5 minute read
RESTORING THE PAST BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
from Ramona Home
Michael Clack Furniture Restorations
WRITTEN BY ANGELA MCLAUGHLIN
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RESTORING THE PAST, BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Continued from page 15
There is a piece of furniture that has sat in the corner for years, moving from one place to the next as it is passed down through the generations. It has seen children come into the world, marriages blossom and families weather hard times and celebrate good ones. came in,” he says, adding that he had to respray and refinish the cabinets using military-spec paint.
As the job started winding down and he began looking for other opportunities, a friend mentioned that the Hotel del Coronado was looking for help.
To some, it may just be a piece of furniture. But to Michael Clack of Michael Clack Furniture Restorations, it is a window to the past and a symbol of endurance. “I told my friend, ‘If they need a spray guy, I can spray anything,’” he says.
Clack started his restoration business in 1980 in Miramar, but his story begins in the 1970s. Not long out of high school, he found himself working to restore sonar systems for the military. After getting hired, Clack knew he was being given a great opportunity to expand his skills to include furniture restoration. He did not want to mess it up, but he had some research to do.
“My job was to restore the big steel cabinets that these sonar systems “I cleaned everything,” he says. “I read every label, every pamphlet, everything that was in that shop. And then, after working eight hours, I scanned all of San Diego to find out who was hot and who was not as far as what I was doing. And then I called them up and told them my situation.”
He was already confident with spraying, but he needed to learn about skills such as color matching, carving, veneering and more. He asked for advice from people already in the business, and his desire to learn worked to his advantage. He was able to get information from people who had been doing furniture restoration for many years.
“That’s kind of where it all started,” he says. “I took the opportunity and ran with it.”
As he gained more experience, he got comfortable reassembling antique furniture to the point where he could look at a hunk of wood and tell where it belonged. And as people started hearing about what he could do, they began to contact him to do work outside of what he did for heirlooms to favorite pieces merely in need of a little extra attention. His
— MICHAEL CLACK
the hotel. They were often surprised by how skilled he was at such a young age.
“I just remember them opening the door with this confused look on their face and asking, ‘Where’s Michael?’ And I’d say, ‘I’m Michael,’” he says with a laugh, adding that he would ask them to give him a chance to show them what he could do.
From there, he opened his own business, eventually moving it to Ramona around 1995. He has worked diligently to restore everything from priceless memorabilia and family business is now located at 369 Main St.
Clack loves having the opportunity to reveal information about pieces that may have been in someone’s family for decades — sharing the history, how it was built, the type of wood that was used, what part of the country it is from and more.
“I just accumulated knowledge over the years, and not just an appreciation for the older antique pieces, but an appreciation of quality,” he says. “I don’t care if it was made six months ago —
I still get wowed when I go to the Del Mar Fair (San Diego County Fair) and see what some high school kid built in a shop class. There are some fantastic artisans, because they’ve got the passion for it.”
His projects range in complexity from an old rocking chair brought to him in pieces that he repaired and reupholstered, to restoring a dining room set built in the early 1900s made from a walnut tree on the family’s property.
Each project is taken care of right in the shop, which includes an upholstery setup, as well. Aside from restorations, Clack also builds custom furniture.
The oldest piece he has ever worked on was 500 years old.
“It was a huge trunk that people would put on the back of their donkey cart, and
all their family possessions would be in this box,” he says. “It was made of massive wood, and you could tell the whole thing was made with hand tools.”
When Clack sees something that is very old — more than 150 years old — he makes sure to tell the owners as much as he can about the piece before they make the decision whether or not to have work done on it. No matter the age, he looks at each piece of furniture to determine what it needs and makes recommendations based upon what would bring that piece back to its full potential.
Clack’s focus is on quality and taking the time to do the project the right way, so he can be proud to put his name on the work. He is motivated by the satisfaction he gets from seeing his customers’ faces when he brings the finished pieces back to their homes.
“I make them the best they can be, and I send them home,” he says. n
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