• Pencil Holder

  • Cutting Boards

  • Wooden Spatulas

  • Espresso Sofa Table

  • Upcycle Locker Cabinet

  • Walnut Twin Bed

  • Jeweler Box

  • Alder Dining Table

  • Cottonwood Bowl

Category Archives: Tips & Tricks

We Are Rockin’ and Rollin’

The last 14 months have seen a lot of changes at Zeh’s Custom!  We went from it being my wife and myself and my best friend and former next door neighbor to having 2 interns for the summer and back to just the 3 of us.

We turned out approximately 4 dozen projects during 2018, and I can’t wait to share the stories with you.

Most recently, we’re working on a 150 year old mahogany table for a client that finally allowed us to put a technique into practice that we learned about a long while back, and have had no need to use!  We had the privilege of working with the President of our Nature and Science Museum to repair and refinish a table made by a local artisan from a 100+ year old Elm tree that was felled by lightning.  We’ve brought back to life a dozen tables from all eras with all manner of stories behind them, and we even had the privilege of creating a brand new table for a client that had just welcomed their second child.

From north to south we serviced clients over a 150 mile range and from east to west we’ve worked about 75 miles.  We’ve had opportunities to provide pieces for a local Church, for a local school, and for families looking to create new memories with their families on pieces they used when they were children.

Be on the lookout for new posts, and a return to tips and techniques, and maybe even some fun personal anecdotes.

Stickley Table Restoration

A customer found us by doing a Google search, and called us to ask us about refinishing a Stickley dining table she’d picked up for a song at a garage sale.  The table sits in their south-facing kitchen area and gets beat upon by the Colorado sun year-round.  It had taken a beating, and the…Continue Reading

Tips & Tricks #7: Reclaimed Wood

With the rise of the Rustic Chic movement, we’re often asked “Can you make something out of this old wood?” The short answer is “Yes, yes you can.”  The long answer has many more questions involved prior to that “yes” that will require some thinking and preparation on your part. Having a set design and…Continue Reading

Tips & Tricks #3: How Do I Know if My Furniture is Worth Restoring?

Your mom calls you up and chirps happily over the phone, “We’ve got some lovely things for you to take home next time you’re here!  Grandma’s dresser and Grandpa’s desk are yours!”  You cringe, remembering the pieces she’s talking about, and you know these pieces are old, scratched, dented, rickety, and have that aroma of age…Continue Reading

Tips & Tricks #2: Refinish or Restore?

So you have a piece of furniture that is in disrepair.  Everyone you know starts telling you “Oh!  You should restore that!” or “How are you refinishing that?”  Same thing, right?    Wrong! One of the most common mistakes people make when dealing with furniture in need of TLC is interchanging restore and refinish.  What’s the difference,…Continue Reading

Tips & Tricks #1: White Rings on My Finish

There’s nothing worse than clearing up a room, and noticing the dreaded white ring on top of your piece of furniture.  You may have that sinking feeling in your stomach that the piece is ruined, that you’ll be forever destined to have a lace doily or basket of fake flowers on that piece of furniture…Continue Reading

Doer or Delegator?

As you may have noticed throughout life, it seems there are two fairly distinct categories of people in the world.  One is a group of people that are  Delegators – those who find others with the skillset needed to create a task, and then hire those folks to complete those tasks.  The second is a…Continue Reading

Customer Reviews

Customer Review (Howard & Joan H., Lakewood, CO) - 

"The most important reason to work with ZCD was that I saw the before and after pictures of the restoration job you did on that antique bench. I have seen period furniture and you restored it to an original new condition. That combined with the quality I saw in your new furniture ventures convinced me that you were a great craftsman and you also had the discipline to keep antiques as antiques and restore them to their former beauty and not try to modernize them."

"What Joan and I and our kids saw was a much loved family heirloom which was given to you (ZCD) in a beat up and broken condition restored to its former beauty and usefulness as we remembered it. You even used square nails which Joan loved. Your restoration will provide our family with many more years and perhaps generations of enjoyment of the marble top chest/cabinet."

"You are a great craftsman who is both creative for new designs and yet has the self-discipline to channel that creativity into carefully restoring antiques to their original glory. So if you have a project new or old, Chris can handle it."


Customer Review (Gary & Linda M., Longmont, CO) - 

"ZCD was referred from our daughter in-law.  Chris did a good design for our custom table at a reasonable price."

"A very well built and attractive dining table, and it will last for many years."

"We highly recommend Chris.  His work is first rate and you get a one of a kind piece that meets your specification, instead of a store-bought compromise."