The Joys of Furniture Restoration
Why get into furniture restoration?
One reason is that there probably is no greater feeling of satisfaction than the one you get when you bring that newly restored chair to its place of honor in the living room. You put it in exactly the right place, stand back - and feel good. Not too long ago , that chair was battered and bruised, an embarrassment on its way to the trash collector. You thought about replacing it, but a little shopping showed that the price of a new chair of the same quality was steep -- a lot steeper than you anticipated. You go on angies list to find craftsmen, but they too are expensive. In reality, you had a deep attachment for that old chair. After all, it had shared many years with you. So you set out to restore it. Now the task is finished and the chair positively glows.
You experience the warm feeling that comes from a job well done. Furniture restoration is rewarding in a lot of ways. It is also one of the most sought-after skills on angies list. You can upgrade the appearance of your home by restoring several pieces that now look dowdy. One of the best rewards is that you end up with a much better collection of furniture in your home. Good furniture is hard to find today. Furniture making has undergone a number of important changes in the last several decades, as good hardwoods have become harder to get. Wood carving has virtually disappeared, and being substituted with molded designs, often plastic, glued to flat surfaces. Hand rubbing and other marks of the fine furniture craftsmen have disappeared because of cost and fewer craftsmen to do this work.
New materials have come into furniture making - plastic laminates, plastic bonded to poorer grades of wood to simulate fine woods, particle board finished to look like wood - the list is long. Some of these new materials offer advantages, of course. Plastic laminates for example, make table tops that resist almost any onslaught. There are other rewarding aspects, too - the sense of history that comes with salvaging an old family heirloom, or in building a collection of restored furniture or valuable antiques belonging to a specific period.
VALUABLE ANTiQUES
One word of caution concerning valuable antiques: Make a distinction between good old furniture and very valuable antique furniture. The very valuable antique piece is a collector's item. Its value comes not only from its age and condition, but also from the fact that it probably is identified as exemplary of a style, designer or period, such as Chippendale, Hepplewhite or English Regency. Pieces such as these require very special care in order to retain their value as collector's items. It is important, for example, not to strip the finish from such pieces, since the original finish is an integral part of and contributes heavily to the value of the piece. Repairs to such finishes are delicate jobs, to be attempted only after you have gained considerable experience.
Good old furniture, on the other hand, has real practical value after it has been restored. It, too, has money value, but not the immense price tag of the collector's piece. In all probability, a well-restored piece has a value at least equal to, and often more than, a similar piece available in the stores today. Under some circumstances, it can be worth much more than anything you can buy now. But the true value is that it pleases you, is useful, and perhaps has a history in your family.
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