Furniture restoration in Surrey, not as expensive as you think!

The autumn always brings a remarkable amount of work into our workshop – with furniture restoration in Surrey in great demand as Christmas approaches!  At least, that is my theory but perhaps people just feel like to have a good ‘spring’ clean after the summer break. In any event, over the past couple of weeks we have had a great variety of furniture brought into our workshop for repair and restoration.  These items have ranged from blanket boxes, tables and chairs to corner cabinets and large dining tables that need extensive French polishing. Of course, we undertake a wide variety of furniture repairs in Surrey.  After many years in the business there are not many items, antique or otherwise that we cannot restore.  Indeed, as you know, we have a number of very skilled tradesman and artisans who specialise in different aspects of furniture repairs.  Sometimes we find something that…

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Antique restorations around Dorking

As you can see from the image above, last weekend I was at the Albury fair promoting Snelling Associates and our ability to undertake highly skilled antique restorations around Dorking.  I am pleased to say that this was very successful, as was the fair – which was held in some of the most glorious weather I can remember for years! Of course, promoting our skills is not something that comes naturally to us.  Like most craftsmen, at Snelling Associates, we spend almost all our time in the workshop deeply involved in our work.  This tends to override everything else and sometimes the level of concentration required when we are tackling complicated work means that we forget to tell the rest of the world that we exist – and that we are really good at what we do. Certainly, it is true to say that, over the years, we have been…

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Gorgeous, fully restored London Trolley for sale

  You may be interested to know that I have a London Trolley for sale!  This gorgeous piece from the past is really lovely and something that I have restored over the past couple of years (in between my more normal restoration of antiques and objets d’art!). As you can see from the image above, my London Trolley is in superb condition and is something that would be a stunning adornment to any property.  It is also fully functioning, in as fine a condition as the day it was made and is only £1,500.00 (a bargain!). Of course, it is now rare to see London Trolleys and yet, in my youth, I used to see them all the time.  They were used for transporting a bewildering array of goods through the streets of London from coal to potatoes to just about anything that the owner could put on them.  Often they…

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Furniture restoration in Surrey, examples of two items transformed!

As is always the case, thankfully(!), furniture restoration in Surrey is always in demand.  I suppose this is because there are so many beautiful properties in the area, many of which have a large selection of antiques and fine furniture.  Meanwhile, most Britons have a fondness for old items of furniture (whether wealthy or not) and implicitly appreciate their value.  Equally, there are few of us who have not inherited antiques that are either valuable in their own right or that lack real sentimental value. Recently, we have been working on many different items, amongst which has been the oak table and gilt mirror shown here. The oak table, when it was brought into our workshop was almost black!  It really was quite horrible and required considerable work to bring it back to its previous glory.  A good deal of careful cleaning was required and then we were able to…

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Professional restoration of antique furniture in the Guildford area

Recently a client brought into our workshop a gorgeous burr walnut card table, which has suffered badly over the years – not least from the lifting of its veneers. Well, as you can imagine, this card table is not only a valuable piece but also one that is treasured by the family concerned as an heirloom.  Indeed, it has been in the family for many generations now and is in need of expert attention from someone (like us) used to professional restoration of antique furniture in the Guildford area.  It is certainly not a piece of furniture that would retain its value if any repair work was ‘bodged’ (as so often happens when amateurs attempt to restore antiques!). In fact, professional restoration of antique furniture is required whenever a piece has inherent value.  This may seem obvious but we tend to receive a great many antiques that have been repaired…

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Furniture repair and restoration of antiques around Guildford

As always, the past few weeks have been hectic!  In fact, we have been exceptionally busy with furniture repair and restoration of antiques – given the extraordinary array of different items that have been brought into our workshop recently. Of course, chairs are a constant problem for everyone – not least because they get so much use and once joints start to work loose then the whole chair tends to quickly become unstable.  Sometimes, before a chair can be repaired spindles or supports break and therefore require new ones to be turned to match that broken.  Meanwhile, of course, the covering and support for chairs can deteriorate and need replacing.  All of this we undertake, helped by our superb upholsterer. Needless to say, our work consists (thankfully!) of doing a good deal more than the repair and restoration of chairs! In fact, we will be very busy with some chests…

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Examples of Snelling Associates’ repair and restoration of furniture in Surrey

Over the past few weeks we have been busy with a wide variety of repair and restoration of furniture in Surrey within our Shere workshop.  This has included some very attractive pieces of furniture, which we have completely transformed! Indeed, all the three examples shown here are a tribute to what can be done.  Certainly, we are pleased with the results achieved! In fact, all three pieces required substantial work from making new turnings to finding and laying new veneers (to match those existing).  We then had to do some very careful colouring, in the case of the desk and table, followed by French polishing. In any event, if you need repair and restoration of furniture in Surrey then do contact us! Peter Snelling  

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French polishing and furniture restoration in Dorking and Reigate

Recently, a client brought a piano stool into our workshops for French polishing and furniture restoration in Dorking.  At the time, the piano stool looked pretty awful, frankly, and needed a great deal of work, including French polishing and general restoration. However, our client does not have a piano so, in a way, the piano stool had become somewhat redundant, despite being a rather nice piece of furniture.  So, the point was whether it was really worth going to the trouble of having the stool restored or not! Well, after some thought, we came up with the idea that the piano stool could actually have a use, beyond being purely decorative – and our client decided that it would make an excellent bedside table.  This was a rather novel solution but one that made some sense and more than justified the restoration and French polishing work involved in returning the…

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