Just finished a curio cabinet rework/repair for my next-door neighbor. It was the husband’s parents and as best as I can tell/find it is from 1910ish. It was really well made and a fine piece of small furniture to display dolls, tea cups, and such. At some point, 2 shelves were added and the corner trim blocks were lost. I turned some 7/8″ X 7/8″ X 3/8″ blocks down, and added rosettes with a skew chisel point. As my neighbor was handing me the cabinet to install the blocks, he also asked that I put in a third shelf. OK… I used an old fruit crate bottom for the shelf material and planed it down a touch to match the thickness of the other two. I then cleaned up the front edge of one of the “original: shelves so it matched the other and the new.

After the repair and rework, I mixed and fiddled with 3 different stains I had to color match the original finish; I didn’t want the rosettes looking out of place. After touching-up all the dings and scrapes, I added an oil finish and 2 coats of wax. It only took 10 minutes or so to buff it up to a high shine.

I took it over to his wife Monday morning and she was thrilled at the transformation. The Talley motto (at least my house-hold) is “Be Helpful when you can” and I feel this qualifies. I am glad I could do this little thing for them and hope they continue to use it and pass it to their kids.