What we restore — and what we don't
Most weeks the shop has a couple of restoration jobs running alongside the new-build commissions. Solid-wood antiques, mid-century furniture, and well-built modern pieces (the ones that have actual joinery) are all candidates. What isn't worth restoring: chipboard carcasses with veneer lifts, anything with thermofoil "wood-look" surfaces, and Ikea pieces. We'll say so on the phone and refer you on if needed.
- Chair re-gluing (most common request) — bentwood, Windsor, Shaker, mid-century
- Table-top refinishing — water-ring removal, hand-planing flat, refinish
- Drawer repair — bottoms, runners, dovetail re-glue, replacement
- Veneer lift repair on solid-wood carcasses
- Hardware replacement — sourcing period-correct pulls and hinges
- Hand-cut joinery repair where original joints have failed
Chairs & re-gluing
Chairs are about 40% of restoration work. The most common failure mode on a sixty-year-old chair is hide-glue at the stretcher-to-leg joints letting go under seasonal wood movement. The fix is straightforward: dismantle to the failed joints, clean off old glue (we use hot water and a chisel, not paint stripper), re-glue with hot hide glue, clamp, dry seven days.
- Single chair re-glue, all four legs & stretchers — from $185 CAD
- Set of six chairs, full re-glue and minor finish touch-up — from $880 CAD
- Bentwood rocker, full restoration with replacement laminations — from $640 CAD
- Windsor chair, spindle replacement or seat re-shaping — quoted on inspection
Table-tops
Walnut and oak table-tops are the typical refinish job — the kind your grandparents bought in the 1960s, beautiful timber underneath sixty years of water rings, cigarette burns and one nasty heat mark from a casserole dish in 1992. We hand-plane (not sand) the top flat, repair any deep gouges with fitted patches, refinish in oil and wax.
- Dining table-top refinish, up to 2 m long — from $580 CAD
- Dining table-top refinish, 2–3 m, hand-plane and oil — from $880 CAD
- Coffee table refinish — from $340 CAD
- Patch repair on a deep gouge (matched timber, glued and planed flush) — from $145 CAD per repair
Drawers & carcasses
The dresser someone passed down with one drawer falling apart and another that's lost its bottom. Drawer work splits into runner repair, bottom replacement, and full dovetail re-gluing.
- Drawer bottom replacement (matched timber) — from $185 CAD per drawer
- Drawer runner / slide repair — from $145 CAD per drawer
- Full drawer rebuild from carcass plans — from $385 CAD per drawer
- Carcass joint re-glue (full sideboard or dresser) — from $480 CAD
Refinishing
For pieces where the joinery is fine but the finish has died. We strip the old finish (chemical strip for thick old shellac or polyurethane; hand-plane for thin oils), feed the wood with grain filler if needed, refinish in your choice of hard-wax oil, shellac or polyurethane.
- Full piece refinish, sideboard or dresser — from $640 CAD
- Full piece refinish, blanket chest or trunk — from $480 CAD
- Spot refinish (matching a stripped area into existing finish) — from $185 CAD
Spray-finish (lacquer, conversion varnish) we do not offer in-house — the shop is set up for hand-applied finishes only. If you need a sprayed factory finish we'll refer to a Burnaby finisher.
What it costs
Restoration is quoted on a piece-by-piece basis after inspection. We need to see the piece (in shop or with photos) before we can give a number. The minimum charge is one hour at $95 CAD — most chair re-glues come in around two to three hours of bench time.
- Minimum: $185 CAD (roughly two hours of bench time)
- Typical restoration: $340 – $1,200 CAD
- Major restoration (full sideboard rebuild): up to $2,800 CAD
- GST 5% + PST 7% on labour where applicable
- Pick-up from your home on the North Shore: included; West Vancouver included; Squamish trip fee applies
Related services
- Custom Furniture — when the piece is past saving and you want a built-from-new replacement
- Built-In Cabinetry — for new construction matched to existing antique trim
- Small Installs & Repairs — for one-off repairs that don't need a shop visit