Old antique furniture is a guarantee of luxury, subtility, aristocracy and elegance. Each of us at least once has been dreaming of bringing the spirit of splendid decoration style to our home environment. This classic style has been previously found only in aristocratic mansion-houses and the houses of wealthy people as well as public interiors and state objects. Whereas, now the classic historic values are available for everyone. And it does not have to be necessarily the furniture of a high price purchased in exceptional or antiquarian furniture stores which are not affordable for everyone. Most of us are in possession of antique furniture as a heritage from our ancestors, but only some of us realise that these old and visually looking unusuable furniture can be renovated resulting in a very much valuable part of interior.
Ancient furniture is suitable everywhere, either in English style lounges where the whole family can enjoy tea and coffee drinking or the exclusive businessman offices where business partners can enjoy Kuba cigars. Antique furniture can be also a brilliant solution in residential apartments where the main accent of the area is a fireplace or a luxury mirror in gold-plated frames, in bedroom which is decorated with uncountable meters of fancy fabrics and tester upon the wall.
It does not really matter whether you want to have the whole house in classic style of just separate rooms, well planned and considered solution will always make a delicate and romantic impression. And the furniture should be very much carefully considered.
If you cannot afford to purchase new furniture, one of the great solutions is to purchase second hand furniture brought from Europe. It is also possible to find valuable and interesting items in antiquarian shops. Of course, most antique items will be inadequately high-priced, though others get rid of these items as considered out of value.
Regardless of how these antique furniture has reached your home - as a heritage or purchased by yourself - you should bear in mind that in either case it needs a lot of attentive care. If you want to have long service furniture (you wish to use them in your interior or sell them), it is adviced to find out the mistakes that people normally make by damaging the antique values. This antique item category includes not only the furniture but also other antique items, such as dishes, vases, watches and other accessories.
Of course, we always think that a carefull cleaning will make our item more valuable and eye-catching, however that‘s not always the case. Once we clean the varnish from a very old and exclusive illuminator, we can immediately dicrease its value, whereas if we carefully wash the crystal dishes, we will definately make no damage and its value will not decrease. Old and antique items are valuable due to the fact that they reflect the past historic facts. The older the history, the higher value of the item. Before starting to clean antique items, first of all we should find out which are the best cleaning materials to be used as inappropriate cleaning can highly lower the value of the item. Nowadays cleaning materials - domestic chemistry can cause a huge damage, for example, not only wash off the paint, but also damage the surface. If there is something you don‘t have knowledge of, you should seek an advice of proffessionals.
Do you always need to renovate the furniture from the basis? Definately not. Most people refurbish old furniture, repaint it, make it from the bottom creating a new furniture. Such type of furniture can be no longer considered antiquarian. Furniture restoration can not only lower its original and historic value, but also make them a totally different furniture. Before making any changes, first of all it is recommended to find out if a piece of furniture is not a work of a classic master.
Most often basic cleaning and supervision is enough. Of course, if the item does not have a special historic and materialistic value, it can be changed and renovated at your own discretion. Normally, the furniture is restorated and renovated in accordance with a particular interior and its requirements. That's how a new art work is discovered.
Restoration is a process which ensures that you will not find the same item in any other house. Amongst the most often renovated furniture are wardrobes which get totally renovated only from inside - old shelves are replaced with new ones, arks, chairs, armchairs and soft furniture whose tapestry material is being replaced as well as wood constructions. If furniture is very old and damaged, then one detail is replaced with another one. For example, the doors and corners of the wardrobes are replaced, the table gets covered with another surface (in most inns and cafes it is possible to see how old sewing machines are being used as a basis) which gets covered with glass or wood surface, that's how very interesting tables are being discovered. Interior decorated with old items, bricked arches, quernstones, various antique accessories are also popular. Sometimes the question comes whether to renovate or completely change the items. Of course, each of us will make individual decisions. However, in order to make radical and serious changes, first of all the specialist should be consulted.
What happens to fabrics and paper when they stay in a long contact with sun rays? They get discoloured. This can be observed best during maintenance time, when we pull the wardrobe or another huge furniture from the wall. It can be noticed that the shades of tones are different. Paper, as well as photos get yellowish and cracked, the bright colours of fabric get discoloured. And plastic items loose its appearance if they are in a long contact with sun rays - they end up as items that we don't want to have in our interior or leave for children or next generations. Thats why an effort should be made that collections of valuable items would be protected from direct sun rays.
Restoration of antique items whist having a wish to recover identic historic appearance might look like a good idea. But inherited furniture and our experience - are often mismatching things. That‘s where another level of knowledge and professional advice that could help a lot is needed. If it is enough to varnish a piece of furniture to have it renovated you can do it yourself, however if more serious works are needed - it is better to leave it for professionals. This way you will save the appearance and value of the furniture.
If you have a possibility to create a museum type environment in your home, it would be best then to display a collection of antique items. This can be possible not very often, therefore all the possibilities should be used in order to protect valuable items and leave them for future generations. It is advised not to keep valuable items in damp places such as basements, dry and warm places such as shelters and shelter rooms. It is recommended to keep valuable items at places with adequate conditions, where its convenient and needed.
Antique style is getting modern. Various shape furniture is no longer a surprise to anyone. Classic furniture in hi-tech style - chromium-plated and painted. Designers tend to borrow something from antique times and create something modern. Such experiments are quite popular when old is combined with new. New unusual solutions, furniture pieces are created in one copy for a particular interior, which does not contain even one matching element. Chairs, chest of drawers, mirrors, coffee tables and other interior elements are unique and kind of mismatching - very much suitable for a modern wave of eclectics. Antique furniture will bring particular energy to your interior. What is more, sometimes its hard to say which element is new and which one is antique.