Before & After: Heywood Wakefield Dining Set Restoration

Here's a recent example of some of our furniture restoration work. This Heywood Wakefield set arrived with considerable wear, staining and table leaves that didn't match. 

After the old finish was removed and all surfaces sanded and prepped we applied a light wheat finish. Every effort was made to bring out the natural beauty of the wood and get this set back into shape!

Contact us for a free estimate! Please send photos and details to: hank@toshmahal.com

Toshmahal at Inwood Antique Mall

We've recently leased a space over at Inwood Antique Mall just off I35 and are already feeling right at home. Our good friends Stephen and Jose, fellow dealers at the mall, have even given us a hand arranging and setting up our booth to best show off all the restored furniture and mid century housewares we have available. Take a look at the pics and be sure to stop by the mall to see everything in person!

our restored Jens Risom desk fits in perfectly with Stephen and Jose's mid century credenza, lamps, wall unit, and china cabinet.

American of Martinsville credenza, Drexel tables, Stanley dresser set, purses, wall art, and mid century curtains!

All Available at: 

Inwood Antique Mall 

1305 Inwood Rd. Dallas, TX 75247

Open 7 days a week!

connect with the mall on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Inwood-Antique-Mall-459840237369668/timeline/

New to the Toshmahal Store and Items ON SALE!

Just finished restoring this beautiful set of 3  claro walnut dressers (2 high boys and one long dresser with mirror) . I believe they are by Stanley. (sunken pulls are very indicative of this, which are also in pristine condition)  Very nice graining and construction, a little sapwood mixed in for nice contrast. These are pretty rare to find in this condition.

View and Purchase Here

View and Purchase these Here

 We also have this amazing Dining Room Set by Young Mfg, Labeled 'Dallas Show Samples'. I have seen Young Mfg. credenza;s about, and they are nice and very well constructed, but these I have not seen anywhere and I honestly believe these are one of a kind. They are in amazing shape as well. Beautiful diamond book match grain on the front of the china cabinet/hutch. The dining table is extendable with one leaf. The chairs are solid construction with a bent veneered ply back, sculpted legs, and absolutely no veneer chipping which is highly unusual for something of this age and this type.  I have restored/refinished these completely as well and added new upholstery to the seats which is a nice compliment to the coloring of the chairs. They are sturdy, no loose joints anywhere and very comfortable. The top front caps on the legs of the 4 side chairs are very reminiscent of Finn Juhl. Very good Mid Century American made, Danish style furniture. I happen to be pretty picky about what I get for resale and these are no exception to that rule

These pieces  are offered separately or as a complete dining room set. Both are marked down through this weekend but if you are interested in both the table and china cabinet there is a deeper discount.

Happy 4th!

View and Purchase this Here

View and Purchase these Here

New Items, New Store, and our first sale!

This past week we've set up an online store directly on Toshmahal.com, hoping to make the buying experience a bit more personal and affordable for all. Several new items have been added as well including an amazing dining set by Young Mfg. complete with table, 6 chairs, and china cabinet with hutch.

Our first sale was this beautiful American of Martinsville square coffee table.

 It arrived safely and in perfect shape to its new home in Brooklyn today. Thanks Deborah for the photo, it looks like it fits right in! Glad you are pleased with your table and this was such a pleasant experience all around!

YES , I DO HAVE RESTORED MID-CENTURY FURNITURE FOR SALE!!

I have been restoring mid-century furniture for many years now and I have come across some really great stuff in my restorations and in my general meanderings about (IE: Curb, thrift store, friends) and have always hesitated to go into the selling market for many reasons I won't really get into here, but...I got a push in (hopefully) the right direction fairly recently and decided to take the plunge and hoped I wouldn't be 'stepping on anyone's toes'. far from it, people have been very supportive and encouraging with my foray into the unknown. I have a few good people out there looking for projects to restore and sell and have a couple of trailer loads already restored and ready to go up. I have several listings already posted and several scheduled to go up. There is a link from my website to my storefront at One Kings Lane and I will also be selling directly from my site and directly from my shop if the situation should present itself that way. Here are a few of the first items going up for sale (as well as the table that started it all which has it's own story) and a link to the One Kings Lane page (which will be ever changing but adding more in the next few days).

SHOP TOSHMAHAL ON ONE KINGS LANE

Nice  Calro Walnut, Lane Style Coffee Table with Solid Walnut Base

Young Mfg. Walnut China Cabinet w/Hutch and diamond book match doors

Ribbon Mahogany Gentleman's Chest w 10 dovetailed drawers and shelving

American of Martinsville Nightstand

American of Martinsville Lamp Table

American of Martinsville Step Table

American of Martinsville Long Coffee Table

American of Martinsville Square Coffee Table 

Solid Cherry (partially reclaimed lumber) Dining Table Build

  This is a dining table that was commissioned a while back by a couple of very good friends of mine. It had been in the family for a while. It had definitely seen better days...The top was made up (as most solid wood tops are) of many planks laid side by side and glued up. The wood had moved a lot over time and was warping and splitting and generally coming apart at all the seams.  What they wanted was for me to salvage the top and re-use it for the new build, using only new lumber for the base. They are much more like me in the respect that they prefer modern style furniture, so...What they wanted me to do was build this (and I already had design ideas brewing for one of these) in the same style as our Handcrafted Modern Reefbreak Series...This was a pretty huge project, but I was pretty excited about the prospect of building a dining table.

I started by de-constructing the whole table and ripping all the joints on the table saw, creating another batch of planks to start a top with. Lots of these were severely warped and cracked, so I basically had to re-mill everything to get it flat and get all of the edges jointed so they would be able to be glued up as one again. Once I got this done, I cleaned it up, sanded it flat again, then cut out the shape. I then shaped the edges of the table to get the proper roll over, or somewhat of a knife edge, sanded again to get finish ready, then set that aside to start the base. Here are a few pics of that process...

Table Top Milled and Glued Up Again

Top with Shape Rough Cut

Bottom Side of Table Top after Shaping Edges

Top View of Shaped Edges of Table Top

I started the base out with rough sawn lumber. I rough cut everything to size (leaving a little space for mill marks/snipe) and then milled it all here at the shop to get it flat and true. Once that was finished, I cut everything to exact size (apron and legs), leaving the tapers on the legs for after the joinery was done.

Laminations Glued up for Legs 

Parts of Apron and Legs with Joinery Cut

Another View of Apron Parts

Tapers being cut for Legs

Base Being Glued Up

Base After Glue Up

Table Pre-Finish

      I stained this to look the proper aged color. I was pretty happy with the results. These will be available from Handcrafted Modern. Since this was salvaged lumber for the top, the grain orientation was not an option to change, but I can orient the grain either width wise or length wise depending on your preference.  I can obviously do variations in size, just wanted to use as much as I could of the old top here. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished piece.

 Now, I suppose I will have to design and build some dining chairs...
 (I have Actually had those  in the works for a couple of  months now and am trying to get them more refined before I do any sort of mock up design. Also have been working on some case goods designs but That will be for another posting.

Seatmore Table and Chairs

A little while back I had a client come in that brought me these chairs and table. I think at one time these were manufactured to go in all sorts of soda shops around the country. Apparently these are attributed to FRANK RIEDER & SONS, PHILADEPHIA, PA.  I have had great success at restoring latex covered pieces in the past and they are difficult to say the very least. This one was no exception to the rule. I also had some pretty extensive glue ups and repairs to do to them after I removed all of the latex as well as repairs to the joinery on the table. I also had to re-make several pieces and luckily I had some of the long leaf pine just laying about the shop. (there were chairs her from two different sets, long leaf pine and quarter sawn oak. I don't know why anyone would ever cover these up...)Here is what the set looked like when it came in....

And here,  I will just include some detailed pictures with brief descriptions of all of the repairs...

Table, Pre-Stripping..Repair leg to Apron and Tongue and Groove on Top 









Single Chair. Dis-assembly for Repair








Top Rail Pre-Repair












Top Rail Removed for Repair









Chair Rung Replacement Comparison










One Rung Replaced (Bridle Joint)








All Rungs and Dowels in Place








Second Chair Rung Replacement












Glue Up 





As you can see, there were some pretty extensive repairs and most of the joints had to be re-glued and lots of them re-made. It took a while before I could even get to the sanding and finishing part, which was in itself pretty intensive. 


In the process, there are many things that you need to avoid stripping/sanding and so, unlike what many people think, it's not just dipping it (which I never do) or sanding off the finish (a total no-no in my book, ever) and just painting on some stripper. In this process, I ALWAYS like to save any label or marking that is original to the piece if at all possible and I have many different methods of doing this. In this search for better ways to preserve them, and preserving the furniture in general, I have taken it upon myself to do more research, usually just out of curiosity, on the pieces and origins of the furniture...I have decided, since I take so many pictures in the first place (not always, but usually), to offer this as sort of an extra service to those that want it. I like to inform people about their furniture if I can. I have decided to offer a sort of pictoral history of the repairs and whenever possible historical data or links about the origins of the furniture in question. That being said, I sort of offered that up on these and was able to save what was left of the labels on them. Here are a couple of pics and a couple of pics of the finished pieces. 














Stained and Oiled







Stained and Oiled


(the one oddball quarter sawn oak chair. Not an original part of this set, but I thought it was really great nonetheless.)







Finished Table Top (w/o Marble Top)





I see on the label the patent date says 1920,then there is another date beside that, says 1924. I don't know if that is a second patent date, or a manufacture date. I would guess that they are early 20's though, judging by my research, very possibly the 1924 date is the manufacture date. I thought they were very interesting though. Not my typical mid-century style restoration, but I do a lot of older stuff as well and thought this one was a pretty nice set and worthy of a mention.  Hope you did too.