It's things like his persnicketiness about his privacy, balanced against the whimsy of the door painting, that makes Kotula, an expert in furniture conservation, such a study in contrasts. He says his dyslexia barely allowed him to get through school, but that his persistence in the face of this learning disability made him a scholar. He's an exacting kind of fellow, but he can also joke around. Don't call him a furniture repairman, or even a restorer. He is a furniture conservator, and one of the few who depend solely on methods used by museums.
Polyurethane is bad.
While he does restore antiques, he does so in ways that allow them to be taken apart again in the future. For instance, the animal hide blue he uses can be removed with water so that a chunk of wood he may have affixed can be separated without damaging the original piece. Everything I do to a piece, someone can undo. That alters the original piece. And while the glue Kotula uses allows a future separation without damage, he goes steps further by adding other compounds to his glues, whose formulas, like his shellacs, are something he's perfected over years.