Antique Restoration and Repair

As society continues to advance technologically, the value and popularity of antiques also seems to grow. More and more people are realizing just how irreplaceable their antiques are and just how valuable grandma's dresser may become. While numerous kinds of antiques can be restored, antique furniture and clocks are, by far, the most common. It's rare to find a piece of furniture that has made the journey through time without some kind of damage. This is to be expected and natural wear can actually increase the value of an antique. Certainly you'll want to keep your antique from further degradation, but you'll also want to make sure you aren't accidentally devaluing your antique with frivolous repairs.

Restoration vs. Preservation
While museums may spend countless hours trying to preserve an antique with all its original materials, if you still want to use your antique furniture you'll need to have the piece restored. Antique restoration entails returning the piece to its original condition. Obviously, the more original materials the antique is able to retain the more value it will have, but an antique damaged beyond use isn't likely to yield a fortune, either.

The most important principle of a good antique restoration is reversibility. Any antique restoration should be able to be undone. Even if it's a tad more expensive, the glue used on antique furniture should be able to be dissolved without risking the integrity of the piece. Before you let someone work on your antique furniture, ask them if what they're doing is reversible. If they say no, ask them if there's something else that can be considered.

How Bad is Too Bad?
On the other hand, a badly damaged antique may need to be repaired. Repairing an antique involves replacing or otherwise altering part of the antique. This doesn't necessarily make the antique worthless. A common mistake people make is throwing out a damaged antique. Even a badly damaged antique can often be effectively treated, returning the piece to its original condition. Burn marks and water damage can look fatal, but can often be removed without a trace of the previous damage.

Cost and Value
Unless you're doing an antique restoration for purely sentimental reasons, it's often a good idea to have your antiques informally appraised. Sometimes the restorer will be able to do this or you may need to go to who specializes in antique appraisal. If you're planning on selling the antique after it's restored, keep in mind an antique appraisal is not always an accurate indication of the selling price. Strange things can happen at an auction house—think of the stories you've heard from E-bay. The selling price may be considerably more or less than the antique appraisal, and the rarer the antique the greater this disparity is likely to be.

Still, even for a more common antique, this process may be informative. If you're not careful, you can spend several hundred dollars on an item that still ends up in your yard sale. On the other hand, spending a couple hundred dollars to fix the claw foot on your antique table may increase its value a full two grand.