At Geoffrey Warwick, our aim in furniture restoration is to preserve the elegance and usefulness of your antique or piece of furniture, this differs from when we carry out historical conservation which is described in more detail under furniture conservation.
Our belief is workbench skills alone do not make a good furniture restorer, a good knowledge of furniture history and making is essential. During furniture restoration we always aim to keep pieces as original as possible and avoid alterations which conflict with the original piece. Each piece we restore is assessed and we explain to our clients the restoration work that will be undertaken.
Our aim is to carry out furniture restoration using traditional techniques and tools with the occasional help from modern machinery.
We hold a stock of old timber, handles, hinges etc and wherever possible we will endeavour to use these during furniture restoration. However when this is not possible we will age and colour new timber so it blends with old and if necessary replaces or cast missing handles or hardware.
Once we have undertaken all necessary cabinet work we finish each piece using traditional polishing techniques these can be waxing or French polishing which is described under French Polishing.