Furniture restoration is a common practice, especially for people who are into preserving antique materials. Although it’s a hobby a lot of people appreciate, it’s a complex task. Just because you have restored a piece of furniture before doesn’t mean you should do it to other pieces.

It takes skill, practice, and experience to restore furniture. Not every person has the same skills as the professionals. The task requires years of experience and exacting attention to detail. To give you an idea of the restoration process for different kinds of furniture, we have compiled this guide. Read on to learn more.

1. Wood Furniture

Wood is a tricky material to work with. It requires physical strength from whoever tries to restore it to its original shape. Professionals must use the proper techniques, clean solvents, and correctly identify the type of wood to ensure that restoration efforts will not go to waste.

Restoring wood also requires an ideal workspace. The workspace has to have natural lighting and storage space if the restoration doesn’t finish within the day. It’s not uncommon for beginners to commit mistakes in the restoration. The restoration process requires skills, talent, and experience to bring out the furniture’s best look.

2. Ornate Carved Pieces

If pieces of furniture made out of wood are tricky, then the ornate carved pieces might be a more tedious job. Restoring wood furniture can become time-consuming and challenging. There is also a lot of room for mistakes to happen during the process. But treating carved items requires more than care to keep the intricate designs intact.

It’s vital to preserve those designs first. Taking care of the material used can be done later on using leave-on cleaning solvents to help prevent it from decaying in the long run. But the carved designs should be taken care of from the moment the restoration process has started.

3. Upholstered Gems

Upholstered furniture is most common in households and commercial spaces. Most of the time, they are items passed on to every family generation, giving it both financial and sentimental value. Therefore, restoring such things to their original state can become an overwhelming task at hand.

It’s vital not to ruin the furniture’s original upholstery because it is where most of the value comes from. Therefore, it’s more beneficial to hire a professional to restore such intricate and delicate pieces of history.

4. One-of-a-Kind Antiques

Antiques, or pieces of furniture that exist for at least a century, should always be restored by a professional. Restoring delicate items require a combination of science and skill to produce desired results. Going DIY on your antique pieces at home may lead to value degradation, damage, and overdoing the work.

If you’re thinking of giving your old furniture a quick sanding, leave that idea alone. Regardless of their rarity, all antiques should only be handled by professionals trained by experience and time.

5. Expensive Furniture

Expensive furniture is costly for a reason—the impressive design, durability of materials, and rarity of construction contribute to how manufacturers mark them up. Therefore, restoring valuable antiques should be left to the professionals.

Doing the restoration yourself may degrade the furniture’s value and quality for doing the wrong techniques during the process. It’s better to leave it to the professionals with better equipment and skills to handle the task.

Conclusion

DIY restoration projects shouldn’t be done for fun. Instead, it should be done on items that hold little to no value at all. But if you own pieces that are given importance by time, then it’s probably better to leave the work to the professionals. They are individuals trained to handle fragile and delicate items while preserving their original beauty.

Cavalier Antiques and Restoration is a furniture restoration company based in Adelaide. For over 25 years, we have dedicated ourselves to assisting every client to restore some of their precious items to their former glory. We welcome antique dealers, collectors, or anyone who appreciates antique furniture and collectibles. Browse through our websites to see our past projects and let us know if you need anything.