Restorations?

I think the problem would be selling it after your done.
I’m sure you could make a little extra money if you had the time to sit on something until it sold.

I think the hard part would be finding something worth restoring on craigslist, and that you can sell at a decent price (people go on CL for cheap stuff) somewhere else that make it worth your time and material. The labor involved in refinishing fine furniture alone probably cost more than buying new cheap furniture

-- Ed

It could be a moneymaker under the right circumstances. I think you’d need to be picky and only buy things that were of good quality that people were selling cheap due to cosmetic flaws. As Ed said, you’d never turn a profit competing with cheap new furniture.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Used furniture or antiques?

The former? Unless it’s a really special, ultra popular, or in-demand item, I wouldn’t count on it. To make things worse, a lot of factory made, average quality stuff is urethane or cat-lac coated, which is difficult to strip or repair.

For antiques, check some local shops and see what sells, and for how much, in your area. You would then have an educated view of what kind of time you could put into a run down piece and still expect to make a buck.

You could also offer custom services to repair / restore a favorite item.

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

YES! I just picked up an “Ethan Allen” (sp) dinning table at the Salvation Army for $25. Needs refinishing, a lot, but…

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

depends on your market place for resale whether it would work or not.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

I used to work in an upholstery shop..high end.. in Aspen Colorado..I asked the the owner the same question about upholstered furniture. I really respected this mans opinion.. he built a great business in Aspen… with all the materials and time you have to put into it..you barely break even….even if it is a high end frame to start with.

It could be done, but you will not get rich doing it.

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

Very little money…particularly by a craftsman who has to make it right. Having said that if you had the right sales setup you could do very nice. Keep a low over head. No wages to pay or expensive tools.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Honestly – this is a bubble buster … You’re wasting your time if you plan to do speculative restorations and sell stuff at garage sales or flea markets. People want deals – like $50-$100 for a piece of furniture someone is trying to cash out on vs. drag to the curb.

I’ve tired a few spec pieces over the years … lets see … one is now in my brother’s apartment, another two or three in his old bedroom, my fiance just put two in her new den area, two desks are in my game room … gave a few things away recently to clear some space. The point is simple – we’re stuck with most of them, not that they are not nice pieces at this point and functional to us, but the original intent was to sell them.

If you have an antique store (not a local consignment shop) ... if YOU have a store … maybe … and only maybe at that point is it worth taking the time to restore pieces and resell them. You have to have the shop, the skill, the time, and the space to work and store them and the capital to buy and invest in materials and finishing supplies (not that it’s that much on the $ side) ...

If you’re thinking true antiques – forget it the cost of buying them even in poor condition is too high in most cases. Collectibles are somewhat feasible if you know exactly what to buy.

You can try online – goantiques.com, ebay, etc … but shipping costs will kill a good portion of your chances.

If you’re willing to work for $10/hr or less – maybe this works for you. It will take you – if you’re good – at least 5-15 hours on the average project to rebuild and refinish a given piece. This doesn’t include glue drying and finish curing times, this is YOUR time. Then add finding the piece, moving it around, marketing it, delivering it.

We still have a backlog of restorations pending even given the recession – things slowed down a lot, we’re no longer hovering with 6-8 months in the queue, but we still have not run out of work. You are better off getting paid for a given job that someone has for a specific piece they are willing to properly pay you to restore. At the end, they take the piece back and you’re not stuck with it.

Some day – I figured if we had the space I’d keep high end restorations around the house for our own use and put tags on them. If someone buys it great, I restore something else to fill the spot in my house. Otherwise – forget it it’s just not worth the effort.

The only thing that kinda does work lately – picture frames – find old high end frames, fix them up, sell them online. That can turn a few $ if you have the time to search for them and to restore them on spec.

- Just my opinion!

-- Eric M. Saperstein, Master Craftsman www.artisansofthevalley.com

from my experience, not really worth it. in some situations it would take less time to build something from scratch then to have to dissassemble some parts, strip, fix, reassemble, and refinish… which is mostly the case.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.