Modern Furniture Repair & Restoration

Modern furniture manufacturers and designers experimented with new materials and methods of construction. Aside from having to periodically replace fabric, cane, and leather, the use of fanciful futuristic shapes led to the extensive use of bent plywood and fiberglass. These experimental designs don’t always stand up well to the test of time, and usage. Most modern furniture was designed for people who were younger and lighter than they are today too. And the furniture wasn’t necessarily designed to last a century. At Olek Lejbzon & Co., our goals are to repair broken or worn furniture:

• Repair furniture so that you can't tell that it was repaired.

• Repair to safely stand up through many decades of use.

• Repair the furniture, including non-traditional, experimental materials used in its fabrication, including not only wood, and also metals and electroplated finishes, leather, rubber, plastic, fiberglass, glass, various adhesives, and fabric. These could be decorative elements, or structural.

Repairing Manufacturing and Design Errors

We have the benefit of hindsight to see what mistakes in manufacturing techniques were made over the years, and learn from the experience. If we see a repair technique or material that will improve the strength and life of furniture, without changing the design intent or appearance, we incorporate these improvements into our repairs, if the Owner of the furniture approves the change. We are familiar with the various materials from an engineering standpoint- this is critical to making appropriate and effective repairs. For instance, we understand the differences between thermoset plastics and thermoplastics, the various adhesives from aliphatic glues to resorcinols, epoxies, and others, and what structural designs and improvements are necessary for repairs to be effective, to prevent the mistakes of the past, from being the burdens of the future. What we don’t know, we can research, using engineering design handbooks, and expert craftsmen.

We have the benefit of hindsight to see what mistakes in manufacturing techniques were made over the years, and learn from the experience. If we see a repair technique or material that will improve the strength and life of furniture, without changing the design intent or appearance, we incorporate these improvements into our repairs, if the Owner of the furniture approves the change. We are familiar with the various materials from an engineering standpoint- this is critical to making appropriate and effective repairs. For instance, we understand the differences between thermoset plastics and thermoplastics, the various adhesives from aliphatic glues to resorcinols, epoxies, and others, and what structural designs and improvements are necessary for repairs to be effective, to prevent the mistakes of the past, from being the burdens of the future. What we don’t know, we can research, using engineering design handbooks, and expert craftsmen.

Delaminating Bent Plywood

One common problem was the glue used in bentwood furniture. Common aliphatic or yellow glues of questionable quality were commonly used by cost conscious manufacturers, and are today the source of delamination of many bentwood pieces. Vladimir Kagan furniture suffers premature failure frequently. Many people think glues have improved over the centuries. This may be true, but they are not always used appropriately. Our experience is that bentwood Victorian furniture has far more stable bentwood laminations than mid-Century modern furniture, even though it is a century older.

Typical Modern Furniture Repairs

Dining Table shattered by large oak tree falling through the roof of a customers home.

Showing damage (before)

Showing damage (before)

Showing repair (After)

A chair belonging to the same customer as the table, presented with a broken leg, this delicate design required replacement with color and patina matching

Vladimir Kagan, Delamination of Bent Plywood

Plywood cannot be reglued, with new glue over old. A better joint can be obtained by making a new leg, and using a highly moisture resistant glue such as resorcinol type. A three-dimensional die, or caul is used to make the replica parts.

Vladimir Kagan tri-legged chair leg, with splitting laminations

Vladimir Kagan tri-legged chair

Vladimir Kagan tri-legged chair with newly fabricated replicas of parts

Vladimir Kagan tri-legged chair with three-dimensional caul to make replica bentwood leg

Repairing metal hardware or furniture parts requires many skills and equipment

Metal repairs are skillfully executed, and invisibly done. We cast, forge, weld, and mill, chase, grind, lathe turn, and perform any metalworking operation in our machine shop needed to attain an effective, stable repair, or to fabricate replacement elements indistinguishable from the original. Replating is also performed.

One example of metal fabrication can be seen on this Hugh Acton walnut bench with cast bronze leg repair.

Hugh Acton bench before with broken bronze leg

Hugh Acton bench during

Hugh Acton bench after

Hugh Acton Bench with bronze leg repaired by silver soldering internal dowel into legs

Hugh Acton Bench being stripped and refinished