A dizzying traffic jam of workers and materials hurtles around a renovation site. Just when I think I鈥檝e figured out who belongs to which vehicle parked out front, I arrive to find another tradesman鈥檚 van that I don鈥檛 recognize.
There have been times when the house was so full of tradespeople coming and going, I wondered if we needed to install some kind of traffic control system to keep track of it all.
(The only people happier than us that our renovation is coming to an end are the neighbours who have been navigating an obstacle course of delivery trucks, vans, debris and people just to get into their driveways.)
So, I shouldn鈥檛 have been surprised when the email arrived: 鈥淗i Angela, we still need to discuss colouring on the secretaire/display cabinet. Could you please call me? Thanks, Ed.鈥�
Who is Ed and why does he have my desk?
I own an old secretary desk, the kind with three drawers on the bottom, a glass-front bookcase on top and, in the middle, a hinged piece of wood that flips down to provide a writing surface. These things are usually lovely pieces of furniture. Mine wasn鈥檛. I didn鈥檛 intend to buy it.
I needed to furnish my first apartment when I was living in Kingston, Ont., in the mid-1980s. I found a plain, wood table that cranked open to fit two leaves for larger gatherings. At $50, it fit the budget. While I was waiting to pay, I spotted the secretary desk, which looked lovely from across the room. Close up, I could see the splotchy evidence that someone who didn鈥檛 know what he was doing had tried to refinish the piece. The wood scrollwork inset in the glass doors had chunks missing. The poor thing looked sad. The $325 price tag seemed reasonable, if the buyer knew how to refinish it. I didn鈥檛 and I didn鈥檛 have the money.
Looking a little eager, the shop owner sauntered over: 鈥淣ice piece, eh?鈥�
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 seen better days,鈥� I said.
鈥淚 know,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been here awhile.鈥�
Somehow, within 15 minutes, I was heading over to the ATM. For $250 cash, I bought the table and the secretary desk, thinking that someday I might learn how to refinish the piece properly myself. That was more than 25 years ago.
Our contractor, Dave Rannala, mentioned that Schenk's, the company that was painting the cabinetry for our kitchen and family room, also refinished furniture. I took a photo of the piece; Dave sent it in. The estimate to do the work came back at $1,100. That was a lot more than I wanted to spend. 鈥淚 really don鈥檛 think that piece is worth it,鈥� I told Dave.
When the email arrived asking about the stain colour for the desk, I called Ed. Apparently, my desk was at Schenk's, in pieces, stripped, sanded and sitting on the floor of his shop on Beta Street, near Burnside and Douglas. I went to see for myself.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a crappy, old piece of furniture,鈥� said Ed Taekema, who has run Schenk's Furniture Repair and Refinishing for 12 years, though the business has been on that site for 27 years. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a nice, walnut cabinet.鈥�
Most of the secretary desk is fashioned from thick plywood, faced with walnut veneer. 鈥淪ome parts,鈥� Ed told me, 鈥渁re solid wood 鈥� the doors, the support brackets for the desk, the legs, the glass door frames.鈥�
It鈥檚 the same construction used on some desks from the 1940s and 鈥�50s that he is refinishing for the provincial government. 鈥淓ven in the 1950s, the core of the thick sides, backs and tops is particleboard that鈥檚 got beautiful black walnut veneer on it. Some of that particleboard is an-inch-and-a-quarter, inch-and-a-half thick. Back in the day 鈥� in the mid-1900s 鈥� they used what they called 鈥榣umbercore鈥� rather than the plywood we have now which is multi, multi layers and it doesn鈥檛 look that nice.鈥�
The action on the metal arms that pushed out the wood brackets to support my flip-down desktop never really worked well. 鈥淗ardware gets old and dry. Where it鈥檚 rubbing metal on metal, it just needs some oil. If somebody would have done it every five to eight years that would have been adequate, it probably never got any oil. So, the metal starts to wear and the bars slip out of the track they鈥檙e in.鈥�
Ed pulled out one of my secretary cabinet鈥檚 door frames. One length of the open square had been stained a dark brown that looked very flat, the other side was a warmer, lighter shade of brown. The darker colour matches the stain that was used on the cabinetry for the island in our kitchen. Dave, our contractor, had suggested we鈥檇 probably want to match the colours. But this piece, which I had been thinking of getting rid of, would never be used anywhere near the kitchen. Ed had chosen the lighter shade to test because he thought it better suited the wood. He was right.
The darker colour looked wrong, Ed said, because it鈥檚 not what the original would have looked like.
鈥淏ut you鈥檇 probably be amazed at how much people like that look because it鈥檚 darker. If you go into a furniture store now and look at what鈥檚 there, a lot of it is dark furniture. People don鈥檛 understand that, when they have a satin, solid black dining tabletop, every time the kid drops a fork or something on it, every one of those marks stands out like a sore thumb. Then they go, 'That looks terrible.' On a lighter table, you wouldn鈥檛 see it unless it was really nasty.鈥�
Ed told me he didn鈥檛 think much of the colour combination for our kitchen cabinets when he first saw the order. The cabinets and drawers around the perimeter of the kitchen are painted a creamy white called Balsa while the cabinets under the island are stained a dark wood colour called Atlantic.
鈥淚 thought, 鈥楾hese two colour choices look a bit pukey,鈥� 鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen I saw them [on the cabinets] together, I thought, 鈥楪reat choice.鈥� You and the interior designer had a good idea, but I needed to see a big panel next to a bunch of the doors, and then I thought those colours actually look good together.鈥�
Ed obviously has an eye for colour and finish. There鈥檚 something about the cabinets he finished for our kitchen that looks different to me. The appearance is fresh and elegant, unlike most kitchen cabinetry or furniture I鈥檝e seen. What鈥檚 the secret?
鈥淚t鈥檚 the sheen,鈥� Ed said. 鈥淢ost of the furniture that you find in stores is a little too high sheen. It鈥檚 not satiny enough. What we鈥檙e using is maximum 35-degree sheen. In the gauges of sheens, 15 degrees is dead flat 鈥� too flat, like a chalkboard 鈥� and 90 degrees is high gloss, like glass. In between, we find a happy medium; we use about 35 degrees.鈥�
As we talked in the paint booth at the back of Ed鈥檚 2,300-square-foot shop, a customer鈥檚 Cloud White kitchen cabinet doors were drying between coats. Every door is primed -- painted doors gets a lacquer-based primer that鈥檚 quick drying with a high solids content while wood doors are stained and coated with a fairly thin sealer. In both cases, the point is to raise the grain of the wood, which then gets its 鈥渕ost serious鈥� sanding. Then it gets three more coats of colour. Each coat requires less sanding than the one before because it starts to smooth out, Ed explained.
鈥淭he finest sandpaper we use is 150-grit which, if you feel it, is pretty rough,鈥� Ed said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 done for two reasons: One, you want what you spray on it to adhere to it because it鈥檚 roughly sanded and, secondly, it accepts more stain. If you sanded it until it was really smooth and polished, it would accept little or no stain.鈥�
The shop is full of old furniture waiting for new life: homemade picture frames, crown mouldings; Victorian chairs; a teak coffee table, a dining room buffet and hutch and some 1980s, pink-hued, white-washed kitchen cabinets that will be refinished to the other extreme, with a dark brown, almost black finish.
The shop is seeing a lot of kitchens that are only about 10 years old, but the finish is already starting to fail because 鈥渢hey didn鈥檛 put enough finish on them,鈥� Ed said.
If the cabinetry finishers had taken the time to give it one more sand and put on one more heavy coat, Ed said, the finish would have lasted a lot longer. 鈥淏ut some people are really harsh on their kitchens. When you see how much food is dripping underneath the cabinet, you always realize that there鈥檚 big slopping going on here. And it鈥檚 no wonder that these cabinets have failed.鈥�
With a lot of time, patience and meticulous work, Schenks makes them look like new. The results often surprise people, Ed said.
鈥淚 call it 鈥榯hankful work,鈥� 鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou can make a silk purse out of a sow鈥檚 ear because the old piano that鈥檚 in the garage is not necessarily junk. People think it is, because they鈥檝e been throwing the paint cans on it for 20 years.鈥�
Just like an old secretary desk, picked up for $200 cash, that sat quietly in a corner for 25 years waiting for the new life Ed鈥檚 giving it in his shop.
How did it end up there? At the start of the renovation in our house, the contractor tacked up a whiteboard to keep a running list of things that need to be done and questions that need to be asked. As items are dealt with, they are erased from the board. It has been a great way of keeping track things for our onsite carpenter, Travis. One item on the board was 鈥淐abinet to Schenk鈥檚.鈥� When Schenk鈥檚 delivered all our cabinetry to the house, they ended up taking the desk back to their shop because it hadn鈥檛 been erased from the list after we decided against having it refinished.
Dave, our contractor, admitted the error was his, and we have come up with a fair way to share the costs. As a smiling Dave said to my husband, Brad: "Our contribution will be a 'welcome home' gift to you guys."
I鈥檓 glad to know that old secretary desk isn鈥檛 a piece of junk. I鈥檓 curious to see what it will look like when Ed鈥檚 done with it. Stay tuned. I鈥檒l post a photo when it鈥檚 done.
