Old furniture is an important part of our heritage, and helps to define our self- image. Many people prize their grandparents’ furniture, or that of more distant ancestors. Whether furniture is Gothic, or from the Renaissance, Colonial, Federal, Rococo, Baroque, Victorian, Art Nouveau, Mission, Modern, or Post-Modern, all styles convey a powerful image of who we are, and how we view the world around us, and signify to others how to view us. Some old furniture is somber and serious, traditional, or whimsical, poking fun at other older furniture styles and periods.

Repairing old furniture is an essential part of possessing it. We are caretakers of our furniture for future generations, if we repair and conserve it, rather than ignore the maintenance and preservation needs, and hasten its demise. Unless old furniture is repaired, it will not survive our usage or serve our needs for long. Old furniture is functional, and unless maintained, will fail to function as intended. We are all familiar with the loose chair that breaks, and if not repaired, is soon discarded. Or the worn, scratched, and heat-marked dining table. By repairing our old furniture, we are maintaining our self-image, and showing others that we care about ourselves.

The most common repairs are needed by the most heavily used furniture, chairs. For the past hundred years, chairs have generally consisted of a frame of legs and rails, connected mostly with wooden pegs, or dowels. This design is economical but flawed compared to pre-industrial furniture. Wood shrinks as it ages, and the dowels no longer fill the holes to connect the legs and rails, and chairs wobble unless re-doweled and glued, in anywhere from two years to seventy, depending on the initial quality and precision of construction. The newer the chair, the faster it will fall apart; that is the predominant manufacturing ethic found today. Contemporary manufacturers are not interested in the preservation of our self-images, and their disrespect is all too often apparent. Pre-industrial, old furniture did not have separate connecting elements; the legs and rails were made a little longer, and inserted into one another directly, with mortise and tenon joints. It is a joinery system that often needs little maintenance for centuries.

Whether we repair our old furniture to support us, or to host a meal, our old furniture needs periodic repair to support our lifestyles. It gives back to us, many times what we invest in it, to serve us and our future generations.