My husband inherited this furniture from his parents. When they passed away, he wanted to throw it, or at best, sell it. I wasn't fond of any of those two solutions. In question weren't only those two armchairs that you can see on the photo below but, in fact, the whole living room in that old style.
Tables, cabinets, and commodes were more or less OK, while the couches, chairs, and armchairs were pure disasters that were falling apart. There were some cheaper renovation options, but I was very skeptical about them. Proper restoration costs money that we didn't have at the time. In the end, my husband agreed to keep them for a while until we would make a final decision.
Years passed by, and this furniture was still on hold. A couple of times, my husband tried to convince me we should throw it away or at least sell it, but it still didn't feel like the right thing to do to me.
In the meantime, I did some research on my own, in the end, to bring some experts to tell us what we actually have there. It turned out it was furniture made in Art déco style by some well-known domestic craftsman at the beginning of the 20th century (approximately around 1930s).
Last spring, by some special "gymnastics" in our financial calculations, I finally came up with the "formula" according to which we would be able to do something with that furniture, so I started to search for the right craftsman for the job.
When I found it, at last, another obstacle occurred. The thing was that I wanted the restoration to be made the old school way, but I wanted to use more modern fabrics that would be stain-resistant and waterproof. My chosen craftsman was a bit skeptical about my ability to find suitable material.
The search lasted almost the whole month until I finally found an excellent German producer. When the fabrics arrived, my craftsman was still skeptical about my final choice of material but agreed to try their best with it.
Sometime in the middle of summer (about the end of July) our furniture was finished at last. When bringing it back to us, our restoration craftsman couldn't stop talking about how delighted he was with the picked fabric. He also told us how they tested it for different things to conclude by saying, "Now, this is going to last for at least another hundred years!"
And here it is, how they look now!
When our children saw it (who, btw, were all the way through on my husband's side cheering for the furniture to be thrown away or sold, as I am allegedly just an old collector of old useless things) almost couldn't recognize it.
And when I told them that just one armchair is worth now in between $1,000 and $2,500 they were speechless.
Besides all of that, due to the color of the fabric and the whole restoration, the whole room suddenly appeared bigger and brighter.
What do you think? Was it a good decision or not? Would you throw away or sell your old furniture or try to renovate it?
For me, it was absolutely worthy, and one of those projects that definitively keep me alive! 😊
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