Family Furniture Restoration Shop in Gowanus: Tamer Brothers

Tamer Brothers is the kind of furniture restoration shop people in Brooklyn pass along by word of mouth: a family workshop at 465 Baltic Street in Gowanus, on the block between Bond and Nevins Streets, where a wobbly mid-century chair, a sun-faded oak table or a grandparent's four-poster bed can get a second life. Two generations of the Tamer family work the bench here, building custom cabinetry and furniture as well as refinishing and repairing pieces that customers carry in or have picked up. The same address is also home to Veteran's Chair Caning & Repair, one of the city's oldest caning names.

The restoration side is Tamer Brothers proper. Its team page lists Adel Tamer, Mahmoud Tamer, Tamer Sr., Paolo Tamer and Luca Tamer, and customers often mention dealing with Tamer and his son Luca directly. The shop splits its work into three tracks: furniture restoration, custom furniture, and custom cabinetry. That mix matters when a repair needs a missing part made from scratch. One customer had the shop fabricate a new leaf for a mid-century dining table, and another had a set of mid-century dining chairs reglued before the joints failed completely.

Veteran's Chair Caning & Repair says it has served New York since 1899 and is now a division of Tamer Brothers Restoration. The caning shop used to be in Hell's Kitchen before it moved to Baltic Street, and its website still carries a note asking returning customers to use the new location. It also mentions that one of its late managers wrote a book on caning, which tells you how long this craft has been practiced under the Veteran's name.

If your chair has a torn seat, this is the specialty to know about. Veteran's lists hand caning, where strands are woven through drilled holes in the seat frame, and machine caning, where a pre-woven sheet is pressed into a groove and locked with a spline. It also weaves fiber rush made from pre-twisted paper, genuine rush made from natural cattail grass, a wheat-colored pre-twisted genuine rush, splint, and Danish seat cord, which is the paper cord found on many Scandinavian modern chairs from the 1950s and 1960s.

Wicker and rattan repair, chair regluing, moving-damage repair and color matching are on the list too, and the shop says it can duplicate any caning pattern you bring in. That last point is useful for a set of six bentwood or Thonet-style chairs where only two seats have broken: the new panels can follow the weave on the surviving ones. Estimates are free, and rush orders can be arranged.

Recent reviews give a good sense of the bench. A customer in August 2026 wrote about restoring a pair of bird's-eye maple Art Deco bedside cabinets bought about forty years earlier from a vintage dealer. Earlier reviews describe an antique mahogany table brought back after heavy wear, an old Danish dresser refinished, a pier mirror, and a favorite bed frame repaired at the customer's home because it is no longer made. The common thread is solid wood furniture with real history, where a careful refinisher matters more than a fast one.

On the shop's own site, customers praise quotes that land close to the final bill and delivery on the promised date. Another describes the headboard of a hundred-year-old four-poster bed that was refinished without losing its age. If you have a piece like that, bring photographs of the damage from a few angles so the shop can see the joinery and the existing finish before quoting.

Before you hand over a piece, think about how much of its age you want to keep. A full strip and refinish gives a uniform new surface, while a lighter clean, touch-up and new topcoat preserves the patina and the small marks that tell a table's story. Customers who brought in mahogany and oak heirlooms describe both outcomes, so say which one you want when Tamer or Luca looks the piece over.

The workshop runs Monday through Friday from 8 am to 4 pm and is closed on weekends, according to its contact page. Veteran's caning counter keeps the same weekday hours and adds Saturday by appointment. Both offer pick-up and delivery, which is the easier route for a dresser or a dining table.

For a single chair, carrying it in is simple. Arrive early in the day, since the shop closes at 4 pm, and label anything that comes in parts, such as loose spindles or a detached seat frame. If the chair has a maker's stamp under the seat, point it out; it can affect which caning method suits the original construction. Keep any fragments of the old cane or rush, because they show the shop the original weave and strand width.

Baltic Street sits on the north side of Gowanus, so the walk from the workshop is short in any direction. The Bergen Street station on the F and G lines is about a five-minute walk west, and the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center hub is a little farther north, with connections to most lines in Brooklyn. Head south along Nevins or Bond Street toward the Gowanus Canal, where the industrial edge of the neighborhood is giving way to new waterfront parks and studios.

Atlantic Avenue, a few blocks north, has a long run of antique and home-goods shops between Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill, which makes it a natural loop if you are hunting for another piece to restore. Smith Street to the west is lined with cafes and restaurants for lunch after you drop off a chair.

Address: 465 Baltic Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217, between Bond and Nevins Streets in Gowanus. Hours: Monday to Friday 8 am to 4 pm; closed weekends, with Saturday caning visits by appointment. Services: furniture refinishing and restoration, custom cabinetry and furniture, hand and machine caning, fiber and genuine rush, splint, Danish cord, wicker and rattan repair, and chair regluing. Free estimates, plus pick-up and delivery. Subway: Bergen Street (F, G).