Paul Bowman’s
 Furniture Restoration

During his sophomore year at Georgia Tech, Paul Bowman began volunteering at Atlanta’s Central Night Shelter, which gave him a new outlook on homelessness.

“The shelter was an eye-opening experience for me, because many of the homeless people I interacted with didn’t match the stereotype that I had in my head,” said Bowman, ID 99. “I remember in particular a man who had a laptop and was an engineer who had been laid off, divorced and ended up at the shelter.”

After launching his design career, Bowman wanted to continue to support the fight against homelessness. And so he started Design Samaritan, through which he creates furnishings sold at Atlanta’s Verde Home. Proceeds from those sales go toward acquiring old furniture and home accessories, which Bowman refurbishes and donates to families through partnerships with nonprofits Atlanta Children’s Shelter, the Initiative for Affordable Housing and Project Live Proud.

“I think nothing makes a house feel more like a home than the furnishings,” Bowman said. “It’s something that feels special to them and something they can be able to keep.”

Here, he reveals his process for turning discarded items into something special again.

1. Assess any damage and remove it.
This can involve removing a broken component or a damaged finish. Some pieces require only cosmetic repairs, but others require a serious overhaul. A lamp that is a particular favorite started out as an eyesore. It had an interesting oak top and bottom attached to a leather body. The leather was damaged by mildew, and the oak top and bottom were misaligned due to a botched repair with glue. The first step was to remove the wiring and separate the components.

2. Evaluate the options with a creative eye.
Once the damaged elements are removed, it is easier to see the possibilities. In the case of the lamp, it wasn’t possible to clean the leather, so it was removed. Much of the visual interest was gone without it, so it needed to be replaced with something. In addition, the oak top and base appeared to have been reversed—the larger one on top, and the smaller one on the bottom, making the lamp feel unbalanced. These needed to be reversed, but not before addressing the misalignment from the botched repair. Fortunately, the glue joint was at a place that could be cut apart, so the pieces were separated and the excess glue was then sanded away.

3. Experiment with an open mind.
This can be the most satisfying part. For the lamp, two finishes were needed—one to replace the leather, and another to address the oak top and base. After experimenting with a wood veneer, it didn’t contrast enough with the texture of the wood top and base. One day, I spotted some beautiful marbleized paper and was inspired. The colors were a perfect complement to the oak top and base, which only needed sanding and tung oil to enhance them. The marbleized paper was more labor intensive. It took more than one application to align the striations in the pattern as they wrapped the corners of the lamp to give the appearance of a solid piece of material. It then took many layers of sealer to allow it to be wet sanded and buffed, creating the matte finish resembling actual stone.

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