Furniture Physicians Company

09/25/2026

So have you ever wondered about the first "camping" equipment chairs? So back in the late 1800s we see the first manufactured "camp chairs." These were made of durable hardwoods and usually have large rivets holding them together. This example is not just a chair but a very rare rocking chair. I have seen only a handful of these surviving pieces. Probably the reason this example survived was a later application of a casein or milk varnish over the badly damaged original coating.... If you see one of these snap it up as they are quite rare! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvNr3SFzBAQ&t=3s

08/29/2026

We are busy, busy, busy.... So this is an interesting piece. A secretary was just that back in the day. It's where you probably kept the family photos, important records and documents and once a month dropped the lid to pay your bills. I have one myself and I can still see my Mom doing all of that at our secretary. A funny story from me was where our secretary came from... When I was about 5 or so the farmer around the corner from us in the rural Plattsburg area of Ohio was doing Spring cleaning. He had a banner year with his farm production the year before and promised his wife he would do some mild rennovation and allow her to pick some new furniture for the house. So they now had too much furniture... My Mom, Dad, and I were looking at this old late 1800s secretary of his and he said, Well, I can't just give this to you as that would be bad luck... He looked down at me and said, Hey, young fella' would you buy this off me? I shuffled through my pants pockets and pulled out a new quarter... That's fine he said! That's what I wanted for it, it's yours! So my secretary looks very much like the one in the video and is proudly sitting right by my rear entrance to my home....

So the typical, practical, secretary of this vintage, well, with a ...

07/03/2026

Well, so I apologize for not dropping in here for awhile.... We have been busy, busy, busy.... We had a very strong surge of spring/early summer business and we were finishing up our new shop truck build as well. So how about a video for today? Our subject is the venerable Singer Sewing Machine. Or as most of us know them...the treadle sewing machine. First patented in the 1850s by Mr. Singer himself these machines revolutionized the creation of clothing. I still even have customers actively using their machines. For those of you that have machines and would like more information about their use, etc., I recommend this...https://www.amazon.com/dp/098256435X?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title Any time someone gets a machine restored with us I try to provide a copy of that. So take a look... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izK7NpHmdtQ

04/04/2026

Well, we finally pulled out of most of winter, right? Now the sunlight is flooding into peoples homes and our phone is ringing off the hook... I believe since people were stuck in their homes with the kids, pets, etc., it seems the furniture has taken quite the beating... Our feature this week for a short video is about Mid Century Modern Maple... take a look... this is a quite typical dinette set that you would find in the "breakfast nook" area of an eat in kitchen....

So sometimes people will refer to this as the "Leave it to Beaver" generation pieces. Maples as seen in smaller dinette sets like this appeared in many "eat...

02/07/2026

Oh, we have something unusual and entertaining this week! It's a Polyphonic Music Machine or sometimes also called a Polyphonic Music Box. So these pieces are so much fun as you get to see the forunner of the later Edison style cylinders and discs. These are based on a clock sprung style mechanism with tiny rectangular holes punched in the large metal music discs. As a battery of individual metal keys "pluck" the holes the attached sounding plate amplifies the individual tones. This unit here once belonged to the Mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania back in the early 1900s which was not unusual as these large models were only in the hands of the wealthy at the time. Although made in Germany and sold in many countries the Regina Company wanted to be more profitable by avoiding import tarriffs here in the US (hmmmm... sounds familiar) so they moved their manufacturing here. This unit suffered from heavy home smoke smells. We took it all apart, cleaned it severa times, and sealed it up with special flake shellac that I make for application inside and out... We also added some additional historically correct coating over that... If you got a little time wait for the end of the video and listen to this beautiful piece...

So the old music boxes grew up in the 1870s with the invention of the Polyphonic Music Machine or Music Box. These could be as small as table top models with...

01/13/2026

This weeks featured piece.... a white quarter sawn oak Mission style desk... So if you have always like older more solid furniture but most antique furnitue was just too fancy for you maybe you should look at the Mission Oak movement of the early 1900s. This beautiful Tiger Oak flake wood looks right at home in the modern household with it's simple straight lines.

So in the turn of the century early 1900s we see the simplicity of craft made or what is referred to as Mission Oak. The desk you see here has graining patt...

12/19/2025

So what's new? Well, we really put my Granddaughter, Sierra, to the test recently. This was what is called a Scholar's Table from the Quing Dynasty which was the last of the Chinese dynasties from 1644 to 1912. We think this was probabaly from the 1800 but that is at most an educated guess by me based on construction and materials. What a mess! This piece was completely crushed. Take a look, this is fun....

12/13/2025

So I thought I'd share an interesting "craft piece" that was severely damaged in a move. So this was just "one" of those moves where everything kind of went in the wrong direction. This was a treasured hand built piece for some obvious Steelers fans. Piece was picked up by moving crews who carefully packed BUT the piece went into storage for a period..... Well, take Texas heat combined with movers quilts and other heavy objects on top of it and you get this.... Melted in quilted movers pads.... I mean this was BAD. It was an extremely heavy piece and the customer did not want to have it MOVED out again for service.... what to do... So in my car hobby for the last 10 years I've been doing accessory vinyl wrapping and graphics. I told the customer about my experience with premium grade vinyls and I thought that was the best way to "save" this top.... so we sanded the messy top level and then about a half hour later Sierra and I turned out this....

11/26/2025

A question I get asked quite often is... Can you do larger or more complicated pieces of furniture in your satin black or satin white finishes? Well, sure! So this week we have a large traditional hutch which falls under that mid century modern description we see so much of now. This is a 2 piece unit (top and bottom). If you are moving these pieces even just around the house I would suggest using those moving sliders you can buy just about anywhere. If there are steel connectors on the back connecting top to bottom you should be safe to just "slide" the whole thing by grabbing the bottom case. IF you do not have those connected you will probably need 3 people to take the top down and slide each piece separately.
A safety tip- We address the lighting system that came from the factory in these pieces.... In furniture retailing they eventually got a nickname... The Firestarter Kit.... Take 3 hot transformers turned on by an open spark and put it up in the top of furniture case goods with NO ventilation. We recommend throwing these units away... If you still want interior lighting you can buy battery powered under counter light bars that work great up there and generate NO heat... So, on with the video!....

So we have developed somewhat of a reputation/following for our black satin and white satin furniture finishes. These coatings are heavily modified furnitur...

11/18/2025

The holidays are coming!

Get your home ready for family and friends.
Have a chair that needs repair, a wobbly table, white rings on the guest room dresser?
Let Furniture Physicians help!
HOLIDAY REPAIR SPECIAL
All structural repairs 20% off
Special pricing on in-home repairs.
Fast service so you can cross this off your list!
Call Annette at 614-774-4638
Hurry! Special Expires December 25, 2025