Welcome to the brothers workshop I'm Dave, and today we'll be showing you guys how we
repaired a nightstand from Restoration Hardware, and after that we're gonna go
ahead and bring you guys a review of your product. We're gonna give you guys
that basis on how they built it. We're gonna show you how, so that you know.
You're gonna obviously see that during the repair process. It's gonna give you a
better idea of if you think this is a piece that's worth the money. So, this is
a video for anybody that's out there looking to buy from them, or needs to
learn how to repair furniture. Stay tuned!
To give you a good baseline of the project what we're showing you here is
the nightstand after his repair. We went over to the
Restoration Hardware website; navigated through their nightstands collection, and
about midway down we found what we were looking for. This nightstand known as, the
"Empire Rosette 24 Inch Closed Nightstand" retails for roughly eight hundred and
ninety five dollars, but with a member discount of six hundred and seventy one
dollars. As you can see what we have is the antique coffee finish, and they note
that this piece is crafted of solid hardwood. Further down the details list
it's noted that this piece is created with mortise and tenon joinery, as well
as, English dovetail drawers. At this point I believe that is all the
information that needs to be conveyed for you to understand how this piece is
constructed, and how they want you to understand how it is constructed.
Initially it was not my intent to create a video for this project, so we pick up
here just after I've attached and repaired all the damage wood, and sanded
it down smooth. Shown here is one of the undamaged furniture bolt connections
followed by one of the repaired furniture bolt connections. Here you can
see what is three different types of wood the base is mostly formed by a
composite, framed by some type of hardwood, and you can see the
intersection of the pine shim that I placed in there. You can also note that
the furniture bolt had to be put back into the piece as it had also been torn
directly out. This was done by double threading nuts on the bottom end of the
leg, letting the furniture bolt in, and
tightening it down.
because much of the veneer on the rear of the piece was damaged we decided to
peel off all of it and replace it with a pre-manufactured adhesive-backed veneer
strip. This was a great product to work with; all we really needed to do was heat
up an iron, make sure that it was laid flat and because of the heat of the iron
it melted the glue, and pushed that smooth. In this instance we chose to use
an Oak veneer which had a very similar grain pattern with the rest of the wood
used in the nightstand. Later when it came time to stain the bottom of the nightstand
I went with both a Minwax and a Varathane
product. Mixing between layers to achieve the
exact coloration that we wanted. This isn't always advisable, but it worked out
in this instance. For the Minwax product we use an espresso,
and for the Varathane;
Briar Smoke.
Once the stain has been allowed to dry overnight; we came back with another
Minwax product. This time a paste finishing wax. Applied a layer of that,
and achieved an aesthetic and a texture very similar to the factory applied
finish on the rest of the nightstand. With that the final step in the process
of restoring this piece was to screw in the legs.
There you have it; your nightstand finally restored, and back to being just
as good as new.
And there you have it! I hope you guys liked the video it was
definitely a learning experience for myself. I had never worked on any
furniture of this particular brand before. It just so happens a friend of mine owned
it, was trying to move themselves, tripped
over the curb, and body slammed it. Basically I won't let him live that down;
but yeah a body slammed it, and sent those legs and shards flying everywhere.
We're very lucky that the structure of the piece was still together. We could
definitely repair that, and you take any nicks or bumps or anything out of it
most of it was on the bottom like you guys saw. So, that was an easy fix and we
were very lucky that the finish was antiqued initially. That was a really
easy fix, and it didn't take too much to match that up. Now that being said this
wasn't a video sponsored by any of Restoration Hardware competitors. Like I
said, or them. In general this just happened to be my buddy's piece of
furniture. I felt that as I was fixing this; it was something that we probably
should have brought to light. There's no need to be charging six, seven, eight
hundred dollars for a piece of furniture that is pressboard,
and pine. Yeah, you have a little bit of actual woodworking, and joinery, and stuff.
It's in the drawers, it's where it's visible. The rest of the piece is made of
pressboard. Why are you advertising it as solid wood?
It's... It's not. yeah you have a solid wood veneer on the back that I peeled off
where the rest of it was broken, and then had to replace it. It's... it's just not in my
mind worth it. That being said they do have some unique pieces that you just
can't find anywhere else, and if you feel like a leather couch of a certain size
or a bookshelf of a certain kind of dimension is something that you are
willing to part with a little bit more to achieve. To bring your house, or your
space together. By all means, but that is an individual choice. If I'm gonna
break this down, and be very objective about the construction the quality and
everything like that. Then no, I don't think it's worth it. I think you can find
the same thing at another store for a lot less, and probably a better quality.
if you're gonna spend that much you should be having someone, a real
craftsman, gonna do something for you that is custom, or unique, or of actual
hardwood. But, hey, I'm just glad I got to bring this out to you guys. I'm glad I got the
experience work on this piece. It's no dig on Restoration Hardware. I do like
some of their stuff, but that being said. If you guys like the content, like the
quality, feel free to give the video a "like," a thumbs up, and if you want to see more
stuff like this we're coming out with content all the time. So, feel free to hit
"Subscribe," and leave comments in the comment section. We want start the
dialogue. You know, if you guys have questions, or you have something that you
want to see us work on we'll be more than willing to kind of create content geared
around that. Any feedback definitely helps us to better the channel, and at
that we'll see the next video!