I spend two days a week working as a subcontractor at Michael Keith Restoration in Charlottesville. I took the above photos while working in Michael’s shop this week. My job there is to develop color recipes to match approved color samples and work up cabinet parts and interior molding with color, sealer and topcoat. I preform the majority of my spray/color work unsupervised.

I prep the wood pieces, work up the color, and adjust the recipe as needed.

Often, the color samples are white washed oak with tones of yellow/white sprayed over the wood. When top coated with a dull acrylic finish, it has a natural ‘unfinished’ effect.

However, in the last two months, I have worked up a rich brown gel stained mahogany room, a wet gloss red mahogany library, and a completely ebonized, wire brushed oak sitting room.

My business Len’s Furniture Repair is licensed and fully insured. In my home based shop, I mostly repair and refinish furniture for the folks who fined my business on Google. However, my goal for 2027 is to use my shop to meet the needs of designers— focusing on finishing their small architectural millwork projects, and refinishing (or refurbishing) their vintage finds.

My current shop space is large enough to finish furniture, as well as trim, molding, and drawer fronts. I am hoping to move into a larger shop in the future that will allow me to work up projects with large cabinet buildouts.

Arts and Crafts drop leaf table I finished this week for my client in DC. This color was achieved with black tea tannins, custom acrylic stain, custom red glaze, and several coats of scratch made shellac.