Retro/vintage furnishings

Leif

Anyone here buy old but not antique furnishings for restoration?

I bought an old Ercol Plank dining table probably over 50 years old, English elm top, beech frame, £150 on ebay, stripped back to bare wood, light stain on top, 3 coats Danish Oil, then waxed. It looks like new. Actually it is better than new, because new ones have an acrylic finish, and not so nice figuring on the top.

Did the same to an old round Ercol coffee table, English elm top, beech legs, £55 on ebay. It looked dreadful, but the restored table is as good as new with a lovely grain pattern.

I also got a gorgeous 10 year old Ercol coffee table made from solid ash or elm, in very good condition, £30 on ebay.

A few tricks include using a light wood dye to highlight grain, and applying water to dents, to remove them. The great thing about Ercol is the quality of the wood, and the traditional construction. It takes about a solid day to strip a small dining table or a coffee table, and each oil coat takes about 15 minutes to apply.

I like furniture from the 60's, the clean elegant design is not to all tastes, but it is distinctive. And I bet it can only go up in value if looked after, not that value is really the aim is it.

So it set me thinking, what sort of things can be restored with a bit of elbow grease, turning an unloved outcast into something of beauty? And where do you buy them? Ebay seems a good place.

seabright

What do you do with the furniture? Restore it for your own use or to sell on?

I'd love to do this, so love to hear what you've done. I guess I'd be looking for stuff at big car boot sales (the type where the house clearance people go) and at small auction houses

Mrs_Huggett

The auctions I go to are full of brown, (furniture from 1920/30 onwards) I can never understand people going to the furniture shops that we have now and buying absolute tat!! Have you seen the Shabby chic thread on the OS board? Also there is a great American site called Roadkill Rescue which is brilliant for getting ideas. See if you can find an Auction house near you, you will pick stuff up for £10 upwards if they are the sort that house clearance stuff.

Leif

seabright wrote: »

What do you do with the furniture? Restore it for your own use or to sell on?

I'd love to do this, so love to hear what you've done. I guess I'd be looking for stuff at big car boot sales (the type where the house clearance people go) and at small auction houses

The furniture is for my own use. Small auction houses are the cheapest place, as Mrs Huggett says, but you need to keep your eyes open and wait. Often people inherit grannies table and chairs, and think it is scruffy and outdated and flog it at a car boot sale, or on ebay.

Mrs_Huggett wrote: »

The auctions I go to are full of brown, (furniture from 1920/30 onwards) I can never understand people going to the furniture shops that we have now and buying absolute tat!! Have you seen the Shabby chic thread on the OS board? Also there is a great American site called Roadkill Rescue which is brilliant for getting ideas. See if you can find an Auction house near you, you will pick stuff up for £10 upwards if they are the sort that house clearance stuff.

Brown furniture is cheap and generally out of fashion. But it can be stripped and the stain removed with oxalic acid. I hope to buy a brown rocking chair to strip and lighten. That said, many people like brown furniture. I like a mid-brown, which gives it some colour, and highlights the grain.

Small auction houses are cheap as you say, but it is hard to find the items I want e.g. an Ercol plank table. I known one used furniture shop that buys from local auctions then sells on for 10 times as much without any restoration. I visited, and on some items in one corner I saw the auction house stickers!

I don't care for shabby chic either, though I do not criticise anyone who likes it, we all have our own tastes. However, I do balk at the sight of a solid elm Ercol sideboard painted in the oh so trendy Farrow and Ball paint and called shabby chic.

It seems that people do not see beauty in old furniture, unless it is a kosher antique.

cwal

I really enjoy buying old furniture and restoring it (or painting it when appropriate = sorry!!) Although I would never paint an Ercol piece. I have also brought a couple of chairs to re-upholster and am learning from my Dad how to do this properly.

I've found some absolute bargains at car boot sales and am happy to spend the time doing the item up. I think older items have much more character and the price of some of the new 'tat' in the shops today is crazy!

booter

I've had some lovely stuff from my local British Heart Foundation furniture shop http://www.bhf.org.uk/shop/our-local-shops/whats-in-our-stores.aspx If you've got one near you, they're well worth a look.

The best find was a solid wood (dark oak) blanket box/chest which was priced up at £15 (and now houses way too many pairs of shoes )

Leif

cwal wrote: »

I think older items have much more character and the price of some of the new 'tat' in the shops today is crazy!

My neighbour was an upholsterer, and a customer had a scratched table which cost a lot of money. She asked if they could repair the scratch. He said no because the finish was a photograph rather than real wood. She was not happy. I have nothing against the likes of Ikea, good honest stuff at honest prices, but I would not pay a lot of chipboard and formica and such like, wihout a very good reason anyway.

Chris25

Leif, have you had a look at the shabby chic thread - lots of talented up-cyclers & restorers on there
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2733101

panika

I have a few preowned furnishings at home. I repainted a couple of them to match the colours in my flat, but most is left as they were bought.
One of them was small wicker cupboard, painted from natural to white for my bathroom. I also painted a bookcase from natural brown to black and orange. Looks really cool in my living room.

lobbyludd

almost all of my furniture is "preloved" either picked up free or bought at very low cost. I happen to like very dark wood and so tend to go for pre-50s, but also have some lovely mid-century stuff.

the reason? I cannot afford the very high cost of getting decently built modern furniture, even things that are (to my mind) pricey are often MDF in the bits not on show: ex-MIL spent £300 on a chest of drawers for dd and it's dreadful quality, the drawers stick and bow, the back is MDF, the drawer bottoms are ply, whereas for £10 I can pick up a rock solid CoD that will last another 50-100 years. For my daughter and son I do paint things, and I occaissionally paint pine (e.g. kitchen table), because I don't like the look of it. BUT, I'd never paint anything veneered or where the colour would penetrate, with decent solid wood, I can strip it all off again for a new life).

To buy something that well built new would mean getting it built to order by a carpenter. which I can't afford (well it's probably comparable for a kitchen, so If I ever redo my kitchen that's what I'll do rather than spend thousands on crappy MDF boxes).

Cottage_Economy

I thought I'd resurrect this thread as I have a question I'm hoping someone can answer and it's covered by this thread.

My father gave be a 1930s bureau with a glass cabinet on top a few years ago. It's dark wood and is covered in (i think) shellac.

The shellac is now starting to come off, it's looking very shabby and to be honest I prefer bare polished wood to varnished so I'm thinking of stripping it back.

Has anyone done this and have advice on how to approach it?

Heat gun? Paint stripper? Sanding?