repaired by sandwiching the horizontal wooden rail between two metal plates. The repair was then filled and coloured in as you can see in the image.

The chair after restoration

Restoring a country chair

This late nineteenth century elm and beech chair is one of a set of eight, and although it is not one of my favourite styles, this chair is very comfortable to sit in. It has had a very rough life and has been restored quite severely. The loose joints had been fixed with nails which caused problems when dissassembling the frame. There is also some signs of worm. After taking the joints apart the old glue was cleaned off before reassembling and gluing cramping. The chair was then treated for worm and cleaned down using some mild solvent. The chair areas was then stained and  given a thin coat of french polish. Finally the chair was rubbed down and waxed.

Repairing an Edwardian clock case

This image on the left shows the concave side of an Edwardian figured oak mantle clock. It had lost some veneer and had to be restored and re polished. The difficulty was in getting the right shade of colour so natural pigments had to be used. Below is the clock side after repairing and colouring in. There was also a fleck in the grain that had to be simulated.

Restoration of 18th Century corner cupboard

This unrestored late 18th century corner cupboard on the left is made from oak, having a mahogany cross banding. There were several pieces of molding that were missing as well as loose veneers. After restoration the whole cupboard  had to be cleaned and polished, finishing off with fine wire wool and wax. A key was then made for the lock and the brass ware cleaned. For more polishing information visit our website
French polishing

Restoring a pair of chairs

This attractive pair of fruit wood chairs had spent several years in a barn . They had to be fully treated before re gluing the frames and repairing. The chairs were then cleaned and polished, finishing off with wire wool and wax.

Restoring an Edwardian inlaid chair

This was a very challenging and rewarding project. This beautiful Edwardian armchair is inlaid with bone and boxwood. The inlay was starting to lift in several places and had to be glued back. Also some of the joints were loose. Once the frame had been repaired the chair had to be cleaned and polished. Finally the seat had to be reupholstered. This involved taking off all the old stuffing and webbing. The chair was then re webbed and the stuffing reworked and covered with calico.The seat was then finished off with a really nice covering. The Edwardian cabinetmakers produced some really fine furniture and this chair is a good example.

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