An antique refers to nothing but those items in our property that hold some significance due to its historical background or some things that have been passed down to us by our great grandfathers. They are often valued for their age, the rarity of materials or designs used, a unique feature that portrays a rare form of craftsmanship or the stories revolving around them. These are often considered priceless and are sold at high prices in antique shops, auction houses or other such places.
Having an antique at home definitely adds up to a sense of pride to the individual who owns it. However, there always remains a primary responsibility to preserve valuable antiques or restore them if necessary. Antiques mainly include traditional furniture, pots, crockery, carpets and other pieces of art that are very finely made. Antique furniture mainly include dining tables, chests, chairs, etc.
Restoring furniture that is antique and of great value, thus, includes a lot of knowledge about the materials used or the features that make it so valuable, and also a lot of care. It may seem like a pretty difficult task by itself but if carried out extremely carefully with a lot of precision and with a knowledge of how antique furniture restoration is actually done, the process becomes quite easy.
Provided below, are 5 Easy Tips That Can Be Tried Out in Order to Carry Out Antique Furniture Restoration Effectively at Home:
#1. Cleaning of The Furniture: The basic goal is to regain the original finish and shine of the furniture. This can be done by waxing the furniture pieces with fiddles waxes. However, if the surface is not that clear, it can be cleaned using polishes. Wax finishes are also used as they help clean up old dirt and gives an attractive finish to the antique. Care must be taken to not apply too much wax all at once and must be applied by rubbing in small circles.
#2. Treating of Antique Furniture with Woodworm: A huge part of antique furniture restoration involves the treatment of that furniture that has shelters of woodworms and has small holes all over them. In general, when the furniture is slightly affected, a woodworm killing fluid is either painted over the affected areas or is injected into the holes with the help of bottles having injecting nozzles. Such treatments must always be carried out wearing gloves. In case of badly infested furniture, professional antique restorers must be called as in such cases the furniture is structurally weakened to the core.
#3. Restoring of Holes and Cracks: Antique furniture has been subject to much wear and tear due to their age and there are often holes left behind by dead woodworms or cracks that are caused by shrinking of wood under extremes of temperature. These can be fixed by using wax sticks that come in various colour option depending on the shade of the wood that has been used to make the furniture. antique furniture restoration in this form that must be carried out with utmost care, making sure not to deform or destroy any mark or design that makes the furniture that unique.
#4. Cleaning of Handles and Fittings on The Furniture: The metal fittings on furniture like handles, locks, pulls, brackets, hinges lose the luster with time. Cleaning these mainly includes opening them out of the furniture and dipping them in the metal cleaning solution for almost half an hour and then rubbing them off with a piece of cloth.
#5. Removing of marks: With long years of use, furniture may develop paint marks that can be removed by rubbing with spirits over the paint mark using cotton wool. Water ring marks on furniture are often removed using polish revivers. Lemon juice, white vinegar or a weak solution of hydrogen peroxide may be used to remove ink stains from furniture.
Antique furniture restoration may in some cases, turn out to be a very difficult task. However, most of the times it can be easily done by following the above easy tips at home. Sometimes such restorations of antiques do lead to loss of previous design or artworks that are uniquely featured on the furniture and are as a result, a loss of ancient heritage and culture that should be recovered or redesigned by an expert artist. However, restorations are also a way of keeping that age-old furniture well alive and add to the richness of an individual’s property.
