“Saving Trees and Memories One Chair @ A Time”
“Chairs to mend, old chairs to mend, Rush or cane bottomed chairs to mend,
If I had the money that I could spend, I never would cry old chairs to mend,
Rush or cane bottomed chairs to mend, chairs to mend old chairs to mend”
So went the cry of the 18th century chair mender on neighborhood streets from London to New York. Strolling along while keeping an eye out for any sign that his soulful cry is heeded and deft services required. He carries all the tools of his trade with him, as a form of advertising and to facilitate immediate service for his clientele.
Flash forward to the 21st century and we find a modern day chair mender plying the same craft using the same tools and materials of yore, albeit from the comfort of his residential based chair restoration shop in Huntington Beach, California. Though he does not sing for his clientele, Paul Thibodeau, owner operator and master chair caner of Citizen Cane Chair Restoration, will treat your favorite perch or treasured family heirloom with tender loving care and the precision of a surgeon knitting back together a shattered knee cap.
Paul restores hand woven and pre-woven cane chairs, “rush” chairs, rattan and wicker chairs, as well as real or faux bamboo and splint work chairs. For clarification, Paul explained to us that cane is the peeled bark of the rattan vine while rush derives its name from bulrush or cattail rush, though modern day rush is either fiber (paper) rush or sea grass with or without golden wheat wrapped around it. This is because harvesting actual rush is impractical due to the protected nature of its wetlands habitat. Even lesser known is the fact that wicker is not a material but rather the process of weaving furniture or baskets from various materials such as rattan pith (thin peeled rattan vine) or some type of reed like willow or thin hickory branches. Finally, splint is the art of weaving chair seats from peeled bark such as hickory or birch.
In addition to the aforementioned, Citizen Cane Chair Restoration also repairs major or minor cracks, splits or just wobbly and loose joints. They will even spruce up or completely restore your chairs tired finish, reupholster the cushions for you and install new leg shoes when necessary or requested. Single chairs or complete sets, no job is too small or too large. Every style of rocking chair imaginable has passed through the skilled hands of Paul at Citizen Cane Chair restoration. As long as your chair is fabricated from naturally grown materials as opposed to plastics or vinyl, then Paul may be your man for the job. Pickup and delivery is also an option. Don’t let distance keep your project on hold as some of Paul’s clients simply ship their job to him from out of state, which can be quite cost effective when the chair seats are removable.
Paul has seen his business grow substantially in recent years he says; “Because of Wall Street’s shift to cheaper overseas furniture manufacturing, good quality furniture built in the European tradition is much harder to find these days. Therefore many have turned to restoring their solid, time proven furniture rather than settling for something lesser.” He went on to say; “that fact combined with the mass thoughtfulness brought about by current economic conditions in addition to a growing reluctance to cut down trees unnecessarily and the burning of oil to produce new product, I believe this may be a permanent shift in furnishing consumerism”.
If you would like more information about the services offered by Citizen Cane Chair Restoration, you can contact Paul directly @ 714-944-6846 or visit their website at Www.4citizencane.com
