Photo 6: Close-up shot of dresser after refinishing. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

The old dresser sat in a damp basement for more than 50 years and showed obvious signs of age and disrepair.  Just days before the dresser was to be put out for trash, the owner decided to get an estimate for refinishing the piece.  Weeks later, the dresser’s new satin finish and bright brass hardware gleam in the morning sun as it holds the treasures of yet another generation.

This true story was made possible by the “magic” of furniture refinishing.  Because of Rockford’s rich history in furniture manufacturing industry, many local residents are finding new life for old heirlooms through refinishing and restoration.  Phil Nelson, owner of Rockford Finishing, has been in the business since 1980 and sees his work as a way to help others.  “I feel like…I have the opportunity to make a lot of people happy by doing what I do.  I have the luxury of coming in to work and not necessarily doing the same thing every day.  I get to work on many different projects, not always just furniture.  It’s interesting and it’s fun,” he said.

Nelson’s refinishing projects are as varied as the types of wood he works with.  “I’ve worked on everything from pool tables to old time car dashboards to airplane parts and boat parts.  I really like the intricacy of refinishing pool tables and I like the fact that I’m not limited to just furniture,” he said.  “Over the 30 some years that I have been in refinishing, I’ve had so many different, odd and unusual pieces come through here.”

Possibly the most unique piece that Nelson has done was a carousel horse.  “A customer brought me a carousel horse that was in cardboard boxes…just bits and pieces that we had to reassemble, paint in the appropriate colors and then put the jewels back into place.  That was probably the most unusual job I’ve done,” he said.  Nelson has also done refinishing work for the Coronado Performing Arts Center.  “They’ve got some one of a kind pieces down there.  The projects I did for the Coronado required me to start from scratch and fabricate the wood and metal parts to complete the piece and bring it back to its original condition.  The intricacies of the Coronado job made it extremely time consuming,” he said.

Time, care and patience are key in any refinishing project.  To begin the refinishing process, hardware from the piece is removed and any damage to the wood is repaired.  From there, the piece is placed in the “strip tank” where chemicals are applied to remove any paint or old finish on the piece.  Once the stripping process is completed, Nelson sands the wood and fixes and additional problems before it is sprayed.  At this point, a customer may come in to see the piece and decide whether to stain the wood or leave it natural.

“About 90 percent of the work is done before a piece hits the spray room,” Nelson said.  “Once it’s in the spray room, the piece may get stained, if that’s what the customer wants; otherwise we’ll use a lacquer sealer, then a glazing stain over the lacquer sealer.”  More lacquer is applied and the color of the piece is adjusted to give it a uniform look.  The last step of this process is reassembling the piece and applying the refurbished hardware.

Henry Doll, owner of Doll’s Furniture Restoration, got into the refinishing business about 35 years ago through a neighbor who hired him to strip furniture.  Doll’s background in the automotive finishing industry proved useful in his switch to working with wood.  He still sometimes takes on small metal refinishing projects as well.  Now, Doll’s projects range from antique refinishing to new construction to kitchen cabinetry.  “I can handle stained pieces, clear lacquered pieces; pretty much anything that comes through the door,” he said.

Refinishing an antique music box proved to be an interesting project for Doll.  “I did an antique music box from the early 1800s.  The client’s home had caught fire and so this piece basically had to be reconstructed.  I had to rebuild the wooden box part and refinish it.  Because the music box was so old, I couldn’t make the finish pristine; I had to get that antique patina look.  That was probably the most difficult job I’ve done,” he said.

The benefits to refinishing furniture over buying new items are many.  According to Doll, much of the furniture on the market today isn’t made out of solid wood, as it was years ago.  A good deal of today’s pieces are made out of pressed sawdust with a wood veneer.  Besides the solid wood construction of older furniture, price can also be a plus to refinishing versus buying new.  “A lot of times, it’s cheaper to have a piece refinished, (than to buy something new,)” Doll said.  “If you have an antique table that someone in the family paid $9.00 for when it was built in the1900s; refinishing would cost more than $9.00…but then you would have a table that’s a family heirloom and can be passed down to future generations.  That’s the fun part of this business, passing down memories.”

Phil Nelson of Rockford Finishing uses the stripping tank to pour chemicals over a door to be refinished. (Photo by Lynne Conner/for Chronicle Media)

Nelson sees most furniture on the market today as “disposable products”.  “A lot of people today probably don’t understand the differences in furniture quality.  We’re used to living in a disposable society; so people buy something, they use it for five years and then they throw it away,” he said.  “Just knowing how well furniture used to be built, compared to the way it is now; it’s so much more cost effective to take an old piece and put some money into it, knowing that you will use this piece for at least 25 years or beyond.  Refinishing is much more cost effective.”

Refinishing furniture also allows the customer to make some changes to a piece.  Doll recently worked on a dresser that was missing hardware and had a much darker finish than what the client liked.  After checking out some online hardware vendors, the client was able to choose and order new hardware for the dresser which was refinished in a lighter, natural wood hue, more to the customer’s liking.

Furniture refinishing is truly an art form.  This medium has benefits that preserve historical pieces while being ecologically sound and cost effective.  Refinishing allows the client choices in design; while allowing the restoration artisan a chance to provide new life for treasures of the past.