7 Benefits of Professional Furniture Restoration
Furniture doesn’t last forever, especially well-used and well-loved furniture. Drinks are spilt, upholstery torn, tabletops scratched, and chair legs chewed.
In the consumerist society in which we live it can be tempting to simply discard and replace with new. But furniture can be expensive, particularly if its well-designed and well-built.
As the UK’s cost-of-living crisis shows no signs of abating, one cost-effective solution is furniture restoration, with the benefits extending well beyond the monetary.
What is furniture restoration?
Before we begin looking at its advantages, it is important to define what furniture restoration is and what it isn’t.
In Tristan Salazar’s seminal work ‘The Complete Book of Furniture Restoration’, he describes the ‘art of restoration’ as ‘an attempt to conserve and restore pieces back to their original state with an allowance for the effects of time’ (Note 1).
In other words, furniture restoration is a process where the furniture is cleaned, repaired or refinished with the aim of restoring or maintaining its formal functionality and much of its original look.
For example, over many years a dining table may have acquired several water or heat marks across its top. Good furniture restoration can minimise or even eliminate these marks and return the dining table to something approaching its former glory, while still retaining the beautiful patina that has built up over years.
Similarly, a favourite chair may have suffered a break to its back support. Restoration can repair and strengthen the support to enable years of future use.
Although not exhaustive, here is a list of typical furniture restoration services:
· French polishing
· Lacquering
· Colour matching
· Cleaning
· Waxing
· Desk leather restoration
· Heat damage removal
· Water damage restoration
· Scratch removals
· Dent repairs
· Pet damage repairs
· Structural repairs
· Loose or missing veneer repairs
· Hardware repairs and restoration
What furniture restoration is not
It’s important to distinguish between furniture restoration and furniture upcycling. Upcycling normally involves repurposing or changing the original appearance of the furniture.
For example, an old pine chest of drawers may be painted a modern colour to fit better within a newly decorated bedroom.
Or the opposite: to reflect the changing tastes of the owner, a darkly stained coffee table might be sanded back to the wood, then oiled and waxed.
Both examples are to be commended for their thrift and resourcefulness, but neither are examples of true restoration.
Now that we’ve established what furniture restoration is, let’s look in turn at its many benefits.
1. Saves you money
Replacing old furniture with new can be very expensive. The cost of a new dining table and set of dining chairs will almost certainly run to four figures, even in the cheapest furniture store.
And trying to replace, for example, a mid-century modern dining set with something approaching the same build and material quality will be significantly more expensive.
Restoring your existing furniture will give you the same results, if not better, as buying new – and at a fraction of the cost.
2. Good for the environment
Apparently, it takes 1000 times more carbon dioxide to make a new mass-produced furniture compared with restoring an existing piece.
Furniture factories use an enormous amount of energy and materials to produce products for global markets.
Use of fossil fuels, problems surrounding deforestation and land degradation, and the climate cost of international shipping are just some of the ways in which the phenomenon of ‘fast furniture’ harms our planet (Note 2).
But buying new mass manufactured furniture is only one half of the problem: junking your old wardrobe or coffee table creates its own environmental problems.
In 2018, a study found that in the UK nearly 22 million items of furniture are thrown away each year when they become damaged, with a significant proportion ending up in landfill (Note 3).
By choosing to restore your furniture rather than replace it, you are reducing your carbon footprint while also doing your bit to limit unnecessary waste and the environmental problems this generates.
You’re not only extending the lifetime of your furniture, you are also increasing the lifespan of the planet.
3. Good for your health
A significant amount of mass-produced, low-cost furniture can create indoor air pollution.
Soft furnishing can be particularly bad, releasing what is known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or semi volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In certain circumstances they can cause headaches and nausea.
Furniture made predominantly from MDF can also produce harmful toxic fumes, with some reporting a concentration of formaldehyde over ten times air quality limits (Note 4).
Older furniture, by contrast, typically contains more solid woods and high-quality veneers. This not only avoids exposure to toxins but provides significant health benefits.
For more information on the health-enhancing characteristics of solid wood furniture check out one of our previous articles – ‘Wood and Wellbeing: The Biophilic Benefits of Solid Wood Furniture’.
4. Increases or preserves value
Old furniture doesn’t necessarily mean cheap furniture. Some antique items may hold some real value. Through the process of careful and skilled restoration, furniture can retain – and even increase - its value.
Whether it’s carrying out a subtle structural repair or a sympathetic refinishing, the modest costs involved in restoration is far outweighed by the value this adds to your antique furniture.
However, the success of this approach hangs on the quality of the restoration. If you have a genuine antique, make sure you employ the services of an experienced and suitably qualified restorer. Bad restoration can render a valuable piece worthless.
5. Not on the high street
The older the piece of furniture, the greater the likelihood there will be less of them in existence. You may even have the last remaining coffee table or chair of its kind.
But if you replace it with one purchased from a retail store, the same furniture will be in countless other homes up and down the country – and even across the world.
Restoring your old furniture helps you retain something unique to you and potentially unique to the world. It brings a certain character and individuality to your home that simply can’t be achieved by buying new on the high street.
6. Because You Love It
If you’ve had a certain piece of furniture in your home for years, or even decades, the chances are you will have grown attached to it.
An old dining table will have hosted many dinners and borne witness to the many ups and downs of family life. It will have acquired sentimental value.
Watching a beloved piece of furniture slowly deteriorate can be difficult. But discarding it because of wear and tear is wasteful, expensive and unnecessary.
A skilled furniture restorer can bring it back to something approaching its former glory. In doing so, you keep hold of furniture you love, are able to enjoy it for years to come, and can pass it down to future generations.
7. Extends life of the piece
Through the process of restoration and repair, you extend the useful life of your furniture.
Often built from quality hardwoods and veneers, in the hands of an experienced furniture restorer, old furniture can be revived in a way that modern furniture simply can’t.
Most modern furniture is mass-produced using cheap materials such as MDF, chipboard and plastic laminates.
Once damaged these materials can be very difficult, if not impossible, to repair. In fact, the low purchase price compared with the cost of repair often encourages people to dispose of the item and replace with new.
In comparison, the materials and construction techniques common to older furniture makes a successful repair or refinish much easier to achieve. This means that a well-restored 40-year-old dining table can easily last another four decades.
Seek out a professional
If you do choose furniture restoration over replacing with new, do make sure you employ the services of a professional restorer.
True restoration, rather than the popular pursuit of upcycling, is an art or craft which requires real skill and considerable experience.
Leaving your dining table in the hands of an enthusiastic amateur can lead to disastrous results.
At Glencairn Furniture, we offer our clients a range of professional furniture restoration services. Find out more here.
Restoring old glories
By now, you should have a better appreciation of the many advantages of professional furniture restoration.
Not only does it save money, protect the environment and safeguard your health, it enables you to hang on to something you love while bringing genuine character and style to your home.
Lastly, if furniture restoration isn’t a viable option for you – for example, irreparable flood or fire damage – there is an alternative to an inferior, high-street replacements
Seeking the services of a bespoke furniture maker will ensure you are truly replacing like with like – and with it, continuing to enjoy all the benefits that comes with beautifully made solid wood furniture.
Find out more about Glencairn Furniture’s bespoke furniture commissioning process here.
Richard England, Founder, Glencairn Furniture
Notes
1. p. 68, ‘The Complete Book of Furniture Restoration’ by Tristan Salazar (Bison Books, 1980)
2. Fast Furniture: The Shocking Truth and How We Fix It
4. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/feb/09/mdf-furniture-toxic-fumes-formaldehyde