What Does Furniture Refinishing Actually Cost in Dallas-Fort Worth?
It is the first question almost every customer asks, and it is a fair one. You have a dining table that has been in the family for thirty years, or a dresser you inherited that just needs new life, and you want to know whether refinishing it makes financial sense before you commit. The honest answer: furniture refinishing cost in the Dallas-Fort Worth area depends on several factors piece size, wood species, finish type, and the condition of the existing surface. There is no single flat rate, and any shop that quotes you a number without seeing the piece is guessing.
What we can give you are real working ranges drawn from 45 years of refinishing furniture out of our Carrollton workshop. The price ranges in this guide reflect that local experience, not national averages pulled from zip codes that look nothing like North Texas.
For a complete overview of what professional furniture refinishing involves, visit our furniture refinishing service page it covers the full scope of what we do and the types of pieces we handle. If you are ready for a number on your specific piece, the fastest path is our free online estimate send us photos and we will come back with a real range, not a rough ballpark.
According to Angi’s 2026 furniture refinishing cost guide national averages for refinishing typically run $150 to $1,550 depending on piece type and complexity. Our local ranges align closely with those figures, and in most cases, refinishing a solid-wood piece costs a fraction of what it would take to replace it with something of comparable quality.
Furniture Refinishing Cost Ranges by Piece Type in DFW
The single biggest driver of cost is what you are refinishing. A side chair and a nine-foot dining table are in completely different categories of labor, materials, and time. Here is how the ranges break down for the most common pieces we see coming through the workshop.
Dining Chairs and Side Chairs
Single dining chair refinishing typically runs $275 to $375 per chair, depending on the style and condition. Turned legs, carved details, and spindle backs add time. A simple ladder-back chair sits at the lower end of that range. An ornate Victorian dining chair with carved crests and multiple spindles sits at the upper end. If you are sending a full set of six chairs, the per-chair cost often works out more economically when quoted as a set.
Chairs frequently need more structural work than tables. The joints take more stress, glue fails over decades, and wobble is the most common complaint we hear. Re-gluing and doweling adds to the labor time, but it is worth doing right. A chair that has been properly reglued will outlast one that has been surface-refinished only, the finish will look great but the structural failure will come back within a year or two if the joint work is skipped.
Dining Tables
Dining table top-only refinishing for a standard finish is priced at $120 per running foot. A 60-inch round table sits at the lower end of total project cost; a 96-inch extension table with inlay details or significant water damage sits higher. Specialty finishes outside the standard scope are quoted separately at a different rate.
Texas heat and humidity are real factors. We see a lot of dining tables that have experienced significant finish checking or clouding because of humidity swings between over-air-conditioned interiors and the outdoor air, especially during local summers. That kind of finish failure usually requires stripping back to bare wood, which adds time and moves the price toward the upper portion of the range.
Full Dining Sets
A full dining set, table plus six chairs, typically ranges from $2,500 to $3,500. That range assumes solid wood construction, reasonable structural condition, and a standard stain-and-finish job. If the chairs need significant re-gluing, if the table has leaf inserts that need finish-matching, or if you are requesting a solid stain color or a multi-step custom finish, expect the upper portion of that range. We shoot lacquer for residential pieces and don’t offer oil finishes.
For context: a comparable quality solid-wood dining set from a retail store currently runs $3,000 to $8,000 new. Refinishing what you have almost always makes more economic sense, especially when the existing piece is better-constructed than what you would be buying to replace it. Furniture built in the 1960s through 1980s was often made from better hardwood stock and with more traditional joinery than what is available in the mid-tier retail market today. That is true whether your piece came from an estate sale, an antique market, or your grandmother’s dining room.
Dressers, Hutches, and Case Pieces
Dressers and hutches typically range from $1,200 to $2,200 or more depending on size, drawer count, and finish complexity. A four-drawer dresser in decent condition sits at the lower end; a large china hutch with glass doors, carved details, and significant stripping work sits at the upper end. Smaller pieces like nightstands start at $650.
Hardware is a factor that often gets overlooked in initial estimates. Original brass hardware on a 1940s dresser can be refinished, polished, or replaced, each option changes the look and the cost. We generally recommend keeping original hardware when it is in good shape, since reproduction hardware rarely matches the weight and patina of the originals. If replacement is necessary, we can source standard hardware or work with customer-supplied pieces.
Antiques and Heirloom Pieces
Antiques are the category where we genuinely cannot give you a range without photos. The work varies too widely. A Victorian parlor chair that needs light surface refinishing is a completely different job from an early American hutch with multiple layers of paint over original milk finish, structural repairs to the back panel, and veneer lifting on the door faces. The only honest answer for antiques is: send us photos, and we will tell you what we see.
One important note for antique collectors: not every antique should be fully stripped and refinished. On certain pieces, particularly pre-1900 American and European furniture, the original patina and surface are part of the value. We always flag that when we see it, and we’d rather tell you upfront than do work that diminishes the piece’s character or market value.
The Six Factors That Move the Price Up or Down
Understanding what drives refinishing cost helps you have a more productive conversation with any shop, including ours. Here are the six variables we weigh on every estimate.
1. Piece Size and Surface Area
More surface area means more prep time, more materials, and more finishing passes. A six-drawer dresser takes roughly twice the labor of a three-drawer. A 96-inch dining table takes more than double the labor of a 60-inch table, not just because of the extra length, but because of the extra passes required to keep the stain and finish consistent across a large flat plane. Size is the most straightforward cost driver and it scales relatively predictably once you know the piece dimensions.
2. Finish Complexity
A clear protective coat over bare wood is the simplest finish scenario, strip, sand, seal, top coat. A stain-matched refinish, which matches the new finish to an adjacent piece, paired chairs, or original-finish areas, takes color-matching time and sometimes multiple test passes. A painted finish requires proper adhesion prep and often primer coats before the color goes on.
At Andrew’s Refinishing, we handle all of these in-house. Multi-step custom finishes and solid stain colors carry more labor than a simple clear-coat refinish, and that’s where the upper end of any cost range comes from. HomeAdvisor’s furniture refinishing cost data notes that labor accounts for roughly 85% of the total price on most refinishing projects, which matches our own experience across thousands of pieces.
3. Wood Species
Oak is the most forgiving, open grain, predictable stain absorption, wide availability of matching stains. Walnut and cherry are denser and more beautiful, but they require more careful prep to achieve even color. Pine is soft and prone to blotching, which means a conditioner step before staining is often necessary. Antique veneer, found on many mid-century and Victorian pieces, requires the most delicate approach because there is limited material to work with before you are through to the substrate.
We see a lot of pecan and hickory in pieces from older North Texas homes, both are harder than oak and hold up well, but the grain variation means color-matching on repairs requires an experienced eye. This is where 45 years of workshop experience genuinely matters: those are not problems you solve from a tutorial. The color-matching instinct comes from seeing thousands of pieces in varying wood species and finish conditions across decades of work.
4. Existing Finish Condition
A piece with a worn but structurally intact finish, light scratches, minor cloudiness, general dullness, can often be revived with a cleaning, light scuff-sand, and new top coat. That is the lowest-cost scenario. A piece with significant alligatoring, which is that reptile-scale cracking pattern you see on old lacquer, deep water damage that has penetrated the wood fibers, or heavy checking across the surface, needs to be stripped back to bare wood.
The local climate creates specific condition issues we see constantly. UV damage from Texas sun fades finishes unevenly, pieces near south- or west-facing windows tend to show bleached zones next to darker protected areas. That kind of uneven fade almost always requires a full strip to get a consistent result. It is one of the most common reasons a piece that looked like a surface-only job turns into a full strip when it arrives at the workshop.
5. Structural Repairs
Loose joints, broken dowels, cracked legs, and failing corner blocks are common companion issues on pieces that need refinishing. They need to be addressed before the finish goes on, refinishing over a structurally compromised piece is wasted money because the joint will continue to fail regardless of how good the surface looks. Re-gluing a single loose chair rung might add $25 to $50 to the job. Rebuilding the entire joint structure of a chair that has been broken and badly re-glued multiple times could add $100 to $200.
If your piece has both structural and finish needs, bundling them with the same shop is always more efficient than separating the work. We handle both under one roof, and the repair work happens during the strip-and-prep phase so there is no extra scheduling or handling involved. You can learn more about how we approach structural work on our furniture repair page.
6. Hardware Refurbishment
Original brass, bronze, or steel hardware on older pieces can often be cleaned, polished, or chemically patinated to complement the new finish. That is typically a minor add-on, $20 to $75 depending on the number of pieces and the work needed. Replacing hardware with new pulls and knobs ranges widely depending on style and source, but we can work with customer-supplied hardware or source standard replacements. Custom or reproduction hardware on antique pieces is the most variable scenario and is priced on a per-piece basis after we assess what is available and appropriate for the piece.
Pickup and Delivery Across the DFW Area
We offer metro-wide pickup and delivery for a flat fee based on distance from our Carrollton workshop. The flat fee covers both pickup and delivery, one charge, two trips, and starts at $250 round trip depending on your location and job size. Large or heavy pieces like armoires, full dining sets, and solid-wood desks may have a different rate due to the additional labor required to move them safely. We include the exact pickup fee in your estimate so you know the full cost before committing. There are no surprise charges at the door.
If you prefer to bring the piece to us directly, our workshop is accessible from most of the metroplex via I-35E. We are at 2425 Parker Rd. Bldg. 5, Carrollton, TX 75010, call 214-731-3060 to schedule a drop-off appointment so we can make sure someone is available to receive the piece and do the initial assessment while you are there.
Refinishing vs. Replacing: The Math for DFW Homeowners
The question we hear most often is not really “how much does refinishing cost”, it is “is refinishing worth it compared to buying something new?” The honest answer: in most cases involving solid-wood furniture, yes, sometimes by a significant margin.
A solid-wood dining table comparable in construction quality to the kind of mid-century or vintage piece most homeowners want to refinish will run $2,000 to $6,000 new at a quality furniture retailer. Bob Vila’s furniture refinishing cost analysis notes that refinishing is almost always more cost-effective than replacement when dealing with quality solid-wood construction, a conclusion that aligns with what we see every day in the shop.
There is also the quality angle. Furniture built in the 1950s through 1980s was typically constructed from better hardwood stock, with traditional mortise-and-tenon or dowel joinery, than most mid-tier retail furniture available today. You are not just saving money by refinishing, you are keeping a better-made piece.
Market data backs this up. According to Homes.com’s consumer spending analysis home repair spending remains roughly 38% above pre-pandemic levels even as demand for new furniture softens, a clear signal that more homeowners are choosing to restore over replace. Locally, where the housing stock includes a significant volume of solid-wood furniture from the 1950s through 1980s, that trend is especially relevant.
How to Get an Accurate Refinishing Estimate
The most reliable way to get a real number, not a range pulled from a national average, is to send us photos of your piece. Our free online estimate process is built specifically for this scenario. You upload photos showing:
- The overall piece from multiple angles
- Any specific damage areas such as water rings, scratches, or finish failures
- The underside or back of the piece if there are structural concerns
- Any hardware you want us to address or note
From those photos, we can almost always give you a working range with confidence. We may narrow it further when the piece arrives in the workshop and we strip the existing finish to see what is underneath, occasionally a surface that looks lightly damaged in photos has more water penetration than photographs can capture, and we will contact you before proceeding if the job scope changes materially.
You can also review our full refinishing process to understand exactly what happens between pickup and delivery. Our step-by-step refinishing process page covers every stage, from initial strip and damage assessment through staining, finishing, and final inspection, so there are no surprises when your piece comes back.
Want to know what other customers have experienced? Our customer reviews page includes feedback from homeowners across the region, antique restorations, dining set refinishes, bedroom furniture projects, and more.
Serving Dallas, Fort Worth, and the Full DFW Metro
Andrew’s Refinishing has served the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex from our Carrollton workshop since 1980. We pick up and deliver throughout the region, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Carrollton, Plano, and Frisco as well as the surrounding communities of Richardson, Irving, Garland, McKinney, Allen, Lewisville, Coppell, Flower Mound, Grapevine, Addison, Highland Park, University Park, Southlake, and Westlake. If you have a piece worth restoring, we can get to you and get it back to you looking the way it should.
Frequently Asked Questions: Furniture Refinishing Cost in Dallas-Fort Worth
How much does furniture refinishing cost in Dallas-Fort Worth?
It depends on the piece. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, single dining chair refinishing typically runs $275 to $375. Dining table top-only refinishing for a standard finish is $120 per running foot. Full dining sets (table plus six chairs) typically range from $2,500 to $3,500. Dressers and hutches typically range from $1,200 to $2,200; smaller pieces like nightstands start at $650. Antiques and heavily damaged pieces are quoted individually from photos, the variation is too wide for a useful general range. The most reliable path to an accurate number is a free online estimate, which is photo-based and comes back to you without any obligation to proceed.
Why does refinishing cost less than buying new furniture?
Because you are paying for skilled labor applied to a piece you already own, not for raw materials, manufacturing, shipping, and retail markup on a replacement. A quality solid-wood dining table currently runs $2,000 to $6,000 new at a furniture retailer. Refinishing the table you already have typically costs a fraction of that. Beyond cost, the piece you are refinishing was often built from better hardwood and with more durable joinery than what is available at mid-tier retail today. You are keeping a better-made piece and spending less to do it.
Do you charge for the estimate?
No. Our online estimate is completely free and comes with no obligation. You send us photos of your piece and we respond with a working price range. There is no deposit, no pressure, and no requirement to haul anything to the workshop just to find out whether refinishing makes sense financially. If you want to proceed, we schedule pickup. If the job scope changes once the piece arrives and we do the initial assessment, we contact you before any additional work begins.
Does pickup and delivery cost extra in the DFW area?
Yes, we charge a flat fee for pickup and delivery that covers both trips. The fee is based on round-trip distance. See the service-area paragraph above for the standard pickup zone and outer suburbs that typically pay a slightly higher round-trip rate. We include the exact pickup fee in your estimate so you know the full cost before committing.
How long does furniture refinishing take in the DFW area?
Most pieces are completed within 5 to 6 weeks from pickup, depending on current workshop queue and the scope of the job. Complex restorations, antiques with significant structural work, pieces requiring multiple finish coats with cure time between each, or large sets can take longer. We provide a realistic timeline at the time of estimate. Call 214-731-3060 or use the online estimate form to check current lead times before scheduling.
Ready to Find Out What Your Piece Would Cost?
The easiest first step costs nothing: send us photos and let us give you a real number. After 45 years of refinishing furniture, we have seen nearly every finish condition and wood species that walks through a North Texas home. We know what a job will realistically cost, and we will tell you honestly whether refinishing makes sense for your specific piece.
You can request a free online estimate directly from our website, upload photos, describe the piece, and we will respond with a working price range. No commitment required. Or call us directly at 214-731-3060 during workshop hours to talk through your project before submitting photos.
Not sure whether your piece needs refinishing, repair, or both? Our furniture refinishing service page walks through what a full-scope restoration typically involves and what kinds of pieces we handle every day. We are here to help you make the decision that is right for the piece, and your budget.