Photo Gallery
J.R. Smith Custom Furniture offers furniture restoration and repair, along with custom furniture creation. Our photo gallery is always being updated, so check back time to time for updated images and information.
Working on furniture is our thing. Here, J.R. Smith emerges from a storage unit containing pieces in line for repair and restoration.
A master of all things construction, J.R. Smith, clad here in requisite safety apparel, consults a reference book on what the heck to do next. …
Our spray booth features dedicated ventilation and all equipment needed to paint, stain and otherwise finish furniture, doors or whatever the project is.
J.R. Smith Custom Furniture from time to time purchases choice materials to have available for custom furniture. Here, a portion of a bowling alley lane from Colonial Lanes in Huntington, W.Va., undergoes restoration, in preparation for use in a made-to-order vintage industrial style table.
Tools of the trade. We brush, roll, spray, rub – whatever it takes to get the finish just so.
Holding it together. A wall of pipe clamps and other clamps is at the ready for furniture repair and manufacture.
Holding it together. A wall of pipe clamps and other clamps is at the ready for furniture repair and manufacture.
J.R. takes a moment between spray applications in the spray booth.
Speaking of custom creations, this table shows some of the characteristic creativity J.R. Smith Custom Furniture brings to projects. A gnarled and feature-rich wood piece is here combined with bold blue and an epoxy filler, resulting in a striking, one-of-a-kind heirloom table. Legs are finished with a concrete-based bonded material.
Our shop is always changing shape as projects come and go
From time to time, exceptional source materials become available, and from these we fabricate our own custom creations for sale. Here, an old whisky barrel has been turned into wall-mounted bottle openers and coat racks. We could smell the whisky as we created these!
Owner J.R. Smith has for years taken a special interest in furniture creations that feature live-edge wood. This one is finished in clear epoxy.
At J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, we always keep an ear out for interesting wood opportunities. Here, J.R. oversees the dismantling of bowling alley lanes for use in custom furniture.
Our shop at J.R. Smith Custom Furniture is outfitted with numerous pro tools, such as this thickness planer, that enable us to make quick work of furniture projects.
A homeowner envisioned an outdoor Tuscan-style kitchen, and J.R. Smith Custom Furniture co-designed, fabricated, delivered and installed the completed project.
These flourishes in wood, Celtic knots made of box elder, were custom-fabricated for installation on the front doors of a residence that featured an Irish-pub theme.
This custom-made door featured old barn wood. It is a heavy beast! A solid – formidable, even – entryway to a rustic cabin.
Before restoration can occur, sometimes repair must take place. Here, a chest of drawers with a side piece added in, is readied for the next step.
In our J.R. Smith Custom Furniture spray booth, we line ‘em up and knock ‘em out. These are door panels and shelves.
Talk about attention to detail! Either that, or he’s hiding from colleagues. …
Sherri, like all our staff at J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, is not afraid to dive in to the work.
Here we see the base of a custom creation we called River Table. A specially formulated concrete bonded material was used for a unique surface on the legs and base.
Are we strippers? Yes, we do some of that. We admit it. Here, a rocking chair receives the full treatment.
At J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, we have developed a few specialties, and one is certainly live-edge wood tables and other furniture. Here, a trio of walnut tables with live edges feature hairpin-style slender metal bases.
This client wanted a wall featuring vertical cherry wood with live edges. Definitely in our wheelhouse!
Burled and gnarly can be difficult to work, but it also can be uniquely beautiful. From nature, we derive our inspiration.
One of our favorite woods, cherry offers rich possibilities for any style of décor. Here, again, is a live-edge project that showcases the wood’s natural shape and lines.
All custom projects begin with a solid base and substrate that can stand the dual tests of regular usage and time. We do tend to overengineer our custom creations so that they last a looong time.
When we create custom pieces for clients, often a step in the process is to experiment with various finishes that are possible. Here, the choice was between a rough or a smooth concrete-based table leg.
After the long patient process of stripping has occurred, this nice old rocker is now ready to be refinished into the beautiful piece it was meant to be.
This dresser came in with a stained finish, to be repainted in blue.
After repainting, this dresser set gained new life in slate blue.
Speaking of custom creations, here J.R. Smith Custom Furniture is working with a client to fabricate a wall-mounted shelf of wood and iron pipe. The client’s concept begins coming to life with a drawing by J.R. for review.
From the fertile imagination of a client and then into the design studio (J.R.’s workbench, his pencil and a yellow notepad), the idea of a wood-and-metal wall-mounted shelf gets translated into reality.
The finished product, in a client’s home, features live-edge wood, iron pipe and the homeowner’s personal touches as the final flourish
Her days of stripping now behind her, this old rocker now can settle into a long life of comfortably – and beautifully – being enjoyed by a satisfied refinishing client.
This custom-in-concrete vanity sink features modern lines for a unique look.
Fabricated in the J.R. Smith Custom Furniture shop – with a great deal of care, patience and attention to detail – this concrete vanity sink was then installed by us in the client’s residence.
Our many years of designing in concrete are at your service when it comes to custom creations.
Matching new repairs to old finishes is one of our specialties. Here, a weaving job, stain and final clear coat have brought this client’s valued heirloom chair back to life.
Furniture repair and restoration can involve a wide variety of materials and skills. At J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, our experience is at your service for furniture projects.
After some careful surface shaping and preparation, the matching-with-concrete project is completed. When paint is applied, the new will seamlessly integrate with the old – a J.R. Smith Custom Furniture specialty.
Although we no longer do field work as one of our primary offerings, at J.R. Smith Custom Furniture we are proud of certain landmark projects that showcase our ability to fabricate-to-match. Here, we filled in with concrete where a window used to be and set out to match the concrete to the existing block wall.
Every wood project involves multiple steps, from chainsawing to planing to rough sanding to fine sanding to spraying to burnishing – for starters. The goal is a beautiful piece of furniture that will stand up to years and years of regular use.
A live-edge bar top, in sycamore with chestnut stain, is the star of the show in this residence’s entertaining area.
Can you tell that this table is a favorite of our J.R. Smith Custom Furniture crew? This custom creation currently resides in Ashland, Ky.
We do particularly enjoy certain custom projects that let us show our abilities, gained over many years and trial-and-error experiments. Here, a piece we call River Table features a custom slab with an epoxy reservoir over a turquoise flow gap, with a concrete-as-rock based with curved-wood support.
From the forest to the client’s living room, this live-edge slab was fabricated into what we called the Y Table, featuring a custom base of metal and stone.
What constitutes an heirloom? In this case, a kindergarten set that held many memories for a large family was too sentimentally valuable – as well as solidly constructed – to do anything but commit to a full restoration. Here, the stripping process is under way.
This business sought unique signage, so we worked with them and, together, created a concept: sign on wood, encased in epoxy. Here, the epoxy form surrounds the sign at core.
This custom-created signage signals to customers and passers-by that this is a business that takes originality seriously.
Did we mention that we work in multiple materials – pretty much whatever it takes? Here, the sign-on-wood plus custom-fabricated metal mount are placed in the proper orientation for later encapsulation in epoxy.
These chairs once were solid and stable, and soon they will be again. Wood blocking, glue, clamps, fasteners are combined with skill and experience to get this set of chairs in fine working order once again.
What do you do when a valued old piece of furniture has a broken piece that is in its own unique, perhaps 100-year-old shape? At J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, we carefully measure, match and custom-fabricate a new piece and then finish it out to blend with the old – no mean feat, sometimes. We’ve been known to actually throw dirt into a repaired section’s stain mix to get it to perfectly match a vintage heirloom piece.
Talk about a custom creation! This table – created in MDF, glass and many other materials for a sci-fi gaming fan – is lit from within and certainly will something you’ll see anywhere else on the planet.
Layers and layers of paint that have accumulated over the years are carefully – and patiently – removed from this classic old kindergartner chair.
We particularly enjoy – and specialize in – turning unique large slabs of wonderful old wood into custom furniture to be enjoyed for generations. This is box elder.
Concrete countertops – particularly large, uninterrupted ones like this commercial installation – can be a tricky creation to get right – fraught with peril at many steps in the process. We have deep experience in this field of endeavor.
Long-weathered finishes can be a great challenge to match, when you have to repair and then combine portions of an old/new project. We take pride in our ability to match pretty much whatever you throw at us. Here, an ancient-looking door set gets the new-to-old treatment.
Sometimes we come up with nicknames for custom creations as we are fabricating them. This live-edge slab on custom-wild legs came to be known, simply, as Beast Table.
Another example of live-edge wood over a concrete-as-stone base, this arrow-shaped stable is literally solid as a rock.
This massive piece, a slab of ambrosia maple, shows the promise of rich texture when sanded. Stain and finish will bring a revelation in wood.
Each custom piece of furniture tends to be unique, and certainly each live-edge table, such as this blistered maple beauty, has no match anywhere. Sometimes the bark can be incorporated, and sometimes it cannot. The wood itself tells us what is possible.
This heirloom chair, shown here mid-renovation, was gradually returned to its full walnut-with-leather glory.
Need an abstract, perhaps even expressionistic, complement to your custom project? Can do. Another day at the office here at J.R. Smith Custom Furniture. This was incorporated into a side-lit bar back.
From the mind of a creative client, through the design process of J.R. Smith Custom Furniture, and then through the process of fabrication and installation, this wild green bar back came into being. Like no other!
We do like our live edges. Here, a slab of curly oak awaits fabrication into a custom piece of furniture.
All wood shops of any ability must master joinery, here on display for the corner of a custom bar top.
We started with the wheel and built out from there. Looks like it’s a hundred years old.
This live-edge blistered maple slab became a wall hanging that adds organic life to the dining room of a residence.
An old and quite worn-out walnut chair is here brought back to solid service by any means necessary. Custom-fabbed wood sections, dowels and super-hardening putty serve in combination to restore structural integrity. Staining, finishing and the re-addition of leather seat covering material will result in a restored masterpiece.
A standup-bar table made of complementary blonde and dark wood grains gets installed on-site at a retail establishment.
Rarely is a valuable vintage piece too far gone to restore. But do keep in mind that the TLC it takes to do a proper repair and restoration can be a commitment of resources. In the case of this walnut-and-leather chair, the results were worth every penny.
Old doors often tend to be good solid doors, but the ravages of weather over decades can take their toll. Here, an old door gets the attention it needs to return to beautiful service.
When a family heirloom means something special to you, like this old leather + walnut beauty, we take ultimate care to do what it takes for a great restoration.
These massive double doors, refinished in place, now are ready for the elements for many years to come.
Patience and care are the watchwords when it comes to proper application of stain on a vintage antique furniture piece.
Here we have the “before” shot of a double-door set that has seen its share of sun, wind and rain over the decades.
When a customer’s great old piece, such as this side table, is fully brought back to beautiful condition, we do sometimes stop and pause and just enjoy gazing upon the lovely results.
Speaking of working in multiple materials, here we created a custom railing from solid PVC for the deck over a porch roof. No rot, ever, in this material!
Do we bring in a big man with a big chainsaw occasionally to do some of the big cutting work our projects sometimes require? A big yes to that!
Restoration sometimes includes fabrication – in this case, of a new cross, plus some trim features for the entrance into a Greek Orthodox church.
When we say we do “custom creations,” we mean it – across a wide range of fabrications in wood and metal and whatever other material the job takes. Here, the client had a classic ornamental decoration that required a super-solid + beautiful base to match. Can do.
Back in place at their customary welcoming location, these iconic church front doors are restored and ready for many years of community service to come.
After careful staining in multiple colors, this headboard went to our spray booth for the finishing coats to be applied.
It’s just fun, sometimes, to work on a great piece of furniture and bring it back to life. This dining room table literally shone after its turn in the spray booth.
The finished product – in this case a dining room table, back in context – can be super satisfying to behold.
This spindle chair, seen here mid-spray, got returned to glory in glossy black.
After restoration, this mantle will return to its former home with a new lease on aesthetic life.
This curly-maple table was a favorite of ours. Every surface was lovingly restored.
A venerable old secretary desk offers itself in rejuvenated form for use for generations to come.
A magnificent slab of spalted maple travels on its journey to new life as a bar top. The partial decay, called spalting, gives the wood dark contrasting lines and streaks where fungus has begun to attack the wood. Encapsulation in clear finish slows/halts the decay and results in a spectacular aesthetic.
With a hand planer, we uncovered grain features in this slab for a bar top.
Finished! The secretary, closed up and ready for transport, is now ready to return in its full glory to service in the client’s home office.
Restoration sometimes includes fabrication – in this case, of a new cross, plus some trim features for the entrance into a Greek Orthodox church.
