recycling with rik

The fainting couch swooned, took a swan dive from nearly three stories up, hit cockeyed and shattered to pieces.

Too bad. She was made of mahogany and upholstered in blue satin brocade. And she’d had a long life – made in England around 1825. The antiques appraiser told the moving company who “dropped” her that the elegant grand dame was a total loss.

They weren’t, however, quite ready to give her last rites. Instead, they put her in the care of Terry Shanahan for rest and restoration.

“The fainting couch came to us in about 40 pieces, like a model car kit,” says Shanahan, owner of Shanahan & Sons Furniture Refinishing & Touch-Up.

“There were fragments fingernail-sized to those as large as an arm. First we removed the upholstery, repaired the framework, and added structural reinforcement. Then we stripped the piece and refinished it.”

The fainting couch now awaits reupholstering, then she’ll be back on her feet and into service.

Not all of Shanahan’s jobs are so exotic or delicate. More typical, he says, is refinishing dining room and bedroom sets, coffee tables, rocking chairs and pianos.

Pianos. Uprights, baby grands, square grands, concert grands. Since starting his business in 1974, Shanahan estimates he’s refinished nearly 100.

“A son or daughter wants to take piano lessons,” he says, “and the parents want their old family piano redone because they love its sound. That’s true with a lot of older pianos – the great sound.”

They just don’t sound the same anymore.

“Years back, I was in Squire’s Music and an employee there played a beautiful piece for me on a new Steinway,” Shanahan remembers. “Then he played the same piece on a much earlier Steinway, one made in the ‘30’s. The difference was like night and day. The sound of the older piano was so much richer. It just had more character.”

Shanahan says it’s not only pianos, but many other older pieces of furniture that have better quality. “They were built so well,” he says. “Better woods were used. Those woods are now rarer, like walnut, ebony, rosewood. Rosewood – you don’t see it anymore.”

An appreciation for lovely wood helps Shanahan get through some of the less pleasant aspects of refinishing.

“The ugly part is the stripping,” he says. “It’s not exactly fun. But you strip the piece and you’re the first to see the real, unblemished beauty of the wood, its depth, integrity. You see for the first time what the refinished piece will look like.”

Shanahan’s fascination with wood began early in life.

“I started refinishing when I was in grade school, maybe 12 years old,” he says. “When Mother didn’t want some piece of furniture anymore – right before it went to the dump – the boys’ bedroom was the last stop. I got it.”

He has always worked on a wide variety of furniture.

“The first piece I ever did was a waterfall-walnut bedroom set from the ‘30’s,” Shanahan recalls. “For me, refinishing was one step up from putting car models together. It was fun. As I did more, friends of my parents began bringing me pieces. By high school, I was making extra money doing refinishing.”

To get established professionally in the refinishing business, Shanahan worked over the years at several local furniture stores. He opened his own business in 1974. The day Expo ‘74 opened, he says with a smile.

“I had an old, gray ‘63 Chevy pickup and moved everything in just two loads!”

For the first four to five years, Shanahan says he had a slow period in the summertime. That’s no longer true. Now he enjoys an 8-10 week backlog of work year-round, but is still sought out and respected by his customers for the high quality of his work.

Ron Jared, a business neighbor of Shanahan, says he’s taken family heirlooms to Shanahan for years. “Terry knows what the piece ought to look like, even if it doesn’t have that look when you take it in,” Jared says.