Furniture Renovation Preserves Memories
Most consumers love looking for and buying new furniture rather than taking the furniture renovation route. From colors to textures to wood trim, it’s an opportunity to recreate the look of any room in your home. As time passes, we tend to acquire a personal favorite-maybe it’s a piece we bought right out of college that has sentimental value or a legacy table handed down from grandparents.
That’s where people like Mike Pitlick of Dwell Wood Shop and Furniture Repair come in. Mike is the manager of the Coralville wood furniture refurbishing store. And in a throwaway society, people like Mike are a rare breed. For 36 years, he’s worked in wood and furniture restoration.
Mike does everything from refinishing furniture to gluing and making repairs to crafting parts to replace missing or damaged pieces. As Mike notes, “You can’t just go to the store and buy a table leg for a formal dining set from the 1940s.
Pitlick, restoring a family table
While some of the work Mike does involves refinishing and matching stains, he also finds himself working on dresser drawers that don’t slide properly or finding replacement hardware for furniture that’s lost a handle or knob over the years.
Furniture Renovation Challenges
You might think older furniture would be the most challenging to restore, but Mike says newer furniture is actually tougher. “Newer furniture often has multiple steps and stages of stains and glazes. You try to match what’s there because there are often companion pieces. Still, the layers make it difficult.”
And sometimes Mike says you get a challenge that is extremely difficult to fix, like a scratch that’s perpendicular to the grain.
What gives Mike the best memories is when he can repair a piece of furniture that has meaning to the owner, perhaps it’s an heirloom-like rocking chair that’s been passed on from generation to generation. Mike admits he gets sentimental about those pieces. “The best is when people are so pleased with the work that it brings a tear to their eye. That always brings a tear to my eye, too.”
Dwell Wood Shop and Furniture Repair in Coralville, IA, handles a wide variety of furniture repairs. From refinishing to restoring to more basic repairs, Dwell Wood Shop and Furniture Repair can help you keep those special pieces in the family. And if they can’t repair or restore, you can visit Dwell Home Furnishings and Interior Design for high-quality, new purchases.
Dwell Wood Shop and Furniture Repair Has New Location
Dwell Wood Shop and Furniture Repair has a new location at 2010 James St. Suite B & C in Coralville, IA. Stop by, Mike will be there! Or call the new Dwell Renovations number: 319-338-1647.
