A customer contacted us regarding his grandfather’s antique roll-top desk, asking if we could restore it.  We gave a resounding yes, excited at the prospect of working on a family heirloom with such history.  We arrived at the customer’s house to pick up the desk and this is what we brought home:

After close to 35 years in his basement, he was finally ready for us to repair and restore this puzzle to its rightful glory.  After assessing that we did indeed have all the necessary pieces, we began a serious cleaning and repair session.  The entire unit was cleaned using a TSP solution, then sanded.  Almost every drawer needing reinforcing, the rolling panel needed to be dismantled and reassembled, and the entire piece had to be stained and finished.

Over 50 hours of labor went into the cleaning, repairing, sanding, staining, finishing and reassembling of this desk. Inside and out, no surface was untouched by our hands.

Using a Georgian Cherry stain and Arm-R-Seal finish, we were able to deliver this to its rightful home in the customer’s office, not his basement.

As an added treat, we were also able to find documentation on the desk’s manufacturer and history.