A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Crucial Home & Design Book for Beginners A Library Journal Best Book of the Year An Amazon Best Book of the Month Christophe Pourny learned the art of furniture restoration in his father’s atelier in the South of France. In this, his first book, he teaches readers everything they need to know about the provenance and history of furniture, as well as how to restore, update, and care for their furniture—from antiques to midcentury pieces, family heirlooms or funky flea-market finds. The heart of the book is an overview of Pourny’s favorite techniques—ceruse, vernis anglais,and water gilding, among many others—with full-color step-by-step photographs to ensure that readers can easily replicate each refinishing technique at home. Pourny brings these techniques to life with a chapter devoted to real-world refinishing projects, from a veneered table to an ebonized desk, a gilt frame to a painted northern European hutch. Rounding out this comprehensive guide is care and maintenance information, including how to properly clean leather, polish hardware, fix a broken leg, and replace felt pads, as well as recipes to make your own wax, shellac, varnish, stain, and more.

A complete course in upholstering furniture, including tooling up, selecting stuffings and outer textiles, techniques, and cutting plans. The Upholstery Bible is a one-stop resource for furniture upholstering, regardless of your abilities, with easy-to-follow, illustrated instructions explaining all the essential upholstery techniques, from covering buttons to stripping and upholstering entire chairs. Build your skills at your own pace, with advice on the basics such as choosing materials and tools for the job and estimating yardage, as well as more complex upholstering techniques. The Upholstery Bible features invaluable advice on what to look for when buying second hand furniture, teaching you what’s fixable and what’s not as well as how to avoid costly mistakes by choosing the right stitches, and techniques and textiles for the job. “Dobson breaks up the technical stuff with a more inspiring approach . . . If you’re starting out, I’d say this would be a brilliant resource to have . . . offers plenty of answers to the most common gotchas.” —Vintique Upholstery

Christophe Pourny learned the art of furniture restoration in his father’s atelier in the South of France. In this, his first book, he teaches readers everything they need to know about the provenance and history of furniture, as well as how to restore, update, and care for their furniture—from antiques to midcentury pieces, family heirlooms or funky flea-market finds. The heart of the book is an overview of Pourny’s favorite techniques—ceruse, vernis anglais,and water gilding, among many others—with full-color step-by-step photographs to ensure that readers can easily replicate each refinishing technique at home. Pourny brings these techniques to life with a chapter devoted to real-world refinishing projects, from a veneered table to an ebonized desk, a gilt frame to a painted northern European hutch. Rounding out this comprehensive guide is care and maintenance information, including how to properly clean leather, polish hardware, fix a broken leg, and replace felt pads, as well as recipes to make your own wax, shellac, varnish, stain, and more.

Furniture Restoration.

Repairing and conserving surfaces, chairs, tables and chests with expert guidance to tools and techniques.