Furniture Restoration of Dining Tables and occasional tables, chairs, sideboards, cabinets, bedroom sets and pianos. We restore mid-century Modern, Space Age Fiberglass, Designer, and Antique pieces from all periods: medieval, Renaissance, Georgian, Regency, Victorian, and more. New York magazine says we are "Best of N.Y"

Antique or modern furniture restoration at Olek will exceed your expectations. If you have modern furniture to be restored, please click here.

The original joints, or joinery, must be respectfully treated, or repairs will not last. Our emphasis on quality craftsmanship underlies all that we do. A severely broken chair that we repair will reliably stand up through a lifetime of heavy use

20th Century dowelled chairs need rebuilding hundreds of years sooner than antique mortise and tenon joined chairs. The way to repair a loose chair is to disassemble it into all its parts, then cut off the dowels, drill out the holes slightly larger, and drill out the dowels and insert a larger dowel individuallyadjusted to fit tightly, so the chair is tight without any glue at all. And only then re-glued. By rebuilding the chair this way, it will last 50 - 100 years before loosening again:

            • Improper "repairs",including injecting expanding polyurethane glues into the joints, or installing metal angles, nails or screws, are "fixes". The loosening is often accompanied by collapse, putting too much stress on too small an area or on too few loose joints.

Dining Tables with Regency Style Dowelled Legs need re-doweling:

This Table design is more challenged than the Regency Pedestal:

            • Marquetry or veneer inlays replacing missing elements to be seamless and indistinguishable from the original elements, whether it is Louis XV floral marquetry created by master ebenistes ca. 1750, or a pre-War reproduction dining table with missing pieces of string inlays around the cross-banded border.

Early 18th Century Queen Anne Chest of Drawers, requiring Cross-banded Marquetry on Drawers

            • Chest of Drawers Rebuilding

Periodic maintenance keeps drawers functioning smoothly like new. For an old, wobbly piece, complete disassembly of the chest is necessary. The drawers are separated into the sides, back, front, and bottom on a bench. The sides are added to from the bottom with similar wood to restore original dimensions, all the dovetail joints shimmed to be tight without glue, then re-glued. We take the frame apart in the same way; after each piece is added to with Dutchman inlays to compensate for breakage or other losses to the same dimension as originally made, it is re-glued.

Early 18th Century American Queen Anne Period High Chest of Drawers, drawer runners and rails repaired:

The rails the drawers ride on are very worn on top, but probably pristine on the bottom side, so we flip them over and reattach.

American Empire Sideboard Repair, ca. 1830- Repaired with Veneer Inlays, Rebuilt drawers, French Polished, Hardware replicated where missing:

            • Carving  matches original missing elements, whether Gothic workmanship, or highly stylized Georgian period, or more theatrical and flowing Italian Baroque, or early 20th century neoclassical carved Church pew ends. Our carvers match the hand of the original carver and flawlessly inlay replacement elements.

            • Turnings made on a lathe,  are perfect hand-turned copies of the original hand-turned spindles, balusters, or other parts.

            • Metal Repair skillfully executed, and invisibly done. We cast, forge, weld, mill in our machine shops, chase, grind, turn, and perform any metalworking operation needed to attain a fine repair. We fabricate replacement elements indistinguishable from the original

            • Modern restoration  executed skillfully and with precision, utilizing the original materials, whether plastic, rubber, fiberglass, glass or various types of metals

Karl Springer Coffee Table with Bamboo Marquetry splitting and losing bamboo inlays

Bamboo parquetry Oriental Style Table developed splitting top, sides, legs, and loss of inlays

To attain impeccable, meticulous results, we employ the finest European craftsmen; cabinetmakers, metal machinists and welders, carvers, upholsterers, artists, even glaziers.  We respect the integrity of joinery and know the importance of maintaining the original design and joinery when repairing your goods. We will not insert a dowel into a mortise-and-tenon joint that will compromise a tenon’s function, to effect a cheap “repair”. 

Plaster Sculpture Repair of John Dickenson Furniture Table:

This plaster table had thin, flexible armatures "supporting" the plaster, and as a result all the legs were splitting in multiple places, with one leg broken off. Repairing the sculpture required installing heavier armatures, and cementing all the cracked elements.

Olek repairs joinery true to the original design, so you will enjoy it for many decades after it has left our shop. There are instances when the original design was flawed and we suggest an improvement for durability

Olek's ability to repair antique period wood joinery on furniture ranging from the middle ages to modern, from Rococo to Regency is well known. Complicated  repairs and badly damaged goods are routine for us. Our European cabinetmakers perform complicated, intricate repair of missing marquetry, carvings, and joinery, on wood that is in good condition, or suffering from smoke or fire damage, or the ravages of powder post beetles.  Our mission is to restore your goods, so you cannot tell that a repair was made;  the furniture will look like it was well maintained throughout its life.

We repair historic exterior architectural woodwork, including furniture, doors, windows, and trim.  We meticulously follow original joinery design, no matter how complicated, so superior results are obtained, that there is no substitute for.  Many of the historic buildings we work on are Landmarked or on the National Register of Historic Places, and these details must be coordinated and approved by historic preservation agencies.  We can offer these agencies, and architects or others involved with the management of such projects, advice on the joinery and materials to be used, that will improve the results obtained.