Colonial Woodworks, Inc.

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We recently moved, and the movers who packed the truck were careless in carrying my server. The drawer fell out, leaving a 2and quot; gash on the top edge of one drawer and a quarter-sized chip on the top edge. Colonial Hardwoods promised me that when the work was completed, I would never know the server had been damaged. They were spot on! The piece looks great, and it's nearly impossible to tell where the damage was.

I am thrilled with the quality of the work which Colonial Woodworks performed. The $945 was for the outdoor furniture repair only, which was the work they most recently completed. Their pricing may seem high on the surface, but in this case, you get what you pay for. I wanted the best, and the best is what I got in choosing Colonial Woodworks. In addition, when they heard that Dad had made the pieces and had recently passed away, the entire staff with whom I interacted expressed sincere sympathy, and genuinely wanted to take the best care, take their time, and do a superb job for me. On the wooden cats, Wanda was very careful to duplicate Mom's paint pattern, and said she enjoyed doing this project. Wanda also did the work on the outdoor furniture and refinished the end tables. Laurie and the other office staff are a pleasure to deal with, and Gary had some creative ideas on converting the entertainment center.

The restorer who came to the house was delightful, a very conscientious, honest, nice guy and was very interested in the history of the rocking chair (and a couple of other pieces we have,) but he wasn't actually able to help and (I hate saying this because he WAS a great guy) he wasn't sufficiently knowledgeable for this particular job.
The office, when he called for information, wanted to charge me 1. for the visit to estimate the repair (agreed), 2. for him to bring the chair back to the shop (as though he had to make a separate trip even though he was already here), 3. for the repair itself, and 4. to transport the chair back here.
I felt that was unreasonable.
I hate to leave unfavorable feedback because it will affect the (great) employee, but it was the attitude of the office that cost them the rating and the work.
I have other repair/restoration work that will go to another shop.

We dropped the chair that was broken to see about having it fixed. After much discussion with my spouse we decided that it was not worth the cost of the repair for the chair. We took the item home and disposed of it.

The work was top quality and I was very pleased with the results. However, if you need a piece of furniture re-done or refurbished - DO NOT EXPECT THE WORK TO BE DONE QUICKLY. They are very busy and you will see what I mean when you enter their store room - it is full of furniture repair orders. They do quality work so they do not rush to get pieces in and out in a hurry. So plan ahead. The only negative I have to say is that our chest of drawers was not completed on the date they told us to pick it up and they did not call us - the store had sustained some damage from a storm and that held up work by several days due to repair of the building. So, I really could not hold an act of 'Mother Nature' against them.

The price was reasonable for this item, as the craftsman put in a lot of extra hours trying to get the top just right, but we feel like their prices are a little high on some other pieces we have previously had repaired.  They do good work, however, and it is hard to find folks who can respectfully and professionally repair antique furniture.

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I took them an oak pie safe that is at least 100 years old and an old (age unknown) oak headboard and footboard to be restored.The pie safe was in really rough condition, it had been painted at some point, it had been stored on a porch without much protection from the weather, one door was broken, the shelves were badly warped, and the doors did not fit. I have had it for a number of years and people who saw would ask why kept it. I told them that it had belonged to my grandmother and someday I was going to rebuild it and refinish it, but that time never seemed to come. After looking at some of Colonial Woodworks work, I decided to have them do the rebuilding and refinishing.The oak headboard and footboard were in somewhat better condition, except that someone had attempted to paint the headboard.When I took it all to Colonial Woodworks I asked how long they thought it would take and they said it could be as much as 5 weeks. Throughout the whole process they kept me informed and asked me about such things as whether I wanted the old door straps and thread spool put back on during the rebuild, how I wanted the tin panels finished, and how I wanted the wood finished. I enjoyed dealing with them and have since taken an old oak ice box to them to be restored.When I got the restored pieces back, it was all beautiful. You can’t tell that the door on the pie safe was ever broken and everything fit together much better than I had imagined. One thing that helped them was, I had hung onto all of the pieces and supplied all of them. Everyone who has seen them are amazed at how great they look. One friend who has known that I hung onto the pie safe for years said “Who would have ever thought it would look that great!” I did!Colonial Woodworks strives to keep the original character of what they are working on and gives much attention to details. Be aware that it may take some time, but miracles can’t be done overnight.

OK, took exactly one month. See above. There are few businesses that do this type of work in this community so I hope they succeed.