With Furniture Refinishing, You Have to Go With the Grain

"On stripping, you're paying a little bit on labor, more on the chemicals, and a lot more for getting rid of the chemicals," says TNT owner Richard Tanner, 54. "For finishing, you're paying a little bit on the chemicals and a lot on the labor."

The refinishing cost had indeed scared me off at the time, and I ultimately hired our house painters to complete the door: It deserved some measure of professionalism. But I decided I needed to stop back into TNT and talk to Tanner about his life's work -- and, when I would eventually get started, my new hobby.

Tanner opened up shop in 1977 for just $3,500, after a childhood and young adulthood spent finishing and restoring unpainted or found furniture.

"My wife still laughs about the time I went deer hunting and came back with a wingback upholstered chair," says Tanner, whose 8,500-square-foot shop also employs his son, Neal, and Brian White. (Tanner has other good woodworking-related stories, including one about a brush-stealing pet ferret and another about a staffer of client Eddie Murphy warning him not to make eye contact with the actor/comedian should he make an appearance.)

He assured me that I was not alone in my failure to see the job through: Contrary to all the talk of do-it-yourselfers, he says that less than one-quarter of his current jobs are stripping-only, a reversal from 30 years ago.

"Supposedly, people have more time now, but I don't see it," he says. "I know I don't have any more time."

Time is far from the lone hurdle for the DIY-minded. Finding a well-ventilated workspace can be an issue; so, too, is properly disposing of the material you just stripped, especially if it's lead paint. (TNT employs a hazardous-waste hauler, and the paint is later burned in cement kilns.)

Did I mention that the work can require the patience of a saint?