Furniture Refinishing, Furniture Painting & Antique Restoration
Welcome to Gentle Hands Restoration. Our shop in Newcastle, Ontario is located at 3455 Concession 3. Our shop is licensed and insured.
Gentle Hands Restoration offers many services to the Durham Region including Newcastle, Bowmanville, Courtice, Oshawa, Whitby, Brooklin, Ajax, Pickering, Uxbridge and Port Perry. We also provide services for Port Hope, Cobourg, Lindsay and Scarborough and surrounding areas. Services include Furniture Refinishing, Antique Restoration, Furniture Painting, Furniture Stripping, Furniture Repair, Veneer Repair, Kitchen Cabinet Door Refinishing, Furniture Parts Fabrication, Antique Conservation, Teak Furniture Restoration, Chair Caning and Cane Inserts, Painted and Faux Finishes.
As of January 2012, my husband Raymond and I have decided that we should leave the moving of most pieces of furniture to the younger generation. We have two young, handsome, strong men that will pickup and deliver your furniture back to you. There is a charge of $125.00 for this service. Exceptions to this would be large dining room sets, complete bedroom sets, pianos, and extremely heavy pieces of furniture. For these jobs we have been using "Two Men and a Truck" who do those pick-ups and deliveries for us. There is a reasonable additional charge for this depending on the location of the furniture. If you wanted to bring the furniture to us and pick it up upon completion, there would be no extra charge.
Our motto is "Competitive Pricing with a Gentle Touch".
We sell furniture at the "Cobourg Antique Marketplace".
We are members of :
The Newcastle Chamber of Commerce www.newcastle.on.ca, Let's Do Lunch www.durhamletsdolunch.com. We are also one of the members listed in "Tomboy Trades" www.tomboytrades.com.
History of Gentle Hands Restoration
Ever since the early 1980's, I have been an avid collector of antique furniture. Many times I carried home items on my back that I found in the garbage during "Clean-Up" week. Sometimes, when I found a piece of furniture that needed extensive repair and restoration work, I got the most satisfaction in turning a piece of furniture deemed to be "garbage" into the beautiful piece that it once was. It is like watching the transformation of the ugly duckling into the beautiful swan.
When my children were small and I needed some downtime, I could be found down in our basement working on my latest project. As my experience grew, I began doing work for my family and friends.
During the 90's my husband's job was downsized. He was offered a position in Washington State and so we decided to move. Soon I was going to every yardsale, estate sale, garden sale and auction to purchase pieces of furniture that were either in terrible need of a refinishing job or needing repair. I went out to all the local antique stores and gifts stores to find places to sell this furniture and before long I was selling my restored antiques in many local stores.
Also, while I lived in Washington I was very lucky to have met a wonderful artist named Helma Raycher. Originally Helma was from upstate New York but had moved to Enumclaw, Washington to be near her son and daughter-in-law and their children. Helma taught me some restoration techniques that I will always be eternally grateful to her for.
All of a sudden I was incredibly busy. I was not only buying and selling furniture but I was doing restoration work for many people from Seattle, Tacoma, Auburn and Buckley.
I have always watched "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and I truly believe that each person in this world is unique and that everyone has a "gift" and that we all have to figure out what our gift is.
After 9/11 we had no choice but to return to Canada. Not that we don't love Canada but I was sad to give up my business and all of my friends at my circle of antique stores. At that point, we moved to Kemptville, Ontario and "Gentle Hands Restoration" was born. Within a year, my business was booming in the Kemptville/Ottawa area. This is a great place for finding treasures. . At that point, I was selling furniture at "Country Bows" in Osgoode and "Dawn's Closet" in Smith Falls as well as "Reruns Annex" in Ottawa. Mostly though I was doing restoration work for customers. I developed a large and happy clientelle.
In 2004, my husband was offered employment with the same company that he had worked for over 20 years. We decided to make the move back to the Durham Region area. The best part about the move was that we were able to buy a house with a large shop. We now have a large, heated, dust free area for doing the finishing work.
