Michael Gaines Designs

Mr. Gaines is very experienced professional. He was punctual, thorough and helpful, finishing the job on time and providing useful information on care and upkeep of the table. He gave us a list of products to use and referred us to a company that makes protective padding. He picked up the table and leaves and did the refinishing at his studio. When he returned and reassembled the table, he touched up the base on site. We were very happy with the job from start to finish.

Very pleased with the work, and with his design (wood finish) recommendations.

Michael does excellent work.

I have an antique chest that I dearly love, but its handles were coming off. This had been driving me nuts for quite some time, so I finally decided to deal with it & signed up with Angie's List. I called three places on Angie's list, and left three voice mails. Mr. Gaines was only the second to answer, but he was ready to do the job immediately. (The outfit that had responded before him might have been a tad cheaper,but would have required me to wait nearly a week--in both cases the businesses had a a standard minimum charge.) Mr. Gaines was very familiar with my problem, and able to supply additional parts to replace those of mine which needed replacing. The job was done in two days (one day to look at the problem and carry away the diseased handles, a second visit two days to put everything back and finish off the job). I am delighted with it--not least because it was a real pleasure doing business with Mr. Gaines. I found him most simpatico.

I had an antique chair with a broken leg and when he examined it more carefully, he said the arm was also lose. He said he could fix it as well as re-frame a picture that I had. When he looked at the painting, he said it looked very valuable and was sure it was "a real Turner," and advised that he would have someone look at it. He said he would want to take the chair and the painting and asked for $1600 on the first meeting. I have two homes, so I was back and forth between my NY home and my FL home, but they always knew when I was in town. He had the painting for at least a week without having anyone look at it, and I wanted to have the painting back in my house before I left for FL again. He did not want to do any work to the painting until he could confirm whether or not it was a real Turner, and he kept saying he was having trouble getting an appointment to have someone look at it. When I called Sotheby's for an appointment for an appraisal, they were able to have me come right in.) Mr. Gaines then had my chair for 3 months because he kept saying it was not ready. Around the end of April, when he brought my chair back, he had completely ruined the antique decorations and had covered it with a dark varnish. He said he could fix it in my home as I did not want him to take the chair back again. He also said he would only charge me $400, and I said I would give him $500 as he came back to fix the chair. At this point I had also asked for $1,100 back as they did not complete the work correctly and had also not re-framed the picture. His wife, Vivian, was very rude and kept yelling at me that they would not give me back any money. After they both left, Michael came back saying he needed to pick up the wrappings the chair came in, and said told me he would get me the $1,100 back. There have been at least 10 phone conversations where he keeps saying he will get me the money shortly, but then when the date comes that we agreed to, he doesn't have it. His excuse for not returning the money yet is that he is waiting for a big check so he can bring me cash as I paid him originally. Finally last week, I advised him I would be leaving for FL again on Tuesday and I would need the money by Monday (today) before noon. When I called him at 9:30 this morning, he advised that there was a flood in his apartment and he had to go to the doctor today too, so he would probably have it for me at the end of the week. This has been ongoing and I want the $1,100 back as promised.

Not just a handyman or carpenter, he is an artist.

We were astonished at the quality of the work. Far above expectations. The two chairs had always been in my wife's family, they were rickety and fragile. The chest was in good condition but needed to be refinished. Michael came and spent a fair amount of time discussing what he would do -- for instance, the chairs had once had a tack framing for the upholstery, which sometime in the past had been replaced with stapling -- and gave us a price. Later, he called and said the chairs were in much worse condition than he had thought. The framing under the upholstery had rotted so he would have to rebuild them to restore the original tacking. (We didn't discuss price since we wanted to do right by the chairs, and were pleasantly surprised that he stuck by his original price! He'd made the contract, he said.) The two chairs were utterly transformed, beautifully finished, and by removing the stapled upholstery, he recovered a lovely wood decorative framing that we didn't know was there. The new proportions between the upholstery and the wood are much more pleasing. The chairs are now solid as a rock and a showpiece. Refinishing was less complicated, but he brought out the grain of the wood, which is lovely, and you can clearly see the different woods in exterior. we are simply delighted. Readers should know that Michael is as much artist as restorer; he showed us a portfolio of his work restoring (much more than refinishing) some several-century old pieces.

i have some inherited mid-century dressers, cabinets, and the like made of steel with colorful plastic fronts. after 50 or so years, the plastic had detached, making it impossible to open the drawers and cabinets (not to mention, it looked terrible). I couldn't even imagine what kind of artisan could do such repair a until i met michael, truly a jack of all trades. he carefully scraped the backs of the plastic pieces and came up with an adhesive to reattach them, which seems to be working. it's miraculous! my only quibble is that he is a little unpredictable as to arrival time, which i attribute to taking great care with every job and giving each the hard-to-predict time it deserves.

As mentioned above, he never started the work with us. He showed up and gave a very thorough, detailed assessment, completely free of charge. We felt very confident about his skills. But then he never followed up or responded to move forward. It would have been nice to get a simple phone call or email back saying he was too busy.

Though I had fully intended to move forward with this work, I learned after the fact that the shipper's insurance company was going to require a $500 deductible, which was far more than I could afford to pay. After deciding not to have the work performed, I contacted Michael and his wife, Vivian, who graciously offered to return 50% of my deposit, even though it is normally against their policy to do so when quoting for insurance work. To provide some context for the cost of service that was to be performed, there was a wooden dining table, 8 dining chairs and an antique chest. Every item had been scratched during shipping, including the table top, which had been in pristine condition before shipment. The repairs that needed to be done were all delicate finish work, and Michael said he would be able to do all the repairs right in my own apartment, which made me VERY happy. Unfortunately, as it turned out we weren't able to get any of the work done, so we're learning to live with the scratches. I'm sure the work would have been done well, but unfortunately, in the absence of insurance and with a new baby and my wife not working, this repair was beyond our means at this particular time.

Michael had to make two trips to my apartment to do the repairs; this was expected and he told me this as he needed to do some treatments at one time, wait to dry and then came back a week later to finish the job. He was very professional, very clean, and knowledgable. When he was done with the repairs, you would never have known there was any scratch or damage done to the wood. He was able to match the coloring. Very pleased with his work. I cannot comment on his price as the workmen who damaged the unit paid. However, based on the quality of his work, I would reach out to him if I ever needed his services again.

Michael came at the appointed time and explained the step-by-step process, the cost, and the time involved. We were about to start a 5-week bathroom/hall renovation in the apartment, and had absolutely no room for the table, unfinished or not. He was fine with picking up the table and storing it for the 5 weeks, when his work on it was only about a week. When the renovation was done, he returned it in a timely manner. Pickup and delivery were white-glove: legs were removed and wrapped in blankets; each leaf the same, as well as the table top. When he delivered it everything was wrapped in blankets, and the floor was covered where he attached the legs, so that nothing would get scratched. Because of the expense, we agreed that he would do only the top, as the sides and legs never got the same abuse. But he cared so much about the project that he refinished them as well, at no extra charge. An extraordinary experience and end result. And he is a pleasure to deal with.

Michael Gaines is a master craftsman. We hit it off extremely well, and I am currently considering some additional work with him. We met shortly after my calling him, and in addition, I had excellent dealings with his wife, who handles phone work for Michael.

I had a wonderful experience with Michael! I was trying to get two table leaves custom made for my country antique kitchen table (the leaves were lost in a move several years ago). After several unsuccessful attempts on Angies List (one too expensive, one unresponsive), I was able to connect with Michael. He was very professional and very responsive. His initial quote included a pick-up and delivery fee that was cost prohibitive for me ($300 total) but I proposed bringing the table top to his studio and picking it up and Michael was fine with that. Although he was unable to find hardwood to match the table top, I trusted his recommendation and the final product looks exactly as the table does, is very high quality and stained to perfection! Michael also added several locks for the leaves and the naked table, improving my regular set-up. I was able to reach Michael at all times and he was accommodating to my need to pick-up and drop-off on a weekend day, although he doesn't normally work on weekends. He also rearranged his schedule to meet me for the final pick up to meet my timeline for a dinner party. I highly recommend Micheal's services for custom woodworking.

Even though he says he services New York City, he told me he'd only do commercial jobs, not residential. Before I could even ask anything further he hung up on me. I don't know why he's on Angie's list.

Went well. Ended up holding off on project though.

Mr. Gaines is professional, courteous, and an excellent craftsman. I would not hesitate to contact him again in the future

This was a real mixed bag. Mr. Gaines showed up, took away a broken chair and knob. The chair had a broken wooden piece at the back and the knob was to be copied. 6 weeks later Mr. Gaines returned with the chair: it was impossible to detect where the repair had been made. I was really pleased with this part of the job. Mr. Gaines also showed me the replacement knob. It was reasonably close in appearance to the other knobs but it stood out at least 1/4and quot; more than the original knobs, and these knobs are less than 3/4and quot; deep! It looked ridiculous. He said I wouldn't notice it. I told him I was unhappy with the knob and he said he could either refund my money or he'd take a second attempt to make a knob. Over the next 3 months I called him to find out what was happening. More than once he told me it would be done in a couple weeks. Finally when I told him I just wanted my original knob back and get a refund of my $75 for the knob, he sent his wife over with the knob and a replacement knob, and no refund. As best I can tell it was the same knob he showed me back in February. I'm too annoyed to bother trying to deal with him for anything further. If these were two separate transactions, I'd have given him an and quot;Aand quot; for everything on the chair repair and an overall score of and quot;Dand quot; or and quot;F for the knob replacement job.

He came to the house to see the chair, and then when it was finished, he sent his wife to make sure it was delivered safely.

Problem: Two overpriced armchairs that needed urgent attention. Solution: Michael Gaines Details: I have two beautiful, but overpriced and poorly constructed armchairsthat were coming apart rapidly. When I realized that immediate attention was needed, I tried Angie's List. As a first-time user of this list, I was skeptical. Boy was I wrong. Michael arrived punctually at my home and after a no-nonsense diagnosis, he told me what was required and how much it would cost. As we moved the furniture around I found that the legs on my couch needed to be fixed. Michael quoted a price and a time frameto take care of this as well and we worked out a mutually suitable time to start work . On the scheduled day, Michael arrived with his assistant Rafael and the two of them quickly got to work.As they proceeded, it became apparent that this furniture needed more work than earlier estimated. Michael, did not charge me a penny extra, despite the fact he had to add extra days to get the job done to his satisfaction. His standards are very high and he makes sure that his work is of the best quality. If you ever need a job like this done... look no further... Michael is the answer. Truly you will not be disappointed. Thanks Again Michael! You are One of a Kind.

Michael came over to do an estimate. Showed up on time, etc. No issue there. Michael then said he'd have to think about how to approach this project. After a few days he called to suggest his idea. He then called my husband to explain. We okayed his approach. Michael then arranged for a truck to come pick up the couch. We paid an extra $250 for that. He and his wife came to our house to wrap the couch and supervise it's removal. Michael kept the couch in the studio for a few days, measuring and thinking. He then called a few days later to propose an alternative to his approach, which we okayed. Some weeks later the couch was returned, once again accompanied by Michael and his wife to supervise. Basically, to fix the couch so it would last another 100 years, Michael created a steal frame that would absorb the wait of people sitting on it. The wood frame would no longer hold up the couch. There are 30 slats of wood that would have to be removed if we were to tighten up the main joints. That's why it was so complicated, and that's why no one else wanted to do it. It's a risk to force all of those joints a part (each slat has 2 joints, so we're talking messing around with 60 joints. Something was bound to go wrong.) So Michael proposed the alternative of creating a secondary support system. Now, this is a trendy couch, and so he needed to hire a metal worker to create a trendy frame. Mostly the secondary frame can't be seen, but what is seen looks very much like the Case Study legs (a famous design). Michael then filled in the spaces using woodfiller and refinished the couch. The secondary frame is why I'm not convinced that Michael made much money. But he sure did a good job!

We were satisfied. He did a very good job. The only issue that we had was that it was very hard to get the work completed. It was hard to get him to stick to our schedules and dates, but the quality of the work was absolutely superb.

Michael came over to give an estimate on the work. We arranged for me to deliver and pick up, since it fits in my car. (Naturally he has people on call who can do this, too. I did it myself to keep the cost down.) On the appointed day I brought the table to his workshop in Brooklyn, between Williamsburg and Bushwick. On the following appointed day I picked up the table, and everything was perfect. He tossed in a can of something to keep the finish looking great, and advice on how to apply it. Michael is careful, thorough, and reasonable. And that's already something!

As you can see from the above grades, it very well. Michael provided an early estimate, which he then revised. Once the scope of the project was agreed upon (we decided to cover the seats with leather, which the cats are less interested in), he provided some samples. We made our selection and he took the seats to his workshop. Michael returned with 10 gorgeous seats which he installed in the chairs. He met our deadline (before Thanksgiving) as requested. It's been a few months since he did the work and we are still very pleased with the results. When we use the dining room, my husband (who is difficult to please) sits down and immediately comments about the terrific job Michael did. He's responsive, flexible, reasonably priced and very professional. I highly recommend him. If the need arises for further work of this nature, I will definitely use him again.

He was excellent. He is an expert and a genius about design and antiques. He restored it to beyond its beauty. It took longer than anticipated but that was because of the work entailed. He was responsive all along. If you're in a rush, this is not the person to go to because he is really an artist.