Antique Washstand Restoration – Viewer Question
This question comes from Jerry. Since I was not comfortable advising a refinishing process for a valuable antique, I reached out to the community and Adam King of Adam King Studio graciously offered his advice. Let’s see what Jerry is up to:
“I am currently repairing an old family washstand for a friend of mine and I would appreciate your input on what kind of finish to put on it that would not diminish it’s value or character. My favorite finish is wipe-on poly, but I don’t know if that would be the correct finish or not on such a cherished piece. Thanks”.
And Adam’s response:
You touched on two very important things that I will point out. First, is value. Unless your friend’s washstand bears the name Sheraton, Chippendale, or has at least a 250 year history, there won’t be much monetary value to it. Since it is a family piece there is a great amount of emotional value. I’m guessing that’s what led to the idea of restoring it in the first place; preserving memories. Second, is character. The perceived character of a piece does come from age, construction, finish…but if it needs attention and is better served by being repaired and refinished, then your restoration of the piece will bring its own character to it. Thereby, adding your touch to your friend’s family history and heritage of the piece.
Historically we see shellac, primitive varnish, and early forms of lacquer showing up on washstands from the 16th century all the way into the early 20th century. I’m guessing that your friend’s washstand is anywhere between 75 – 150 years old since these are the most commonly found age ranges of washstands. So it more than likely had orange shellac or a simple varnish as an original finish. Wipe on poly is easy to use, but it won’t quite duplicate the “character” you get form shellac as it ages. So, my choice would be to use either an orange or super blonde shellac. Super blonde simply because you can tint it with any color you like to age the piece. I would mix a 1lb cut and then dilute that in half with denatured alcohol to produce a padding shellac. Put that in a plastic ketchup bottle, like the one’s at your favorite burger joint, and you can easily squeeze the shellac on to a rag and wipe it on in long strokes. This mixture dries quickly so you can apply many layers in a matter of hours. Also, if needed, you can alternate layers of shellac and color to reach a desired antique effect. I hope this helps and be sure to post some photos when you’re done.
Be sure to check out Adam’s website at AdamKingStudio.com and if you are a Twitter user, you can follow him at Twitter.com/AdamKingStudio.
To Refinish or Restore? That is the “Question of the Week”
This week’s question comes from Kyle who writes:
Lately I’ve been working on refinishing an old dresser. It’s been in my family for a long time and has been abused pretty badly. But since it was a family heirloom, it was like pulling teeth to convince my mom to let me restore it. I’ve seen your episodes on refinishing and I know about your experience in the field. I was just wondering if you could tell me what kind of things ruin the value of a piece and why you think there are so many refinishing “haters” out there. If a piece is in bad shape is it still more valuable than if an ambitious woodworker like myself made it look good again?
And this was my response:
Hey Kyle. From what I have seen, there are definitely two types of refinishing out there. You have the utilitarian version, which I am familiar with, which simply takes an old beat up piece of furniture and makes it serviceable and beautiful. This includes doing any necessary repairs, stripping off the old finish, possibly re-staining, and of course, applying a new finish of choice. The second type of refinishing is actually true “restoration”. This is a much more involved process that requires careful attention to detail and a boat-load of know-how. While I can’t tell you exactly how to maintain the value of an antique, I am sure it has a lot to do with keeping the original finish intact and doing spot repairs with period-accurate materials. Anyone in that industry could probably recite a long list of do’s and dont’s.
So at a point like this, you have a few questions to ask yourself (and your mother). Is this piece ever going to be sold? Is it highly valued by your mom simply because its “valuable” or is it an emotional attachment by virtue of its service in your family for so long? Also, it might be nice to know if the piece even has substantial value as an antique. Perhaps you should have it appraised before making a final call. You see Kyle, you could refinish that piece and make it look better than it did on the day it was created, but as a result you may very well (and most likely will) destroy its value as an antique.
As an aside, I will tell you that out of all of my videos (over 60 now), the one that I receive the most complaints and corrections about is the refinishing series. I suppose its my fault for not explicitly stating that this was not meant to be “Antique Restoration 101″. I had explicit instructions from the owners of that table and I did exactly what they wanted. An old decrepit table was pulled out of the back of a garage and was restored for sentimental value. The table would never be sold or even appraised. The customer simply wanted the table to match the color scheme of her current decor so that she could enjoy the same table her mother had enjoyed for so many years before her. Monetary value was irrelevant.
So really, this is a personal decision for you and your family. But to answer your question directly, even a beautiful refinishing job can completely destroy the value of an antique. Hope that helps.
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