With good quality period furniture we firmly believe in repairing to its original condition and NOT over-restoring. All our antiques are lovingly hand restored by our expert furniture restorer Paul Slemmonds.
Where have all the bedside cabinets come from?
When did pot cupboards have filing cabinet drawers and four lever brass locks? Has the value of our poo gone up too much?
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1960’s Fad
This top quality inlaid Victorian period credenza (possibly by Kimble and Kabus) below had its fate sealed on the 5th floor of a late Georgian house, just off the Bayswater Road in the 1960’s by a couple of students and a gallon of Dulux Trade White.
50 years later things are in full swing once again, “IF IT MOVES, PAINT IT.” The main difference between then and now, the 1960’s had a plentiful supply of good undervalued furniture.
Buyer Beware!
Any old unsaleable stick of furniture would show a good profit to a dealer after a good lashing of trade white matt paint, even if it was:
- damaged
- unsightly
- rotten
- broken
- over-repaired
- unsaleable
Shares in Isopon P38 (car body filler) went up, and for a short period everybody was happy, until the next unfortunate owner of the aforementioned ‘stick of furniture’ starts to strip off the paint. Looking for long lost treasures such as a concealed inlay, some gorgeous burr walnut or some hidden yew wood, they alas find no more than a block of Isopon P38.
Vehicle Restoration
The main lesson we’ve learned along the journey is: Restore for pleasure, NOT for profit!
1956 Bond Minicar: 197cc Villieres 2 stroke, with detachable factory fibre-glass hard top.
1933 Morgan 3-Wheeler: 990cc water-cooled matchless v-twin.
1937 Rolls Royce 25/30: Limousine
This was a mammoth project, the amount of work was severely underestimated. What started as a couple of month’s work when it arrived in Toronto, turned in to close to a couple of year’s dedicated restoring.
It didn’t help that the transporters put grappling hooks through the wings to lift it off the ship!
1935 Singer Le Mans: Special Speed Model
1955 Bentley Hooper Empress: Hooper Bodied
Various Projects
When conservation, antiques and motors collide.
2 vans + 50 years = Low Carbon Footprint!
The Diahatsu has found a new home, but the Mercedes Benz is looking to retire somewhere in the country due to the vehicle orphaning policies of a Mayor.
Property Conservation, Renovation and Restoration
Wren Architecture comes to Sheen
Paul’s first restoration project was originally built by Sir Christoper Wren in 1696 as the chapel of a girl’s academy in Marylebone and later demolished and rebuilt as a coach house in East Sheen SW14.
