Is It Better to Restore Antique Furniture Found At A Garage Sale or Leave It In The Condition It’s In?

Part of the allure of the all-powerful garage sale is that you never know exactly what you’re going to find. Your new favorite piece of jewelry, a priceless winter sweater, a beautiful set of dusty books—the possibilities are endless. And although the chances of you finding an immensely valuable piece of furniture on sale for a bargain price are quite low, they certainly aren’t zero!

So, what do you do if you find this ultra-valuable antique at a garage sale? Do you restore it, or do you leave it as is? Let’s take a look.

Find out if it’s really an antique

There’s no hard-set and technical definition for “antique,” and a lot of people use it interchangeably with “old.” Certainly, however, most of us can tell the difference between a (particularly valuable) antique car, and just any old beat-up set of wheels. In the same way, not every old piece of furniture is going to be a valuable antique.

As a general rule of thumb, a valuable antique will be at least 100 years old and handmade. There are a few tells for this. If the piece is in immaculate shape, it probably hasn’t been on this planet for very long. If the hardware is all identical, then it’s likely been handmade. Similarly, the woodwork and dovetails look machine-perfect, then they probably are. While an antique piece of furniture will be beautiful, it will also be imperfect. At the end of the day, however, the only way to be 100% certain is by asking a professional.

Know what your plan is

The other thing to keep in mind, of course, is that the piece you pick up at the garage sale is ultimately yours. What do you want to do with it? If your plan is to re-sell it, then you certainly need to speak to an expert to, at the very least, get it appraised.

If you are planning to keep it, however, then you’re free to do whatever you wish with it. Paint it, sand it down, Frankenstein something new, you’re in charge! That being said, if your plan is just to have a super valuable piece of antique furniture on display in your home, then you’re going to have to confirm its value, anyway.

Talk to an expert

Once again, once the piece is yours, it’s yours. Cutting up an original Guttenberg bible for a scrapbook, however, is something just about anybody would criticize, even if you’re legally the owner. If you think you have a valuable piece on your hands, reach out to an expert for an appraisal. You still get the final say, ultimately, but you can make an educated decision on what to do with your new piece.

For example, if it turns out to be a valuable piece you can have on display, an expert might advise against using it as an actual coffee table, since modern coffee stains don’t exactly do wonders for the value of the piece. If there’s one thing you can never go wrong with, it’s some expert advice. Our expert advice? Enjoy every sale you can, and love live the garage sale!