Restoration of a Baroque Commode

This antique chest of drawers came to us in Münster in a really battered condition.

The drawers ran very sluggishly, keys were no longer available.
Parts of the solid plum wood top edge were broken off, some veneers were missing.
The brass handles were badly tarnished.

In addition, the top plate of this baroque piece of furniture had obviously been re-veneered in the style of the Biedermeier period.

What to do if the drawers jam?

Wherever wood is pushed over wood, in the course of the life of a chest of drawers there will be abrasions. In order to restore the function of sluggish drawers, we renew the runners in the course of the restoration. In some cases, it is possible to knock out the bent runners, turn them over and replace them. If this is not possible, the scraped areas are doubled up with wooden strips. This is also necessary at the bottom of the affected areas of the drawers.
After the drawers were in use again, we cut the veneer of the top plate to fit, so that we had a fielding again, as it was usual at the time of the origin of the chest of drawers.
Afterwards, the other defects in the veneer and the rest of the wood were repaired.

Then the surface was cleaned and lightly sanded to smooth out any unevenness.

The cleaned fittings form the clean image on the front, and the refinished keys ensure the functionality of the locks.

Dear customers, there are very different approaches to restoring an antique piece of furniture. If it is possible to preserve the original patina, this is certainly advisable. If, as in this case, larger areas of veneer have to be replaced, this is often only at the expense of the patina.
The intensity of the cleaning of locks and fittings can of course also be individually adapted.

We would also be happy to restore your antique piece of furniture!

Simply contact us via e-mail, SMS or WhatsApp. If you send us some photos of the object to be restored, we can usually give you the approximate restoration costs based on the pictures.

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