Marketing your antique upholstery skills

Antique restoration can be a profitable market to tap by marketing yourself in person and online.

Upholstery Journal | April 2009

by Dionne Cordell

Combine the decline in consumer spending with the influx of low-cost, mass-produced furniture alternatives, and antique furniture restoration has the potential to get lost in the shuffle.

However, there is still a demand for expert craftsmanship, although marketing your antique restoration expertise can be difficult. Word-of-mouth marketing and customer service are always relevant methods, but the Internet holds the key for the smart craftsman who is both restoration- and tech-savvy.

Maintaining authenticity

The home furniture market is saturated with quick and simple fixes, but by using traditional methods, upholsterers can gain a reputation for quality and true craftsmanship.

One of the key elements in restoration is authenticity: retaining a piece’s integrity and time period. Often, antiques hold sentimental value to their owners, so it’s crucial to make the piece look as close as possible to its original form. Maintaining the highest standard of authenticity doesn’t always come easily. Authentic materials, such as flax straw and Spanish moss, are no longer processed for upholstery use, as Kim Buckminster of Buckminster Upholstery in Falls City, Neb., has found. “Synthetic materials have taken over in many shops,” he says.

Natural materials, like horse hair and hair mixes remain readily available and can be the best padding medium. Buckminster says that he uses excelsior, or wood wool, as a suitable substitute for natural padding materials, though it’s not as durable as moss and can be difficult to shape. Cotton batting is available as well, though it is often tainted with synthetic fibers. If a natural material is not available, Buckminster recommends reusing original padding or finding a substitute material.

Randy Sanders of Furniture Artisans Inc. often saves materials from past projects and reuses them. Since most natural materials are difficult to obtain, this method saves him time finding vendors and keeps money in his pocket.

In the past few decades, information on traditional methods and restoration processes has been lost or changed. A job often requires an upholsterer to fix previous work from an inexperienced craftsman. “Many times, frames have warped and joints no longer line up,” Buckminster says. “There is little that can be done with some twisted and delicate Victorian furniture. Add to the scenario the guy that slopped Elmer’s glue into the joints without clamping, the regluing job has doubled in frustration and time consumption.”

Sanders uses a “slow tear-down” method to maintain integrity. He slowly takes away materials and doesn’t demolish otherwise useless parts.

Sanders says it’s also important to do research before starting a project. “What a unit looks like doesn’t mean what it is,” he says. He once took a bid for a loveseat and knew he would need to reglue, respring and rebuild the hard layer of padding for the seat. Once he started to work on the seat’s interior, he realized two rails were being held together by metal pieces. Sanders had to repair both rails, which required more work and time than he had anticipated. To avoid major complications, Sanders suggests doing research on the Internet to find a piece similar to the one that needs work. This can give you a head-start on a project by knowing about the furniture’s history, standard fabrics and manufacturing practices.

Antique upholstery requires upholstery and restoration skills, including repairing and rebuilding frames and finishing wood. It is vital to understand all aspects of restoring antique furniture—not just upholstery. Sanders says that within the antique upholstery market, leather and tapestry are the common materials being used for restoration.

“Depending on whether the furniture will have high-traffic usage, or whether it will be a ‘look’ piece makes the difference on authenticity,” Sanders says. An upholsterer might want to use modern staples instead of tacks, since tacks tend to rust and splint the wood, and stainless steel staples are more durable than tacks. If the furniture will be used heavily, taking advantage of modern materials isn’t a bad idea.

But Buckminster warns that the public needs to be educated about the evils of care products saturated with silicone.

Most exposed wood finishes can be easily repaired and given new life if not subject to silicone products. He says knowing the proper way to treat finishes is critical in handling pieces.

Marketing never fails

Marketing your business successfully is one of the most difficult tasks in owning a business. Referrals are always effective. “The largest and most expensive yellow page advertisement doesn’t mean you’ll actually have customers coming in,” Buckminster says. He got exposure for his business by contacting the local media and asking them to cover exceptional pieces that came into his shop. Buckminster also thinks developing a reputation as a skilled antique upholsterer through word-of-mouth marketing is essential. “In becoming a well-known antique upholsterer, success can’t happen without sacrifice, lucky breaks and good friends,” he says.

Sanders says the key for his success in the restoration business is through networking. He is able to take bids from larger proposals because he is part of a networking base that allows him to work on bigger projects. Sanders can take a bid for 40 chairs and ask six to nine of his colleagues to help him. As a result, Sanders and his colleagues have steady work for about six months. “Knowledge from 100 people is always better than one person,” he says.

The communication between customer and upholsterer is important to a successful project. George Evans created Bond & Bowery, a web-based antique marketplace for dealers and buyers, to respond to the market’s growing demand. “I have a first-name, personal relationship with my restorers, and I choose them based on their quality of work,” Evans says. Antique dealers and restorers have always had close relationships. The dealer has the vision of what a piece needs to look like and to make sure it will sell, and the restorer has the eye to make a piece look fabulous.

Pairing old with new

“The web is the way,” Evans says. Seventy-five percent of items on the Bond & Bowery web site have had some sort of restoration, and antique restoration is an excellent option for upholsterers.

“The piece must be presented in a way so the client can see it,” Evans says. Web sites make it possible for customers who make significant purchases online to view hundreds of pieces at one time. This way they can save time and money driving to and from antique stores.

Most of Evans’ clients are interior designers and consumers who are looking for specific quality in items, and the online element fulfills those specifics. Many of his customers come from all over the world, which gives Bond & Bowery the ability to expand to potential customers who have never heard of his business.

“Upholstery is a great way to make a beautiful frame even better than it was before,” Evans says. “The details are important. Make the piece look well put together by the quality of stitching, seaming, padding and your choice of trims.”

Restoring an antique to its original beauty is only half the battle; making potential customers aware of your expertise delivers the final blow. By combining traditional techniques and marketing strategies with the advantages of the Internet, awareness of your talents can increase. Remember, you want to restore antiques, not be one.

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