Commercial

Hospitality & Commercial Refinishing

Refinishing and repair for hotels, clubs, and restaurants — scheduled around your operation, specified for commercial wear, and consistent across a full inventory.

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In short Commercial refinishing covers furniture in hotels, resorts, private clubs, and restaurants, where the requirements differ from residential work in three ways: the finish has to withstand commercial cleaning and constant use, the work has to fit around an operating property, and the result has to be consistent across dozens or hundreds of matching pieces. Our workshop has completed work for properties including The Ritz-Carlton, Art Ovation, Longboat Key Club, and St. Regis. Storage is available during a project for a fee, which lets a property cycle inventory through in batches.

A good fit for

Hotels, resorts, and clubs refreshing guest-room or public-area furniture
Restaurants refinishing tabletops, chairs, and bar surfaces
Large matching inventories that have to end up identical
Properties needing work phased in batches around occupancy

Not the right fit

Upholstery, fabric, and soft furnishings, which are a separate trade
Architectural millwork — wall paneling, trim, door and window casing, and stair joinery — which is a building trade rather than furniture work

Commercial work is a different problem from residential work even when the piece is the same. A guest-room desk gets cleaned with products no one uses at home, by people moving quickly, several times a week, for years. A restaurant tabletop gets wiped down more times in a month than a dining table sees in a decade.

Specified for the actual conditions

The finish is chosen against how the piece will be cleaned and used rather than how it looks in a showroom. That usually means a harder, more chemically resistant topcoat than the same piece would get in a home, and it sometimes means recommending a different finish than the one originally on the piece.

Consistency across an inventory

On a run of matching furniture, the risk is drift: batch two comes back a shade off batch one, and by batch six the room no longer matches. Approving a sample piece before the run starts and holding the whole inventory to that sample is what prevents it. It also means the standard is agreed in advance rather than disputed at the end.

Working around occupancy

Properties cannot empty a floor for a refinishing schedule. Work moves through in batches sized to what you can release, and storage is available during a project for a fee where holding finished pieces helps the sequencing. The aim is that furniture comes back into service on your calendar rather than ours.

Step 1

Walk the inventory

We assess the actual pieces and the range of condition across them, since a matching set rarely wears evenly.

Step 2

Specify for the setting

The finish is chosen for the cleaning products and wear the pieces will actually see, which usually means something harder than a residential specification.

Step 3

Agree a sample

A single piece is finished and approved before the rest of the run starts, so the standard is fixed in advance rather than argued afterwards.

Step 4

Phase the work

Pieces move through in batches sized to your occupancy, with storage available for a fee so rooms come back into service on your schedule.

Step 5

Finish the run consistently

Color and sheen are held across the whole inventory, not matched batch by batch.

Common questions

Do you refinish built-in casework and cabinetry?

Yes. Bar backs, back-of-house cabinetry, guest-room built-ins, and fixed face frames are all refinishable — doors and drawer fronts come off and are sprayed off-site while the fixed frames are finished in place to match. It is quoted as cabinet refinishing rather than as part of a furniture run, because it is scheduled differently. What we don't take on is architectural millwork: wall paneling, trim, casing, and stair joinery are a building trade, not ours.

Can you work around an operating property?

That's the normal arrangement. Work is phased in batches sized to your occupancy so a block of rooms or a section of a dining room comes back into service before the next batch leaves. Storage is available during a project for a fee where it helps the sequencing.

How do you keep a large run consistent?

A sample piece is finished and approved before the run starts, and color and sheen are held to that sample across the whole inventory rather than matched batch to batch. Batch-to-batch matching is how a run drifts.

Do you use a different finish for commercial work?

Usually. Commercial cleaning products and constant use are harder on a finish than domestic life, so a commercial specification typically calls for a more chemically resistant topcoat than we'd put on the same piece in a home.

Do you handle upholstery?

No. Upholstery is a separate trade and we don't claim it. We refinish and repair the wood, and we're happy to coordinate around an upholsterer working on the same pieces.

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