Adored and Restored

Restoration provides a chance to recover a neglected , forgotten piece of furniture.

Or improve or alter the function of a piece of furniture for eg, modify a table for its new surrounds, repolish a chair to give it new life -or to match its decor

The options are endless when it comes to restoration , using existing furniture and turning it into something wonderful is a fabulous concept that assists in minimising our ever growing throw away mentality as well as honing in on sentimental value.

Restoring a piece of furntiure that holds sentimental value , making those precious child hood memories come alive is one of the best things we can do for ourselves .

Restoration provides us the restorer with so much satisfaction as well; from hearing the back story of a piece, feeling the depth of its sentimental worth and then repairing , restoring , repolishing that piece of furniture, knowing that its journey is not over, we are just providing the tools for its longevity.

And when the work is complete, seeing the joy and happiness from our clients’ makes it all the worthwhile.

Our lovey Japanese Low table has been beautifully restored

Kitchen pine chair looks amazing after we removed the old existing paint

this 1940’s typewriter cover bought over from Hamburg has been in the family since then and is now ready to hand over to the next generation

Just a few of the beautiful pieces that we are thrilled to be able to restore

#lovewhatwedo

Restoring Heirlooms

The past month we have been restoring some beautiful pieces of furniture for our clients …

Perhaps one of our favourite pieces has included this beautiful inlay treasure box.

Beauty in the detail

Dated from the 1900’s this gorgeous box comes with history and character.

Our Client was wanting to pass it to her grandson and wanted it restored back to its former glory.

So we happily obliged

before restoration

beautiful finished results

After carefully repairing the veneers and the mother of pearl, Stuart applied a new lining (whilst keeping the original underneath for posterity) and polished to a bring out the gorgeous detail in the inlay

The details in this box are just exquisite

Projects like these give us so much joy, where we are able to help a family carry on their traditions and heirlooms

#lovewhatwedo

Restoring a Boardroom table

We always take delight in restoring a part of yesteryear and restoring a Cedar Boardroom table circa 1970 crafted by the renowned maker Robert Dunlop ( 1925 - 2014 ) was certainly an honour.

This elegant boardroom table made for an innercity Brisbane School, has certainly seen many student and teacher meetings.

It was in dire need of repairs, repolishing and in particular the Emblem a fragile work of veneers was starting to crumble and needed some intricate repairs.

Restoration needed for the school emblem

Boardroom table pior to its makeover

Extensive repair work on the veneers and emblem was undertaken by Stuart.

The table was then sanded and many applications of finish were applied to bring this wonderful part of history back to its original glory

A beautiful finished products

The delivered and restored boardroom table

Art Deco Furniture then and now

What are your images, thoughts of the 1920’s ?

The Great Gatsby , Speakeasies, jazz music comes instantly to mind.

The world was celebrating peace and freedom after World War 1 and technology (but not as we now know it ) was forging ahead.

Automobiles were becoming more common, and movies were mass entertainment in the devleoped world.

This started as a boom era in which people were intent on living for the now, throwing convention to the wind and opening the way for new ideas and inventions.

Art Deco is the term for this fashionable style that dominated between the two world wars, Art Deco influenced many spheres of life from art, architecture, fashion and sculpture to furniture design.

The impact Art Deco has left is monumental in architecture alone. In Queensland , the State Government Insurance Building in Brisbane and the Charleville Town Halls are perfect testamony to these, just as the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building are iconic symbols in the USA.

Jazz Moderne as Art Deco was also known as the dominant style of the 1920’s and 1930’s.

It became known as Art Deco in the 1960’s when a British Art Critic took the name from the 1925

L’Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris.

The Style was developed in France by over 250 craftman including Jacques_Emile Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand and Rene Lalique. The strong Paris influence led the “machine age aesthetic”in which the flowing floral motifsof Art Noveau were replaced by streamlined geometrical designs, that expressed the efficiency of modern technology.

Excitement over this new French Style was quickly emulated in Italy, Britian other European countries and North America.

Art Deco designers used stepped forms, rounded corners, striped decorative elements and experimented with industrial materials such as metal, plastic as well as the more unusual sharks skin.

The favoured stylish colours of purple, mauve, peach and grey were used to enhance the new sophisticated design.

Experimenting with industrial design elements was a constant in the Art Deco period.

Decorative glass had a formative role in products such as cabinet doors and homes with heavy timbers lightened by the use of glass, were stylised with sunbursts, foliage and various flower species.

Another aspect of Art Deco which is essential in todays design elements is multipurpose design; the original Art Deco furniture was true to their geometric and sleek design and were highly functional as well as representing elegant simplicity.

Think of a headboard with incorporated bed side tables or side cupboards with a lamp stand or cigrette holder doubling as a coffee /occasional table.

The not so humble cocktail cabinet; borne from that wonderful pasttime; the cocktail party , was devleoped to house essential items for a maritini as well as accommodating a gramaphone to play the latest Josephine Baker. Multipurposing at its best.

We have restored many and varied pieces from this era

From the humble occasional table , to the essential vanity unit to the more complex gramaphone , these pieces were carefully and faithfully restored to bring out the best of that era ,as well as using modern practices to ensure they will go on for many more decades

Clients often request design characterstics from this period as well using the crisp symmetrical forms from this era to using timbers reminiscent of this era including birds eye maple . With subtle additions of plain frosted glass instead of the more colourful glass originals the Art Deco mood is enhanced whilst giving each furniture item its own personality .

One of our favourite era’s we relish the opportunity to restore or create pieces of furniture that are reminiscent of this wonderful age, when things were a little simpler.

Restoring the glory Art Deco multi purpose sidetable

Carefully restored Dressing table with accompanying stool

Simple curved lines with an Art Deco aesthetic for this stunining kitchen cabinet

Beautifully designed and made by Stuart this Art Deco Inspired entertainment unit is a crowd pleaser

A little restoration project ...

We love our restoration projects.

There is so much satisfaction in repairing and restoring a piece of history, someone’s past, someone’s heirloom.

A forgotten household item now becomes the star of the living room.

It becomes a talking point.

It becomes a loved functional piece of furniture again and it goes without saying that in this mass produced era, its kind of cool to have something that is uniquely yours , that one of a kind feeling.

This little Oak Table is now a shining addition to its owners lounge room …

In need of some TL C

A beautiful restored finish

An elegant addition to the home

A beautiful end result for this Oak Occasional Table .

We repaired where necessary, sanded and polished to bring out the richness of the grain

#lovewhatwedo

The timely process of restoration

Restoration or refurbishment is the process of repairing, fixing , modifying, repainting and repolishing an item of furniture.

It can often be a lengthy process, as repairs especially to antique pieces that are hundreds of years old require skill, patience and craftsmanship to ensure every detail is completed successfully whilst often keeping the delicate infrastructure intact, especially the case with veneers, paper thin and fragile, the successful repair of these can really make or break a treasured heirloom.

The argument for restoration is a strong one, sustainably wise and of great sentimental value, the journey of restoration is often an emotional one.

The adventure of restoration provides us with such a sense of satisfaction . Being involved in our clients’ family history and being able to restore a much loved item of furniture for them is one of the best things about our work. Being privvy to such an evocative journey reinforces our love of why we do the things we do.

There is so much history in each and every piece, a tapesty of lives interwoven and we are honoured to be able to enrich each and every piece of furniture, albeit it a tiny child’s chair, or grandmother’s dressing table, a great great grandfathers chair or a favourite aunty’s dining table .

Restoration is a gift for now and the future

A forgotten dressing table , some would say has seen better days …

An old dressing table is now a gorgeous new bathroom vanity

Ucyling teak to make a beautiful bedroom ensemble

Wanting to make use of an old Teak Malaysian Wall panel,our clients were keen for us to make a new bed out of this 300 year old beautiful panel.

A wonderful way to upcyle, and re use a piece of history, we made a new bed head and footer.

A wonderful result…

Character and ambience abounds in this wonderful bedroom

The teak bedroom ensemble blends in beautifully with the existing decor

Restoring a Georgian Rocker

What a delight it was to be able to be a part of a wonderful birthday surprise between two sisters.

This quaint rocker belonged to two little girls and was used often to listen to bedtime stories

Fast forward 50 years or so and this little chair was in need of repairs and repolishing and what could be a better present than having it restored for a surprise birthday present ?

We repaired and restored this gorgeous piece including painting it white, and adding new rattan as well as a duck egg blue fabric to contrast with the freshness of the white .

A glorious result for this wonderful old rocker full of cherished memories and now it will go on for many more generations.

Just one of the reasons we love what we do !

A traditonal Kitchen Restoration...

  The kitchen, arguably  the most hardworking, central point of the home deserves to be treated to some special attention now and again.

An update, extra storage, new modifications inject new life into a kitchen, evolving with the family needs

Using recycled hoop pine ( from a dismantled 1800's home in inner city Brisbane) this  kitchen was restored, to include an impressive butlers pantry, extra bench space and more storage and a new design in keeping with this traditional  Queenslanders   charm and character.

Wooden Surfboard Restoration

Combining his love of both surfing and woodwork...Stuart was very excited when approached to restore an Australian classic  1950's wooden hollow surfboard... The board as shown below was in a fairly bad state of disrepair and needed  significant restoration and restructuring.

This fantastic retro board is an Okinuee .  The Okinuee, is the Australian version of the iconic Malibu Surfboard.  These surfboards were first made just after The Melbourne Olympics in 1956, when Aussie surfers, unable to source Balsawood used Hollowed Plywood instead and so the Okinuee was born.

 The only distinguishing future on this particular Okinuee is the name Babs ;inscribed on the front....   The name is most likely to have been a tribute to the maker or the surfer for his  girlfriend /wife... lucky Babs !!

The extensive restoration and repair process included; repair and reglue centre structure, repair to centre rails, modifications to the crossbeam, nose and tail sections to secure the main frame.  Plywood panels were then fixed with screws and glue, and a draining plug added.

An extensive sand, and repolish completed the overhaul of Babs.

 

::Model no 14 :: Fast history facts

From the ashes of the Industrial Revolution , the Modern Age moved furniture production out of small workshops and into factories for mass production on a grand scale. Arguably, the first Modern piece of furniture  mass-produced was by Prussian furniture maker Michael Thonet (1796-1871)

After 25 years experimenting with bending steamed wood and producing innovative "bentwood" furniture, Michael Thonet and his sons created the No. 14 as the first mass-produced seating furniture on the market. Going into production in 1859 ,  this chair  has become a certified design classic, selling more than 50 million units between 1860 and 1930.. 

Today this iconic chair is produced in various styles, materials right across the globe.