Custom picture framing. Garden fountain restoration. Protect marble. Musty smelling wicker. Furniture restoration. Cane chair seats sagging. Rust. Teak.

Custom Picture Framing

We did custom picture framing along with the furniture, so we have a custom picture framing section too. When we did custom framing the cost was outrageous (we didn't use the framing industry chart prices, we set our own) and after being away from the business for several years it made me gasp to see how prices have increased.

Framing isn't expensive if you do it yourself and if you have several pictures to frame up you can purchase your own tools, which will pay for themselves with the first two or three pictures.

Garden Fountain Restoration

- We didn't confine ourselves to just furniture restoration, we restored almost anything restorable. We completed a Garden Fountain restoration for our own patio. We show step by step how we did it.

We have some more restoration projects of this type coming up, a birdbath broken in two and a large chunk out of it and a concrete grecian urn broken in two and has some missing pieces.

Finish Repair

Oils

Protect Marble

Always protect marble surfaces with coasters or a cloth and wipe spills quickly, especially carbonated beverages, they'll etch marble and cause it to lose it's glossy shine.

Musty Smelling Wicker

Hello, My wicker furniture has a slight mouldy smell in each item and needs cleaning to eliminate this odour. Could you please advise me. Peter, Brixham, Devon.

Chlorine Bleach

Reply . . . Use 1/4 cup of chlorine bleach in two gallons of warm water and use a medium bristle brush, like a vegetable brush to remove the musty smell from wicker. Dip the brush and scrub the wicker piece completely, even underneath, then rinse the same way with clean warm water.

Let the wicker dry

It will help if you can put the wicker furniture in the sun to dry. The sun works wonders with eliminating odor.

Let the wicker dry completely before you use it, because if you sit on it while it's damp it will move the strands of reed slightly and when it dries the strands will stay in the new position and could put stress on the joints.

Nylon bristle brush

A nylon bristle is best, as a natural bristle could leave little bits of bristle among the strands of reed.

May have to repeat

You may have to repeat the treatment two or three times to get rid of the smell completely, then it would be a good idea to give it an annual treatment just to be sure to keep from having the problem again.

There is more wicker information at Wicker Menu.

Furniture Restoration

To save a lot of time and work you can try restoration first with a good deep cleaning with a professional Furniture Cleaner before you refinish a clear finish.

Furniture Cleaner

If you're interested in some serious furniture cleaning and restoration there's a very good Furniture Cleaner. It removes old wax and polish and accumulated grime. Be sure to test on an inconspicuous place first to be sure of compatibility with your finish. It should work with all finishes, but caution is always advisable with your furniture.We have lots of Furniture Restoration information and some more at Furniture Restoration Procedure

Let the stripper do the work If you need to strip

When stripping furniture let the stripper do the work. Apply a liberal coat of stripper and let it sit for a good long time. If the stripper dries you can re-activate it with another coat of stripper, but if you try to remove the old finish before the stripper has softened it, you've used up that amount stripper and the old finish is still there.

A Question About Rust

It's highly unlikely that you'll ever have a problem with rust on your dining room set, but on the patio or elswhere outside is a different story.

email question . . . . My mother gave me an old milk can that is 75% rust. I would like to restore it to put in my garden. I have a small electric sander that I've used on some yard sale furniture. Can I use this to take the rust off or is there an easier way? I don't want to invest a lot of money in it. Frankly I like some of the rust, but I would like to paint it the same silver as it once was. Thanks,

Rust Remover

Reply. . . . .Rust Remover is a quick and simple way to remove rust from a milk can or a bar-b-q or metal patio furniture.

The method would depend on the thickness of the rust. If it isn't too thick just use the rust remover and coarse steel wool and it should remove the rust ok.

Be sure to read the label directions and warnings.

Wire wheel on an electric drill

If the rust is thick you'll have to bring out the big guns. The job goes quicker if you use a wire wheel on an electric drill first. Next choice would be a wire brush and lots of elbow grease. I'm assuming that the sander you have is a flat bed sander of some sort. The rust would be irregular depths so a flat bed sander wouldn't be too efficient. You would need to use emery cloth instead of sandpaper and if the rust has eaten very deep you could go through the metal and leave a hole.

Spray Paint

When the rust is all removed the easiest way to finish is with Spray Paint. Prime the milk can and lightly sand it with regular sandpaper, about 220 grit. Apply enough coats of primer, sanding between coats, to make a smooth surface, then spray with the final coat.

Cane chair seats sagging loose and drooping

If you have chairs with cane seats that are sagging loose and drooping they should be tightened as soon as possible as the looseness will cause the cane to wear and break. Turn the chair upside down and place a folded towel on the raw underside of the cane and get the towel wet. Let it sit on the cane for several hours so that the cane is completely wet, then let the cane dry completely without using it. The cane should be nice and taut when it's dried.

A Question About A Teak Bench

Your site is great! I like the idea of putting a belt sander into a closet and keeping it there! You're so down-to-earth with your methods. I can understand how to do a lot of things by just reading your site.

I bought a garden bench at a Thrift Shop. It is weathered gray and is dirty. The label on the bottom says "Made in Brazil". I'm thinking it's Brazilian Teak. Anyway, I would like to clean it up and get it to a medium to dark color wood. (I have dark pine REAL WOOD furniture and this will fit in rather nicely in the entry way or in a guest room. I'm thinking a lot of Teddy Bears sitting on it!) Anyway, I think all I have to do is take warm, soap water with a clean white cloth and wash it. Let it dry and then oil it with teak oil. There do not seem to be dents or stains on it that will require sanding. What do you think of my plan? Angela

Water may raise grain

Since the bench is weathered gray it would indicate that it doesn't have much of a finish left on it, so the water may raise the grain and cause you to have to (shudder) sand. Actually sanding on a piece like you have isn't so bad, it's when the furniture gets older that it's cause for shudder. Teak is an oily wood and can tolerate an amount of water too.<

No raised grain

Using a cleaner and 0000 steel wool would guarantee no raised grain.

Test for color

You might take some paint thinner, denatured alcohol or lacquer thinner, whatever you might have and apply it to an out of the way place and that would be what the teak would look like if you just applied a clear finish. That would give you an idea of where you would have to go with staining to get the color you want, but even if the color came out what you want, you would probably have to stain anyway with a neutral color to even out the color. Unless you can find a pigmented teak oil I would suggest a danish oil since it's easy to find in colors or stain with an oil stain.

Try teak oil as cleaner

But then, to back up parallel to that last sentence, if you already have some Teak Oil you might try using it as a cleaner with 0000 steel wool and see if it will come out like you want it, because you can always go over the teak oil with Danish Oil or an Oil Stain to get the color you want if it needs to be darker.

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