5 Popular Finishes for Wood Furniture

Fine wood furniture needs the right finish, not only to make it look beautiful, but also to protect it from moisture, scratches, UV rays, and other such damage.  There are seemingly endless choices of finish available, however, so how do you begin finding the right one for your wood table, dining room set, or antique chair?

Here are 5 of the best finishes for wood furniture:

• Lacqueris still considered one of the best all-around wood finishes because it’s durable, dries quickly, and provides great depth and warmth to the wood.  Be forewarned that it can yellow over time and is heat-sensitive so take those things into account as you plan the refinishing project as well as where you’ll keep the furniture afterwards.
• Linseed oil and tung oilare the oils most commonly used in wood finishing.  These oils are penetrating finishes, meaning they will penetrate the fibers of the wood before hardening as they cure.These oils are easy to apply.  You generally just wipe them onto the furniture with an old towel, give them time to penetrate the wood, and then wipe away the excess.
• Shellacis a natural resin mixed with additives that make it easier to apply.It’s available in numerous colors, and it’s interesting to note that the sap of the tree which the resin was harvested from influences the color.  Be advised that some shellacs are blended with wax, and this can decrease the ability of the shellac to resist wear.
• Varnishis composed of synthetic resins mixed with oils.Varnish cures like oils, but once cured is more durable due to the resins in its makeup.  Varnish is applied with a brush or an old towel.
• Water-based finishescontain some of the same ingredients as shellac and varnish, but water is used in place of certain flammable ingredients. Though water-based finishes are durable, they do not resist heat as well as oil-based finishes.

When you decide on the best finish for your wood furniture, set aside adequate time to apply it and get ready for a great DIY project.  Or, simply call on a good furniture refinishing company in your area and trust the professionals with your furniture.  There are many great Jacksonville FL furniture refinishing companies who can advise you about the right finish for your furniture, and help you plan the project from start to finish.  Jax Furniture Refinishing & Upholstering is trusted name in furniture restoration and the best company Jacksonville FL, Southside, Nocatee, Atlantic Beach, and Ponte Vedra Beach homeowners call on for their furniture needs.

5 Signs that Your Wood Furniture Needs to Be Refinished

Your dresser, end tables, side table, dining room furniture, and other wood furniture receives daily use, and it will inevitably start to show evidence of wear and tear.  Here are five signs that it’s time to either plan your DIY wood refinishing project or find a great furniture refinishing shop in your area:

• The surface of the wood feels sticky even after it’s been dusted. Wood furniture does not require solvents and cleaning solutions to make it clean.  In fact, you should ONLY dust your wood furniture with a clean, dry, microfiber cloth or other such cloth.  However, if even after you’ve dusted your furniture it feels sticky or tacky, it’s time for the furniture to be refinished.
• The existing finish has cracked, and the wood underneath is exposed.If the wood is exposed, that means the finish can no longer do its job to protect that wood, and it’s time to call on a highly rated wood refinishing shop to give it a fresh coating.
• The finish is flaking or chipping off. When the finish flakes, chips, or peels, that means it’s failing and needs to be removed with a fresh finish coat applied.
• Watermarks, dents, dings, scratches, and blemishes are present.Sometimes even if the finish is intact, the furniture has gotten enough use to merit restoration.  Scratches, dents, and other such blemishes just indicate the furniture receives a lot of use, so why not treat it to a custom restoration or refinishing job so that you can get it back in shape and continue using it?
• You’re considering discarding it. If you find yourself wanting to donate or throw away your wood furniture, stop and think about this.  Could you fall in love with it again if it had a fresh coat of varnish?  Or if it was restored in a different finish?

Your wood furniture is valuable, whether it represents an investment you made, or it’s an antique you inherited, or it’s just something you acquired and came to love.  Even well-built furniture requires maintenance and care!  A highly rated furniture refinishing shop in your area can restore your wood armoire, chest, or headboard to its original splendor.

Homeowners throughout Jacksonville FL and the surrounding area call on Jax Furniture Refinishing & Upholstering when their antique furniture, wood furniture, and upholstered furniture needs repair or restoration.  We’re the best furniture refinishing service in Northeast Florida, including Riverside Avondale, San Marco, and all along the Beaches, and we’d love to take care of your wood refinishing project for you!

The Importance of Using a Highly Rated Furniture Refinishing Shop

Torn fabric, flat cushions, faded upholstery, water rings, broken chair legs, scratched surfaces… at some point, every one of us needs to have fine furniture repaired, refinished, reupholstered, or otherwise “fixed.”  You can look for tips online and attempt the job yourself, or you can take your beautiful furniture to a chop shop and hope it turns out alright, or you can find a highly rated and trustworthy furniture restoration service and rely on the expertise of the craftsmen there.

Fine furniture requires fine craftsmanship.  Here are 3 requirements of fine furniture that make it important to seek a great furniture refinishing shop when work needs to be done:

1. Time– Any refinishing or upholstering job takes time, and many jobs take a lot of time. For a high-quality custom job, specialized supplies often need to be ordered. There is almost always a great deal of prep work required of a furniture reupholstery or refinishing job.  If you’re refinishing wood, you’ll often need to wait for a coating of varnish or lacquer to cure, or for glue to set, which can take hours or even days to occur.  In upholstery work, you need to take the time to measure the fabric carefully, cut with precision, and take handle the fabric carefully.
2. Labor Intensive– The detailed work required of repairing and restoring fine furniture can be extensive.Prep work can include stripping and sanding a piece to the frame.  Then, reinforcing a frame or joints, replacing coil springs and zigzag springs, replacing padding, applying stain, chair caning, fitting and sewing fabric to the specific specs needed, and perfecting detail work by hand all require focused, skilled work.
3. Special Skills– A high quality furniture restoration shop employs true craftsmen who have honed their skills for years, received specialized training, and generally become experts in numerous aspects of antique restoration, upholstering, and wood refinishing.

High quality furniture restoration and reupholstery is a time- and labor-intensive process that involves specialized skills. Your heirloom dresser and armoire, antique chair, and favorite hutch need to be trusted to the care of an award-winning, trusted furniture restoration company.  Jax Furniture Refinishing & Upholstering is the best First Coast furniture repair shop that customers in Riverside, Mandarin, Ortega, and Jacksonville call on for their furniture needs.  Call today to set up your appointment!

3 Important Things You Need for Your Furniture Refinishing Project

Wood furniture sustains a lot of damage simply through everyday use.  Fortunately, a lot of this damage can be mitigated through sanding, scraping, and staining, which is why so many homeowners set off on DIY wood refinishing projects.  So what do you need to embark on your own furniture restoration project?

1. Time– Any woodworking, wood refinishing, or restoration project requires time. Unless you’re a seasoned furniture restorer, you’ll need time to research the project, gather your materials, decide on the perfect stain or lacquer, etc.  Then, you’ll need time to execute the project. Often, furniture repair and restoration requires multiple coatings, or involves a glue that needs to cure.  High quality furniture restoration and refinishing takes time.  If you’re short on time yourself, it’s best to call on a great furniture restoration shop to do the work.
2. Protection– Make sure you have all the necessary protective equipment to perform the work safely. Many restoration projects require strippers and solvents, and for the sake of your hands, invest in good quality gloves that are appropriate for the task you will be doing and the materials you will be handling.  If you’ll be applying lacquers, shellacs, or varnishes, we recommend using the appropriate respirator while working.  Liquid varnishes can spatter, and fumes can irritate your eyes, so protect yourself with the right glasses or goggles.
3. Space– Unless you’re restoring dollhouse furniture, you’ll need a large work area for your furniture repair project. You need adequate space to spread out a tarp or dropcloth and to hold numerous tools, gallons of varnish or stain, and other project materials.  Your project will be messy, so you’ll need to find the right space where sanding dust, fumes, spatter, and cords won’t be a bother to others in your house.  Since wood refinishing projects can span multiple days or weeks, you’ll want your space to be out of the way of everyday foot traffic too.

It’s a great feeling when your project is complete… The final coat of varnish has dried, and your antique chair, end table, or headboard can be reincorporated into your home.  If you have doubts about completing the project yourself, find the best local furniture refinishing service and trust the job to them. It’s possible that the task may become overly taxing, too expensive, or downright dangerous, and in such cases, it’s best to take the piece to a professional restoration shop.

Jax Furniture Refinishing and Upholstering is the best Jacksonville FL furniture refinishing company and we’re the ones to trust with your project!  Our customers in historic Riverside Avondale, San Marco, St. Augustine, and throughout Jacksonville agree that the quality of our work is unmatched.  We’d love to take care of your project for you!

5 Tips for Preserving Furniture in Storage

Furniture that is not stored correctly can become damaged while in storage.  Before moving your fine furniture to a basement, garage, or offsite storage unit, check out our tips to help ensure your dining room table and chairs, chest, dresser, antique chair, and other furniture stays in great shape.

1. Determine the best place for storage.  Be sure first and foremost that the storage unit is climate controlled.  Here in humid, warm northeast Florida, it is especially important that your furniture is not stored in rooms or areas that are damp and hot, or where the temperature can fluctuate greatly.  The area you decided on for storing your favorite furniture should be monitored for moisture, protected against flooding, and should have safety measures in place to prevent break-ins.
2. Clean the furniture.  Wipe away all dust and cobwebs, and be sure to clean away excess body oil from areas such as the arm rests of chairs.  Make each item as clean as possible, otherwise the dust, oils, and debri can settle into the fibers of the material and degrade or damage it over time.  You might also choose to treat certain materials.  For example, depending on the type of wood used in your antique wood furniture, as well as its condition, you might choose to apply a high quality oil, or ideally, to have a good professional wood refinishing service clean and repair the furniture before it is placed in storage.
3. Disassemble furniture.  It’s often recommended that you take apart furniture items, when possible, at least partially.  For example, unscrew the legs from dining room tables and chairs, and detach the mirror from on top of the dresser, etc.  This will allow you to wrap individual pieces, if necessary, and configure all items in storage in the best possible way. Put screws, bolts, locks and keys in a small plastic bag and keep it near the furniture in order to make the furniture easier to reassemble when the time comes.
4. Wrap or protect furniture.  Smaller glass items or mirrors should be wrapped in packing paper and then in bubble wrap or put into a box.  Sharp edges of furniture can scratch other items or get broken off in transit or storage, and therefore should be wrapped in moving quilts or packing paper.  You can even choose to loosely drape a covering over furniture to simply protect it from sunlight or dust.  However, be sure you do not use plastic wrap when covering furniture even loosely, as this can create condensation, mildew, and a host of other conditions that can cause great damage to your furniture.
5. Raise your furniture off of the floor.  It’s also highly recommended that you raise your furniture off of the floor using cinder blocks, planks, or palettes so that your items are protected should the area flood unexpectedly.  You might choose to line the floor of the storage area with plastic.  This can seal moisture away from your furniture.

Jax Furniture Refinishing & Upholstering is the best furniture refinishing service to trust with your treasured pieces.  We specialize in restoring furniture to its original splendor, whether it is an antique dining room set you recently got out of storage, a contemporary coffee table that was damaged, or your family’s favorite sofa that is in need of a facelift. We serve clients throughout the First Coast in downtown Jacksonville, Mandarin, Southside, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, and more.  Call on us for your refinishing, restoration, or reupholstery project, and you’ll love the results!

Maintaining Your Teak Outdoor Furniture

Teakwood is a sturdy and beautiful wood, and an ideal choice for outdoor furniture.  Teak wood furniture is easy to enjoy. However, when it comes to maintenance, teak wood can be just as easy to care for, or extremely difficult to care for, depending on which approach you choose.  

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Outdoor Furniture Cleaning Tips

Here in Northeast Florida, our outdoor spaces get used almost year round.  Most Jacksonville residents like to be outside from the first warm evening in spring, all through the summer, and as late into autumn as possible.  After a few seasons on the deck or patio, your outdoor furniture may start to look a bit worse for the wear, and rust, mildew, and other stains can appear.  Our tips will help you keep your outdoor furniture clean and ready to use, so you never have to miss any time outside. (more…)

Should Foam Be Replaced When Reupholstering A Piece of Furniture?

Nothing feels better than collapsing onto your sofa at the end of the day, or relaxing on your overstuffed armchair with a good book. Comfortable padding is most likely what draws you to your favorite piece of furniture. When fabric fades and becomes thin, you likely schedule an appointment with a good furniture upholstery service to have your furniture reupholstered, but what should you do when the foam padding wears down?

Understanding Foam & Padding

The cost of replacing your cushion and the ease with which you’ll be able to do so depend on the materials used, which in turn, depend greatly on the era in which it was manufactured.

• Contemporary Furniture – Cushioning that is manufactured today is almost always made of polyurethane or a similar polymer. A spray foam of this material is poured into large blocks or “buns.” The mixture expands and cures, and then is cut into large sheets and distributed. The small pockets of air that are formed during this process give the polyurethane foam its sponginess, and as the foam ages, the sponginess decreases. This foam is easy to replace when the time comes, and is available in varying levels of density as well as cost.
• Antique Furniture – Decades ago, foam cushioning was made using rubber rather than petroleum-based polymers like polyurethane. The manufacturing system was much the same, but with a rubber spray foam, which gave cushions significantly more spring, and resulted in a higher quality product than the polyurethane foam. Rubber foam is harder to find now, so if you want to have the rubber foam replaced in your antique furniture, it will need to be reused from another antique piece, or simply replaced with modern foam.
• Heirloom Furniture – Very old antiques, of course, are made entirely of natural product. To cushion furniture in eras past, a spring unit was made by hand, then wrapped in cotton, and padded with raw cotton or horsehair. Horsehair made excellent padding for furniture because it deterred bugs and maintained its shape for decades. Believe it or not, horsehair is still available to purchase, but more commonly, it is reused from other antiques. If you are passionate about preserving the authenticity of your antique, rest assured that the best antique furniture repair shops know how to work with horsehair to maintain your antique padding. On the other hand, if you are more interested in simply enjoying your antique, a skilled upholsterer can easily replace the horsehair cushion with contemporary foam.

How To Tell If You Need New Foam

As our master craftsman, Bill, points out, “Foam is in many types of furniture, in all types of places, and it all breaks down at some point. The key is to know when to have it replaced.” As foam ages, it goes through a process of disintegration.

1. First, foam loses its elasticity. Have you noticed that your sofa, loveseat, or favorite chair is just not as comfortable as it used to be? That’s an indicator that the foam is breaking down. The foam most likely does not need to be completely replaced yet, but it may need some help. For example, a good furniture upholstery company can insert a layer of 1-2 inch foam to supplement the existing pad.
2. As the disintegration process continues, foam loses its shape. Unzip one of the upholstered cushions and look at the piece of foam. Are the corners rounded? If so, replacing the cushion is a good idea.
3. Next, the foam begins to break down. Once again, unzip the fabric of a cushion. Are there dry flakes coming loose from your cushion? That’s a sign that new cushions are needed. Craftsman Bill also mentions that “if the fabric wrinkles easily on the cushions, that means the foam has disintegrated and shrunk, and the fabric does not fit as well as it should.” Note that this will cause harm to the fabric itself, and if you don’t replace the foam, you may need to reupholster the fabric sooner than planned.
4. In the last stage of the process, the flakes turn to a powder. Is powder puffing out of the zipper or seams of your cushions? Consider that a red flag, and schedule an appointment with a great furniture upholsterer as soon as you can!

Reupholster The Fabric, Evaluate The Foam

When the time comes to reupholster your furniture, take the time to evaluate the condition of the foam cushion. If it needs to be replaced, you have many options. You likely won’t have to consider horsehair, or even rubber, but even among synthetic foams, you can choose from many densities, levels of comfort, and cost. The best thing you can do for your furniture is find a great refinishing and upholstering shop with technicians who understand foam. At Jax Furniture Refinishing & Upholstering, for example, we specialize in foam cushion replacement and know the right density to recommend for each type of furniture. Homeowners in downtown Jacksonville, historic Riverside Avondale, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, and throughout Northeast Florida call Jax Furniture Refinishing & Upholstering for the highest quality care and craftsmanship for their fine furniture.

 

Don’t Let A Refinishing Company Dip Strip Your Furniture

Refinishing your family’s antique table and chairs, your heirloom chest or dresser, or another furniture piece is a great way to continue enjoying it for many years. A professional refinishing job can make your favorite antique look nearly new again, while still maintaining its authenticity and the qualities you initially loved about it. To most antique owners, the toughest part of a furniture refinishing project is finding the best furniture shop for the job. Here’s a tip: a primary factor that distinguishes a high quality professional refinishing shop from a subpar shop is its method of stripping the original finish. Find the furniture refinishing shop that hand strips its furniture, and trust your fine furniture to its professionals.

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Furniture Refinishing Is An Environmentally Sensible Choice

The three Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle – are well known terms, particularly among those interested in living in an environmentally responsible way. Refinishing your favorite antique furniture is the best way to save yourself money and enjoy your favorite furniture for decades to come, but perhaps most importantly, it’s a great way to conserve energy and resources and help protect and preserve the environment.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Refinish!

Reusing and repurposing existing goods requires less energy and creates less pollution than manufacturing new goods. Following the three Rs also cuts down on deforestation and produces less waste and fewer deposits into ever-expanding landfills. The process alone of destroying trees releases tons of carbon dioxide into the environment, and the subsequent process of turning the trees into manufactured furniture raises carbon dioxide pollution levels higher and higher. Refinishing existing furniture, on the other hand, contributes very little carbon dioxide to the environment. In fact, it takes approximately 1000 times more carbon dioxide to make new furniture than to refinish it. Therefore, even the most environmentally-minded consumer who buys responsibly-made furniture from renewable resources would be making the better choice to refinish an existing piece of furniture. (more…)