Antique furniture restoration in the UAE

An old piece of furniture has usually survived two or three previous attempts to help it. Someone glued a joint with the wrong adhesive. Someone stripped a finish that was doing a job. Someone screwed a bracket into a rail to stop a wobble. A good part of restoration is undoing that carefully, and then doing as little as the piece actually needs.

We have been doing this work in Abu Dhabi since 2003, in the same workshop as the joinery and the upholstery, which is useful because a restoration rarely stays in one trade. A bureau can need a joint re-glued, a section of veneer laid back down, a mount re-fixed, and a seat re-covered before it is finished. The bureau in the gallery below has a fall front that opens onto a fitted interior of pigeonholes and small drawers, and a swelling bombé carcase on claw-and-ball feet. Pieces like that reward patience and punish shortcuts.

Restore or conserve, and why the answer changes the price

These are two different jobs and it is worth knowing which one you are asking for.

Conservation stabilises a piece and keeps as much original material as possible, including the marks of its life. Restoration returns it to how it looked when it worked, which means replacing what has failed and refinishing what has gone. For most furniture in daily use, restoration is the sensible answer. For something with real age or provenance, taking off an original surface destroys value that cannot be put back, and the honest advice is often to do less.

Patina is the part people give away by accident. The colour an old surface has taken over decades cannot be recreated, and stripping it turns an old piece into a new-looking piece worth less than it was.

What the work usually involves

Glue. Traditional furniture was assembled with hide glue, which is reversible: warmth and moisture release the joint so it can be cleaned and re-glued properly. Modern PVA is not reversible, which is why a joint someone repaired with the wrong adhesive is a harder problem than the joint was.

Veneer. Lifting and bubbling is usually the old glue letting go underneath rather than the veneer itself failing, so it is often laid back down rather than replaced. Missing sections are patched with veneer matched for species, cut direction, and colour, and the patch is shaped to follow the grain so the eye does not catch a straight line.

Finish. French polish is shellac built up in many thin layers by hand. It gives a depth no sprayed finish matches and it is repairable in place, which is exactly why it was used. It also dislikes heat, alcohol, and standing water, and that has not changed.

Send photographs before you bring a piece in, including the underside and any damage. Most of what we need to say about approach can be said from those.