PINE REPAIR AND RESTORATION GUILDFORD – A BEAUTIFUL, FULLY RESTORED PINE BLANKET BOX
Over the years I have seen many changes to what people like and dislike with regard to furniture. For a few years, one type of furniture or style is in favour and then a few years later a different sort.
I can certainly remember when having ‘brown’ furniture went out of fashion and more modern ‘Ikea-type’ furniture started to appear. Easy to clean and maintain, it was instantly popular and, to some degree has remained so. Sadly, at the time, a great deal of lovely mahogany furniture was destroyed! This was a great shame, to put it mildly.
A few years ago there was another considerable change in fashion when pine furniture suddenly became popular (along with bare floorboards!). Everyone seemed to want pine and there was an insatiable demand – so much so that the stripping, repairing and waxing of antique pine units became common. This then started a flood of new pine furniture that was manufactured in the Far East (some of it in robust and decent designs).
Of course, it is certainly easy for an antique restorer to be a bit ‘snooty’ about pine furniture.
After all, ‘brown’ furniture is composed of far more expensive wood and the skill required to veneer and French polish ‘brown’ furniture is greatly more than that required for a pine equivalent. It is also fair to say that few great cabinet making masters have ever specialized in pine – not least because carvings and sharp detailing is next to impossible!
However, pine has some tremendous advantages over ‘brown’ furniture. It is light (both in weight and colour) and goes well in most modern environments, particularly flats. Pine is also forgiving in that surfaces can be restored reasonably easily when marked or damaged. In fact, sometimes (ironically) pine can look better when it is slightly marked, as this provides it with a patina that can often make it look more attractive than when in a ‘perfect’ state.
On a personal note, the only type of pine furniture that I am not keen on is pine furniture that has been lacquered – most notably (and horribly!) in a lacquer that is almost orange in colour. I think this is ghastly and an aberration for a wood that can (with care and attention) glow in a gorgeous golden colour.
Thankfully, lacquered pine is not impossible to deal with. Lacquer can be removed and the process of doing so can ‘age’ the wood – resulting (after some work) in an item looking really wonderful.
In fact, you may be surprised by how much pine furniture we restore in our workshop near Guildford and, frankly, how much pleasure that we can gain from this. At the end of the day, what we love is the pleasure gained from turning something that is defective or ugly or damaged – into a piece that looks good and that is fully serviceable. Whether that piece is pine or ‘brown’ is almost irrelevant!
So, if you have some pine furniture that needs restoration then do not think that we shall ‘turn up our noses’ at it.
Far from it! Bring your pine furniturte to us and I am sure you will be impressed by how we can turn it into something that you will really love and treasure. If it looks really good then just see how sorry we shall be to see it leave our workshop!
Peter Snelling