Veteran woodworker Russell Rapp's business, Capital Antique Restoration, is one of a dozen or more furniture repair and refinishing shops in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, but its name belies a unique history that encompasses historical artifacts projects in Texas and Nevada.

Rapp has applied his expertise to pieces ranging from a desk made for and used by Texas icon Sam Houston to one that former President George H.W. Bush planned to give his son, George W. Bush, after he was elected governor of Texas. Rapp also participated in the restoration of numerous historical pieces at the Texas state capitol in Austin and Nevada governor's mansion in Carson City before moving to Spokane.

He opened his 1,600-square-foot shop here, at 6002 E. Alki, in mid-2007 after he and his wife, Marilyn, migrated here from Carson City, just south of Reno. He says he's content now doing more run-of-the-mill work for customers who find him through the phone book or by referral.

Rapp enjoys working both on historically significant pieces as well as more obscure pieces, such as a client's grandmother's coffee table. "They are both a reflection of our heritage," he says.

Restoring antique woodwork has been a part of Rapp's life for more than 30 years, and a cursory glance at the various projects that fill his shop indicate that he has no intention of putting aside the wood glue and varnish anytime soon.

With 2008 in the books, Rapp says that his first full year of running the business in Spokane was one of the most profitable years he's had, although he declines to disclose revenue figures.

Rapp restores all sorts of wood antiques, as well as some more contemporary pieces, he says, adding that he only uses the finest lacquers and varnishes available for his work. Some of his recent projects include a turn-of-the-century bedroom set, an old-fashioned icebox, a set of old chairs, and a Victrola phonograph machine.

Since he opened his shop here, Rapp's business has been driven by private citizens seeking to have their belongings restored, but he says he'd be interested in working on any government projects if the opportunity arose.

Rapp attributes his shop's strong performance last year partly to a renewed interest in older and more traditional furniture.

"There's something a little more human" about furniture that has a story of its own, he says, noting that whether a piece he restores is a family hand-me-down or a garage-sale find, it's likely been around for quite awhile.

Rapp says people ask him to restore wood pieces for a variety of reasons, and that many of his customers have him work on items that have more sentimental than monetary value.

"I have had people cry when I brought things back to life," he says, adding that one of the tables he's currently restoring was made by the customer's grandfather. "It's valuable to him," Rapp says.

Wood restoration is a tedious and time-consuming craft, says Rapp, adding that the amount of time he spends on each piece depends greatly on its condition and what the customer is looking to have done to it.

The work he does includes replacing broken limbs and other defective furniture parts and removing old finishes and applying new ones. He says he prefers to retain and freshen a piece's original coating if possible, rather than stripping it away and applying a new one.

His fees vary greatly depending on a piece's value, size, condition, and the amount of time that Rapp will be required to commit to it, but he says his prices are competitive. "I'm trying to do the best job that is possible, at the best price possible," he says. Rapp must see a piece of furniture up close before he can quote a price to a prospective customer to refurbish it, and will work with them until they can settle on an agreeable sum.

Rapp says he got into the furniture-restoration business in a roundabout fashion. He was a 21-year-old college graduate with a degree in fine arts, working in a clothing store in Emeryville, Calif., when a customer came in looking for new job-hunting clothes. The customer told Rapp that he'd been apprenticing for an old wood restorer, didn't like it, and wanted to find a new occupation. Rapp pressed the customer for more information, then visited the wood restorer's shop.

Fred Caporicci, the shop's owner, was a fifth-generation restoration artist from Italy, says Rapp, who expressed his interest in the craft and began working for Caporicci almost immediately. Rapp spent the next five years learning from Caporicci and five other men who worked at the shop.

"I learned things from him that you can't learn anywhere else," he says, adding that Caporicci "snatched me up because he wanted to pass his knowledge along."

Rapp eventually set out to open his own shop, first in California, then in Nevada.

In 1992, he received a call from a fellow restoration specialist who had just begun working on a large project for the state of Texas, and asked Rapp to come to Austin and work briefly as a consultant on the project. Once there, he says, he soon was asked to stay and to continue to help out on the long-term endeavor.

He spent the next six years working at the state capitol on more than 300 historic wood pieces, many of which had their value listed as "priceless" on the work order.

Rapp says the allure of working on historic pieces of furniture always has been part of his attraction to wood restoration, and that he sometimes ponders about the past and future of a piece as he works on it.

One of the highlights of his time at the Texas state capitol was finding a historic treasure while working. A desk that he was restoring had a small cabinet with a lock that was rusted shut. After carefully removing the lock, Rapp found inside two notebooks that contained meeting minutes for a local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The notebooks detailed meetings that took place from the late 1800s into the early 1900s, says Rapp. Not surprisingly, he says, the capitol's curator was excited about the find.

After completing the lengthy project in Texas, Rapp returned to Nevada and reopened his shop there. Before long, he received a call from the Nevada governor's office requesting his restoration services. Rapp says he restored about a dozen pieces for the governor's office, including a table built by the famed furniture maker Duncan Phyfe. That particular table dated back to the late 1700s, says Rapp.

By 2006 Rapp says the intense heat of the Southwest had lost its appeal to him, and he and Marilyn decided to head north and give Spokane a try. Rapp was familiar with the area because his uncle grew up in Spokane and Rapp used to visit him as a child.

Spokane has been a good fit for him, he says, and his customers here have shown a strong appreciation for furniture that has a legacy, much like he experienced from the people he encountered while working in Texas. He says he doesn't have any plans to hire an employee and expects to continue to work with wood for as long as he can because furniture restoration is as much a hobby for him as it is a profession.

Rapp says his philosophy on restoration projects is, "You have to let it tell you when it's done."