Matthews & Son Restoration - Blog

Walnut Doors – French Polished

matthewsrestoration — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:12:45 +0000

In early September one of our biggest clients asked to French polish 15 doors for his new house. The doors were made from American walnut and came into us in in their natural state and we set about staining, sealing and polishing them to that perfect French polish shine.

The French Polishing of a Handrail

matthewsrestoration — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:02:09 +0000

Its been a while since I blogged, but since the last blog in February there’s barely been a chance. The company seems to be growing and growing everyday.

One of our latest projects has been to French polish a hand rail, the hand rail was fitted from New wood and it was our job to, French polish to a high standard to match the colour of the doors we had previously Polished (see in next blog).

Restoration of Atrium and Staircase

matthewsrestoration — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:54:27 +0000

This was part of a project that we carried out a few years ago and were asked by the owners to give the wood work a revive. The atrium is exsposed to a fair amount of sun light so the wood had become quite dry and faded. The original finish was limed oak. After a drop more lime and a coat of sealer we managed to bring the wood back to a more acceptable finish which should last for a few more years. We can restore your old staircase to its former glory or polish your newly fitted ones. In the next few weeks I will be working on an oak staircase fitted from new . Please look at our blog for more updates.

Stripping and Recovering a Dining Room Chair

matthewsrestoration — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 06:59:28 +0000

With staff holidays August has been a long month! This month however we were back to dining chairs. A set of 12 for a client in Paris. This time rather than the usual glue and revive, it was a Strip, Recover and Re-polish. These particular chairs were covered in a heavy red varnish, with a gilt high lighting the carvings.

You may be asking yourself why would someone would want these chairs stripped and recovered? well its purely preferring the traditional french polish. First the varnish was stripped off along with the fabric. We then went on to stain them to the sample we were given and Frenched polish them to a high standard. Finally they were recovered in the customers choice of a Rouge fabric with scroll gimp to finish them off. (scroll gimp not inclued in picture)

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Antique Rosewood Dining Room Chairs (set of 6)

matthewsrestoration — Fri, 01 May 2009 07:31:22 +0000

This week project was a lovely set of 6 rosewood dining room chairs. However the chair material was worn and the webbing had started to go. Some of the chairs joints were also becoming loose so we had to strip these chairs back to the bare frame in order to repair.

After the chairs were re glued the upholstery was put back using new webbing and hessian, but keeping the original stuffing. The customer supplied their own material and braid.

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The Art of Wood Turning

matthewsrestoration — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:08:57 +0000

Beech & Elm Smokers bow elbow chair circa 1860

We were recently asked to restore the above chair. Generally all the joints were loose and the the chair was quite unsafe to use, but the main fault of the chair was a turned spindle upright support from the arm rest was missing. First of all we had to select the right piece of timber, in this case it was beech. As far as wood turning goes this was fairly straight forward,however there was still about a hours turning to be done. There is a difference in wood turning skills, for the amature or for someone who has just started out in wood turning, the tendency is to knock the wood off in chippings and sometimes can be quite dusty. As you get more experienced you can pair the wood off taking a shaving with the turning chisel, this will give you a much better finish and if your are really good no sanding is required to finish off, a sharp chisel helps!!

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The Re-Upholstery of a Wing Chair

matthewsrestoration — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:42:54 +0000

We were recently asked to re-upholster this elagant wing chair, the cushion had lost its firmness and needed replacing. It had also become worn on the arms and a little shabby all round.

When we are asked to recover a chair like this, we can offer the customer our fine and wide range of top quality fabrics to choose from.We also offer the customer a chance to take our Patten books home, to get a real feel of which fabric suits your home best. The fabric usally arrives within 2-3 working days and conforms to the latest fire regulations, in the mean time your chair will be stripped out and prepared ready for re-covering.In the next week or so we will show you the finished piece.

Finished Wing Chair

This picture shows the wing chair completed. The customer choose a lovely weave from The Linewood fabric company at £ 52.00 per metre. A chair this size normally takes around 6 metres of fabric, including arm caps.

Dining Chair Restoration

matthewsrestoration — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:25:27 +0000

Broken dining chairs or dining chairs with rickety joints are a common problem there are two types of joints used in chairs dowls or a tenon joint (see photos). Generally most chairs can be repaired at a reasonable cost providing they haven’t previously bodged up with nails or screws which will normally destroy the joints and can be unsightly. where necessary we would replace the dowls or broken tenons clean off all the old glue, re-glue and then clamp. Giving the chair its original strength and making it usable again.

Tenon Joint Dowl Joint

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Cylinder Roll Top Desk

matthewsrestoration — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:34:24 +0000

Over 30 years of furniture restoration its not often you get jobs like this one, which is why I’ve decided to use this piece for my blog this week. The cylinder top of Mr Jagers Desk had jammed shut. So we brought it into the workshop to take a closer look. We removed the back and soon realised the problem. The wood had simply warped with age and with the top operating on metal hinge’s these had also began to rust. Furniture restoration can be a problematic business at times because when wood has warped as badly as this there is very little you can do. We started by spraying the metal hinge’s with WD40, which straight away sligthly freed the top. We then went onto waxing the runners. Just by doing these 2 things, the cylinder tops movement has improved 100%. Mr Jager also requested we striped and french polished the top to bring back the colour and remove some water marks. All in all the work turned out more than satisfactory and the client was very happy to have his desk back in working order.

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As Good As New – Walnut Panelling

matthewsrestoration — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:10:08 +0000

This week i have been working on restoring a big walnut panelled living room. Ms Costaine’s living room needed a revive to bring back the rich colour the walnut panelling once had. This job followed on from a lovely china cabinet i restored late last year for her. After some years, walnut panelling can become faded,dull and not great on the eye. So it was a wonderful opportunity for me to have the chance to bring Ms Costaines beautifully walnut panelled living room back to life. It was one of those really rewarding jobs for me and i look forward to working with Ms Costaine in the future.

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