Iolani Palace curators estimate it’s been at least two decades since any rooms there have been refurbished, but it’s not like they can pick up what they need at Home Depot.

Yesterday they showed off what they’re calling the newly opened "Music Room," although technically it was likely King Kalakaua’s private drawing room, next to his bedroom.

Take the rug. The pattern was deciphered from original photographs, redrawn, colors guesstimated, then a new rug was ordered from J.R. Burrows & Co. in England — the original manufacturer, still in business — and re-created from period cotton fiber (but using artificial dyes). It was shipped to the United States to be pieced together, then shipped to Hawaii, where it took several strong palace employees to carry the heavy rolled carpet upstairs.

"It was like carrying a log!" exclaimed palace curator Heather Diamond.

Most Victorian-era music rooms featured pianos, said Diamond, but they haven’t found evidence that Iolani Palace ever had one. Kalakaua was an ukulele man, Diamond said, while Queen Liliu­oka­lani liked the autoharp and zither.

One of the big problems in restoring any room is the fragility of cloth fibers. The palace has contracted with historic textiles expert Debo­rah Kraak. "The problem, simply, is time," Kraak said. "It’s additive. Moisture, over the years, creates mold; the protein in fibers breaks down; they’re catnipped by bugs; ultraviolet light bleaches the color. The damage is cumulative and irreversible."

Palace housekeepers were well aware of this even in the 19th century, which is why the palace features elaborate shutters and curtains and, at the time, loosely fitting slipcovers for furniture. "Muslin, cotton damask, printed cotton with stripes was very chic at the time," Kraak said. "We don’t have any photos of what the slipcovers looked like, because they’d be taken off for pictures, but we know they’d look nice. Even the slipcovers had slipcovers — it wasn’t a disposable culture."

Once the furniture and fabrics were restored, Kalakaua’s curios were used to decorate the room. They include a large, restored Polyphon music box with gorgeous wooden marquetry in the lid, but they don’t dare play it. There’s a bust of a Russian czar, likely Alexander III; a four-seat "center sofa" found on eBay with newly ebonized legs; a carved wooden Japa­nese screen; hanging pictures of watercolors (reproduced by digital giclee printing); "spelter" statuettes of medieval soldiers; and a gleaming model ship made of silver.

Although the model was Kalakaua’s, the display case for it is newly built. "There was just one grainy photo that showed the case, so we reproduced it in walnut with a koa base," said Michael Tam of wood artisans Martin & MacArthur. "You couldn’t get a more exact case, even from London." Martin & MacArthur makes at least one reproduction item every year for the palace.