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Monday 8am - 5pm Tuesday 8am - 5pm Wednesday 8am - 5pm Thursday 8am - 5pm Friday 8am - 5pm

Nicole Smith Finishing, San Rafael, CA (2026)

08/13/2026

Before and after.
When the customer sent me this beautiful mahogany bookcase cabinet that she bought at auction, it had quite a few issues. There was water damage, loose veneers, and loose and missing molding pieces. This is a very large piece of furniture; it measures about 65 inches wide and 104 inches tall. The doors are very fragile. The glass is very old and thin, and the muntins are tiny. Taking the doors on and off and handling them to work on them was quite stressful. Every time I would flip them over or move them, they would creak and make a tick-tick sound (very scary). After removing the doors, I removed the hinges and plugged and re-drilled all the holes one screw at a time to make sure I wasn’t moving the holes too far out of alignment. This piece had been poorly repaired a time or two; most of the screw holes in the upper portion went all the way through to the outside of the case. I just wax-filled most of them, but in one particularly bad area, I put in a wooden patch. When it came to repairing the molding around the face, I ended up having to pop off quite a few of the pieces, scrape off the old glue, and then use hide glue to put them back on. As for the pieces that were missing, I added some mahogany and shaped it using a chisel, a plane, and a file. For the side with water damage, I clamped really hot wooden blocks over damp rags to reactivate the old hide glue to flatten out the loose veneer. Then I patched the hole with a piece of mahogany. I also put in several other wooden patches on the bottom of the legs to replace areas with missing wood. I glued down the loose stringing on the door fronts and added a couple of pieces where it was missing. The customer didn’t mind the aged and distressed look of the piece, but she didn’t like the fading on the lower half of the cabinet. I cleaned the piece thoroughly with a damp rag and wiped it down several times with VM&P Naphtha to remove the wax. I reworked the original finish slightly with some alcohol to restore some of the color to the finish. After lightly sanding with 400 grit, I used dye stains mixed into my shellac to bring the color back to the faded areas. The customer plans to line the inside of the upper cabinet with some sort of wallpaper, so I just finished the shelves to match the rest of the case using a combination of dye stains and glazes made from UTCs, and finished them with shellac. I finished up with 0000 steel wool and a coat of wax for a nice soft sheen. The lower cabinet was missing its lock, and the lock mortise was broken out. To make things easier, I just used a lock from my stash and made it work for the existing mortise. I would have preferred to have installed a lock with a bigger plate so it would cover all the old holes, but it wasn’t important to the customer as long as the door worked. Now, this beautiful piece of furniture is ready for a second life in its new home.

07/17/2026

Before, and after
(I apologize; this is a long one, and I took really incomplete before pictures.) This lovely old chest of drawers holds quite a bit of sentimental value because it belonged to the customer's grandmother. Unfortunately, it was in sorry shape when it came to me. One drawer was completely broken apart, the sides were split in half, the drawer bottoms were broken into three pieces each, and the dovetails on the drawer fronts on both sides were broken out. Inside the case, all the drawer supports were loose, and one was missing. The panel for the top two drawers had no support in the back. The back panels were broken and had shrunk, so they didn’t fit. The center support for the back was too short, and the rabbets for receiving the panels were broken and missing pieces. There was loose and missing c**k beading/molding on the drawers, a broken back leg, and loose veneer on the top and face of the case. Not to mention the tons of little broken and loose bits. I started by removing the back and adding pieces of wood to the back sides of the case so that when I put the panels back on, I had wood to nail into. I glued several of the panels back together and, in order to cut out a large hole that was in the back and add the inch and a half that it was short, I added some pieces of old wood salvaged from an old drawer. I made and installed the support for the top two drawers. I glued the broken edges on the center support and then added pieces of wood to rebuild the broken-out rabbets and make the whole thing longer. The drawer was the trickiest part for me because of the curved face. I glued all the pieces I had back together, but I only had the pieces for one side of the broken-out dovetails. To repair the other side, I used a router to cleanly remove the wood from the area with missing dovetails. I made a block that fit, and then cut the dovetails into the end. After making sure the dovetails fit correctly, I glued and clamped the block in. Once the dovetails were installed, I glued the drawer back together, then replaced and repaired the missing c**k beading/molding. I fixed most of the loose veneers on top by clamping them down with hot blocks and a damp rag. I left a few of the smaller loose areas because it wasn’t the customer's biggest concern. After about 100 other small repairs, I had about 35 hours just in repair for this piece. Needless to say, I had to haul ass on the finish. The customer definitely wanted to keep it looking old, which was helpful. Unfortunately, someone had sprayed lacquer over the old varnish. I could scratch my name in the finish with my fingernail; the adhesion was so bad. After thoroughly cleaning it with a damp rag and removing any wax with VM&P Naphtha, I carefully used lacquer thinner and steel wool to remove the layer of old lacquer. I sanded lightly with 400 grit, then built the finish back up with a few coats of shellac. I used Mohawk Blendal Powders suspended in shellac and Mohawk dye stains between coats of finish to touch up areas with missing color. For the sake of speed, I finished off with Mohawk’s Lacover 50 (a padding lacquer), then used 0000 steel wool and wax to soften the sheen. I used 0000 steel wool and Brasso to lightly clean the pulls before reinstalling them. I left them a little dirty so they would still look old. I could have done quite a bit more repair, but unfortunately, I had to call it at some point. My goal for this job was to make this chest of drawers a functional piece of furniture that looked well-loved. The customer was extremely happy to have his grandmother’s piece back in working shape.

07/06/2026

Before and after.
This table and credenza belong to the same customer. The credenza is teak, and the table has a teak top and leaves with an oak base. Both pieces were very faded and tired. The credenza's doors are made to be reversible. The customer plans to use it with the black side out, but if they ever want to use the other side, I made sure they matched the case. I used basically the same process to finish both pieces. I started by chemically removing the old finish, then rinsing with lacquer thinner. I used oxalic acid to remove any stains. Once the oxalic acid was rinsed off and the pieces were dry, I sanded everything lightly with 220-grit sandpaper. As for repairs, I fixed a few loose veneers on the front of the credenza doors, filled any offensive damage with Mohawk's two-part epoxy sticks, and repaired the broken leg on the table. I decided to add some dowels for strength because the way the joints were made didn't leave much wood to support the joint. The customer wanted to keep these pieces as light in color as possible. Unfortunately, I couldn't just go with a clear coat because, as you can see, the leaves on the table and the backsides of the doors of the credenza were considerably darker than the rest of the pieces. I used a custom-mixed Old Masters Gel Stain diluted quite a bit with the natural clear base to add a very small amount of color to the light areas. I then used a little bit of Mohawk dye stain, sprayed on between coats of finish, to even the color up a bit more where needed. For the black sides of the doors, I sanded, then used Gemini black sanding sealer and black lacquer. The finish on both pieces is Gemini Pre-catalyzed Lacquer in a low satin sheen. The customer was extremely happy with their newly refinished pieces.

04/21/2026

Before and after.
This set of McGuire rattan chairs and bamboo dining table were definitely in need of some help. They had been poorly restored previously, and the finish was faded and black. The customer also brought in a set of four McGuire rattan barstools to be restored, which I used to match the color. I started by chemically removing the old finish with a liquid remover that I buy locally. Then, I gave everything a good scrubbing with lacquer thinner and a red Scotch-Brite pad. I replaced a couple of the rawhide laces on the table base and filled the damage on the front of the legs with Mohawk's two-part epoxy sticks. Once the repairs were done, I thoroughly sanded everything with 220-grit sandpaper to remove some of the green stain residue left on the wood and to smooth out the filled areas. Since the color was going so dark, I sprayed on a coat of Mohawk dye stain first as a base color. Then, I used a custom mix of Old Masters Gel Stain to get the color the rest of the way. When the stain was thoroughly dry, I sealed everything with a coat of shellac, then used some Mohawk Blendal powders suspended in shellac to hide the damage on the front of the legs and to add color where needed. I sanded lightly with some fine 3M sanding sponges, then sprayed on a coat of Gemini lacquer. I adjusted the color a little more by spraying on some Mohawk dye stains in between coats of lacquer. Once dry, I finished up with 0000 steel wool and Black Bison Paste Wax to give it a nice soft sheen. Now, we're just waiting on the upholsterer for the new seat cushions.

Address

San Rafael, CA

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm

Telephone

+14158508869

Website

https://artisticlicense.org/smith/

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