Working from a card table, Cary Fedei pinches a puff of steel wool between his fingers.
“You just buff away,” he demonstrates. “You can see just that little bit … it doesn’t take a whole lot of pressure to it.”
Fedei is a former corporate graphic designer who fashioned a part-time hobby—cleaning and restoring antique furniture—into a full-time job. From the living room of the home he shares with his wife and two sons, Fedei has amassed a growing collection of pieces in need of repair: clocks, cabinets, dressers, settees, and chairs—a lot of chairs.
“Roughly, I’ve become kind of the chair man. A neighbor of mine was laughing the other day, and she said, ‘You know, you can never go wrong with a chair.’ I said, ‘I know, but I’m running out of places to put them. I really need a shop.’ She said, ‘What would you call it?’ I said, ‘Have a Seat.’ Literally, have a seat; come pick one.”
The tools of Fedei’s trade are simple and few: cotton-candy fine steel wool, degreaser, white vinegar for removing buildup, wood glue, and an assortment of old but clean socks, pantyhose, and microfiber cloths. He also keeps kids’ toothbrushes, Q-tips, and rubber bands, that he uses like painter’s tape.
What you won’t find in his arsenal?
“I don’t believe in stripper,” he says. “I clean, and I restore, I do not strip. I don’t own chemical stripper, I won’t use chemical stripper. I believe in taking off cigarette nicotine residue, buildup of Pledge, everyday dirt that accumulates. A piece is what it is and over the years a natural finish will wear, just as our body does. I mean, you don’t look like in your 20s like you do in your 50s, and the same with furniture; I’m not trying to make this look brand new; if you want brand new, go buy brand new.”
Now 57, Fedei’s loved old things since he was a child.
“Growing up, I’m the oldest of 13 grandchildren, and I wasn’t interested in playing with my cousins. They did crazy, weird things that didn’t interest me. I had more interest of sitting back and eavesdropping on the older relatives sitting on the back porch, and they’re all talking all these stories, interesting things about the family. Their lives were more interesting than what my cousins, that were my peers, than what they were doing.”
The stories old furniture can tell fascinate him, too. Before he starts cleaning, he researches every piece: its age, style, provenance, and possible value. The cabinet commissioned by 19th century businessman Harrison Phoebus. The hand-painted Lambert Hitchcock chair. The 1780s butler’s desk from which he extracted nearly two full cups of dirt.
“I went through with a paintbrush, and swept out all of the dirt in places people haven’t been since it was put together. And I put it in a Ziplock sandwich bag; I labeled it, ‘1780 to 2022,’ when I worked on the piece.”
He finds other things, too.
“You find little snippets of everyday life under dust boards, in crevices, of furniture. I’ve pulled out turn-of-the-century unused stamps from Great Britain. You find old hat pins, bobby pins, straight pins with hand crimped edges to them. You’ll find a return address label in there in a drawer. One time I found a glass paperweight.”
Some pieces are mysteries waiting for Fedei to solve: the Scottish mahogany clock; the deep settee built for a man’s proportions; the apothecary chest with dozens of tiny brass pulls.
With every piece he repairs for clients goes whatever he’s learned about it, and his infectious appreciation for the artistry of people and things from the past.
“Well, I’ve had people bring me things before, and they’re like, ‘Well, I don’t know if this piece is worth what you’re going to charge to clean it.’ That piece is a family heirloom. Going through and replacing it: Is it worth it? Yes. Does it increase the value by having it fixed? Yes…. They have a piece that’ll go on through the family, and I’ll have the knowledge that I’ve learned from every piece that I do.”
Our partner station WVTF has shared the stories of people across Virginia—teachers, immigrants, business owners, and others all year in a special series "Meet Virginia."
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
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