Jan's 
Beautifully refinished antique furniture

Above is a corner of my living room, floor lamp belonged to my Grandma Nellie Bruns (right).  
Looks like it could be early twentieth century.  I refinished and rewired her floor lamp, bought a new lampshade and 
voila, Gramma's lamp looks gorgeous again, like her.  Coffee table found and refinished in Kansas about 1994,
rocking chair refinished in Shell Knob, Missouri in 2009.  The side chair was found in a Fargo, ND antique shop and sold to 
me in 2008 for $5 because no one else would buy it, according to the shop owner.  See how I refinished it step-by-step
below.  It was purchased with the maple dresser, also pictured step-by-step below.

My new project below, a spring loaded, platform rocker bought at Granny's Antiques in Cassville, Missouri in April, 2012.
This poor chair had nails, tacks and screws everywhere, some old, some not so old.  It originally had arms and I'd guess
it has been reupholstered at least twice during its lifetime.  I'm going to try and restore its arms before upholstering it 
which is something new to me.  WIsh I knew what the original upholstery looked like aside from the fact it was blue.

    
By researching the William Volker & Company tag inside the chair.  The KC, Missouri company began in the 1880s by
manufacturing window shades.  Over the years the business expanded and started getting into manufacturing furniture 
in the 1920s which is when I believe this chair was built.  The springs the rocker sits on are rusted but in good shape,
so are the springs across the bottom.  The wood is as dry as I've ever seen wood but still solid.  I had an excellent 
woodworker make arms, now all I need to do is restore it, stain, polyurethane and upholster.  I'm also going to put a small
patch of slightly padded upholstery on the upper, top portion of the arms leaving the rest of the oak exposed.  

Spotted in a Monett, Missouri back yard, under a bush and looking decrepit during the summer of 2011.  
After some negotiation, I bought it for $45, brought it home and after a month or so, brought it back to life.  
 
The replacement door was horrible so they were both thrown away.  A dark oil stain on the lower left was there to stay but it doesn't look bad.
There were originally little wheels on this piece, two of which were gone so I took them all off and replaced them with glides. 

I put an small flower appliqué on each side along with its provenance, location and date.
It's now used as a bookcase/TV stand in my computer room.  I keep DVDs and videos in the drawer.  It's perfect.
 

Below is a coffee table purchased at the Red Barn Antiques in Shell Knob, Missouri
on 8-15-09 for $50.  It's a cute little thing, isn't it?  Too cute to cover w/this obnoxious red paint.
Under this piece is the date 6-64.  Not an antique to me ... but nonetheless, it's at least 45 years old and is in need of some TLC.
 

And the finished product (11-23-09) pictured above right, better then red, isn't it?  My brother now uses the burgundy cell.

Below is a beautiful oak rocker that's at least 100 years old.
I bought it at a consignment shop north of Shell Knob, Missouri on August 3, 2009, for $85.

It had this horrible plastic tacked over the original and VERY worn burgundy brocade seat.
Below left is before I started.  Middle and right pics are the finished product.  Took me 20 days.

One of my favorite pieces is the little chair below.

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Above left is my little oak spindle chair, purchased for $12 from a Tea, SD antique shop in June, 2008 and refinished in July.  The poor thing had a very warped plywood seat and the veneer on the front part of the backrest was gone although I can't imagine how that could possibly happen.  The chair was wobbly, worn and weathered to where the wood actually had a yellow/greenish hue and the poor thing had no varnish whatsoever.  After sanding down two of the legs only slightly, it was level, good as new and all joints were solid.  

   
Of course I threw the plywood seat away and replaced it with a hand-tooled leather seat.  I haven't done that in more than 25 years but kept my tools which worked out well.  Above left is the chair down to its bare bones.  Middle is the leather seat after tooling the design and before staining.  Notice that within the design I tooled "JK" on the left and the " '08" on the right.  (Gotta make my mark.)  Surprisingly enough, the chair is much more comfortable then it was when I tested it in the antique shop because leather has "give" and of course plywood doesn't.  

After tooling, staining and finishing the leather I cut it to the approximate size, glued it to the chair using every clamp I owned then trimmed off the small amount of excess leather with a finishing sander.  My niece Christy said I had some major "clamp action" going on.  The oak veneer on the front of the backrest came from VanDykes Restorers in Mitchell, SD and was easy to apply.  Fortunately the veneer on the back side was in perfect shape so that was one less thing to do.  

The dresser and chair pictured below were purchased at Broadway Antiques in Fargo, ND in November, 2007 
and completely refinished on June 18, 2008 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota where I lived from 2004 to 2009. 

I wasn't sure when I bought this dresser but the tiger oak finish was actually painted to look like oak - on top of solid  MAPLE.  
Below left is the dresser before I started working on it and on the right is completely stripped.
   
Below left shows a beautiful maple dresser finished.  I added wheels, repaired the harp which was completely split on the left.  It has all new drawer bottoms and handles.  I also wood burned then painted a little decoration on the harp shown on the right, the ONLY part that wasn't maple, it was pine for some odd reason.

  
   
When I saw the chair (below) was amongst the non-sellable items in the basement at Broadway Antiques in Fargo, ND.
The chair looked incredibly sad sitting there and was exactly what I'd been looking for so I grabbed it, 
brought it to the register and paid for both the chair ($5) and the maple dresser above ($100).

 

On the left, the chair when I first saw it and beginning the process by taking off the upholstery and checking for repair work.  
Middle picture is what was used under the chair.  Nice work, huh?  
On the right is the old skin and yes, the picture is upside down because it's laying on my bench.
 

On the left below, a split in the wood needs to be glued, middle is after the stripping and subsequent coats of polyurethane are applied.
On the right is the new skin placed initially over springs and back before putting padding and upholstery on the chair.
   

The little applique on the left armrest is from 1 of 6 introduction cards my Gramma Nellie had treasured from the 20s or 30s.
The flowered piece is barely glued on the left side and when lifted shows the name of the card's owner underneath.  These little cards
were so cute and I've been saving them for years wondering what to do with them.  Before applying the polyurethane I 
thought of these cards and to my surprise, the decorative top of one fit perfectly on the arm rest so now it's got a second home.
I added a foot stool just to make it look a little more elegant and the doily is a nice touch as an antimacassar.

     
Left is before anything is done, middle is stripped and sanded.  On the right I put color on the flower and laid the seat in place.
The seat isn't attached yet of course, the piece needs to be stained and finished first.  The second shelf for the phone book hasn't been attached yet either.

   
Above left is the usual information I wood burn somewhere on everything I refinish.  Middle is a close-up of the flowered back and right is finished piece.    
The above seat is a Gossip Bench and was used as the only place in the home for the phone when there was only one phone.
My sister bought the bench at an auction about 15 years ago for $25.  It sat in her back porch until last year when I finally talked her out of it.

Above is the little cabinet I bought on Ebay, it only stands about 24" high and was a metal-lined humidor.
The metal interior was battered, now it's gone.

 
  
This little secretary above was not much more than kindling wood when I first saw it in the antique shop.  The back had warped 
away from the piece and had to be tossed, the sides were so dry they had split apart as you can see in the center photo, 
the bottom doors were gone, shelves missing, no mirror.  It was totally trashed and perfect for my little hobby.  
This secretary was the MOST fun project to complete and took several months.  The back was replaced, sides glued,
all knobs and pulls are replaced with brass, new wood around the pull-down door and added appliques on the back and side.

A 42" dining room table was given to me by my brothers. Modern was using it to cut plexiglass and was going to throw it away but Ricky said, 
"Wait! Let's give it to Jan and see what she wants to do with it and if she doesn't want it, she can throw it away."  
The most fun was seeing the look on their faces when they saw the finished product.  
I already had four chairs that matched the table perfectly.

The highboy dresser is a man's and the woman's dresser is the lower wider one. The above left photo shows both dressers before I did anything.  Above right photo shows only the highboy with the hardware removed and stripped.  Both dressers were without their mirrors.   All knobs were removed and replaced by wooden pulls except for the top drawers.  The oak escutcheons (the pieces that go around the keyholes) were also oak and purchased in Fargo.  Everything matched perfectly.  The highboy had glue or perhaps clear nail polish spilled on the top. Stripper didn't budge it so it had to be scraped off with a putty knife then eventually sanded down.

Me with my gorgeous dressers that turned out even better then I'd imagined.  
When I left South Dakota for Missouri, I gave these to my little brother.  He found them for me
in the first place so my plan was to give them to him and Carlotta for their new Glyndon home.

I found a old and extremely dry stanchion (harp) for a highboy dresser in a Moorhead, MN
antique shop and bought it for $20. I already had an old mirror so I cut it to fit and used it. 

Below: Refinished stanchion w/mirror on the dresser, the two look like they'd been together since its beginning.

The dresser below on the left was found in my x-husband's father's garage without the mirror & frame which I found later in another part of the house.  Back in the 1950s Charley's sister had removed the mirror, painted it blue and hung it in her bedroom where it stayed for years.  The little cabinet (below right) was purchased in Las Cruces, New Mexico about 1994 and refinished in Kansas, where I lived at the time before moving to Las Cruces in 1995.  And the kitty in this photo is Frank, a black/white shorthair.

The little cabinet below left was purchased in a Wichita antique shop and refinished in Kansas, the TV stand on the right was purchased and refinished in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I had a friend saw 7" the legs to make it the height of a TV stand.  You can't see it but there was contact paper pasted in the front panels.  It looked like it may have been in a baby's room which would explain why it was white.
(The cat  lower right is Boo kitty) 

Below left is a rocker I found in my ex-husband's dad's garage, it was completely trashed.  I refinished it, repositioned the back spindles because three were missing, inlaid hand-tooled leather in the top back and added a new stool to give the chair company.  

The bookcase (center) was from a kitchen assembly and took me the entire 1993 summer to refinish.  It was loaded with problems.  I crocheted the curtains that say JCK on the left and 1993 on the right.  

Below right is what I believe to be the trunk carried from Norway to the USA by my father's mother's mother in 1885 when she immigrated with her two sisters.  Wooden pegs were used, no nails.  The hardware is definitely nineteenth century and the inside pull to the lid compartment is leather.  When I stripped off the greenish burgundy paint that was on the trunk when I first got it, I could see there was lettering on the bare wood.  Wish I could've saved or even just read it but stripper takes it all.  The trunk weighs about 10 pounds.

This was my woodshop/garage when I lived on Klondike Trail in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (2004-2009).

Designed over the years by me, Jan Koski
2009

to the ladies of the Old West