It’s not always obvious what to do with some pieces of furniture. Most of us hang on to family heirlooms even if we don’t love them, have favorite chairs and sofas that inevitably start to fall apart and second-guess ourselves about timeworn items that turn up at antiques stores at estate sales.
Fortunately, there’s no need to accept vintage furniture as it is. With a little updating, it’s possible to give old pieces new life.
“We do it all the time,” said Rayman Boozer, the founder of the New York-based interior design firm Apartment 48. “We take existing furniture that people already own and reupholster it. Or, we buy vintage stuff and reupholster it” to create truly bespoke pieces.
Sometimes, restoring a chair or chest of drawers makes it look almost new again. Other times, with a few changes, Mr. Boozer said, “it looks like a completely different piece of furniture.”
Here’s how he and other designers make decorative magic with their vintage finds.
Restore It
With collectible furniture, or pieces you already love that are beginning to look tired, restoration is often a better choice than all-out transformation. “There are certain pieces that maybe come with a provenance, where it’s more about maintaining the integrity of its current state,” said Dan Fink, an interior designer based in New York.
If an antique armoire has an attractive worn-paint patina, for instance, it might be best to clean it up but otherwise leave the finish alone. In other cases, when the furniture is damaged or unsightly, restoring its luster might be all that is needed.
“We’ll recondition wood,” Mr. Fink said. “We’ll polish metalwork. We’ll replace a worn leather top with a fresh leather top. We’ll line drawers with silk, suede or wallpaper. Suddenly, it becomes much more refined.”
Replace the Fabric
Covering upholstered furniture with new fabric is one of the easiest ways to dramatically change how it looks, and the range of possibilities is vast.
One approach is to choose new fabric that reflects the original spirit of the piece but updates it for the room where it will be installed. Mr. Fink, for instance, selected a light gray solid fabric when reupholstering a modern sofa by Jorge Zalszupin, a Polish-Brazilian architect, in deference to its eye-catching jacaranda wood frame.
Other times, designers use new upholstery to make a statement. Mr. Boozer once bought an unloved settee on Chairish and reupholstered it in an African-inspired fabric he designed for S. Harris featuring waves of vivid red, orange, blue and teal.
“The cushions were gross, and I wanted it to feel summery,” Mr. Boozer said. “It turned out really well,” he noted, and would be almost unrecognizable to its previous owner.
Adjust the Cushioning
Another option is to change the cushioning beneath the fabric. “It’s extremely easy for an upholsterer to undo, redo or change any tufting or channeling,” said Emma Kemper, the founder of Emma Beryl Interiors in New York.
Removing tufting from a sofa or adding channel tufting where there was previously none immediately changes its look, Ms. Kemper said. Replacing the cushioning is also an opportunity to fine-tune comfort levels, she added, whether you prefer firm foam or down-wrapped squishiness.
Hard furniture, such as wood dining chairs and benches, can also be customized with loose cushions. Even without otherwise changing the furniture, a thin seat cushion in a decorative fabric adds both comfort and visual appeal, Ms. Kemper said. “It’s really affordable and makes the piece feel more custom,” she noted.
Tweak the Shape
Removing the original upholstery fabric provides an opportunity to do a little surgery. The back can be cut down, arms can be extended or shortened and the whole piece can be raised or lowered by changing the legs.
With one sofa, she streamlined keyhole-shaped arms to make them more modern. Working on a secretary cabinet, she cut wood panels with contemporary wave shapes where there were previously traditional scrolling forms.
For a pair of lounge chairs, she extended the arms, removed casters that used to be concealed by a skirt and added wooden legs with a claw-foot shape. “They’re chairs that just would have been thrown out,” Ms. Rosenblum said. But now, “they’re super beautiful.”
Change the Wood Finish
When a wood finish is scratched, scuffed or otherwise damaged — or when you just don’t like how it looks — you can change it. Typically, this involves stripping away the original finish with a chemical paint stripper and abrasives like sand paper and steel wool.
The wood can then be stained a new hue and covered with a clear-coat, or treated with furniture oil or wax. “We like a waxed finish because it looks almost raw, but is still coated,” for protection, Ms. Kemper said.
Painting the wood is another option. The New York-based firm Carrier and Company Interiors once painted an antique Chippendale chair white to suit a vision for a paneled room.
“We found this very unique Chippendale chair that was over-scaled,” said Mara Miller, a principal at the firm, but its wood finish looked too dark and dreary for the space. “Our client wanted everything fresh and light, so we lacquered it white. That made it very modern and sculptural.”
Patrick Mele, a designer with a shop in Greenwich, Conn., routinely changes the expression of antiques with paint. To update a console table for one project, he had a decorative painter give the base a cloudy whitewash finish. To add a dramatic touch to a traditional gilt mirror, he painted it matte black (which he hung above an antique sofa reupholstered in black mohair).
“The use of black,” Mr. Mele said, “gives these pieces a new modern and minimalist sensibility while still nodding to the past.”
Trim It
After tackling the major strokes, focus on finishing touches. “The small details matter,” Ms. Rosenblum said.
For instance, the edges of fabric can be concealed or expressed with a finishing detail or trim. “You could do piping, or a binding,” or a nailhead trim, Ms. Rosenblum said. On her claw-foot chairs, she chose blue piping that contrasts with solid green upholstery fabric.
Tackling other pieces of furniture, Ms. Rosenblum has used decorative fringe of various colors and sizes from companies like Samuel & Sons for additional glamour. She once even added large tassels to a pair of slipper chairs.
On storage pieces such as cabinets, desks and credenzas, changing the pulls can also make a difference. Ms. Rosenblum has replaced wood pulls with sculptural brass ones. Ceramic, glass and leather pulls all provide more opportunities for customization.
Find a New Purpose
Beyond customizing a piece of furniture, you can change the context in which it’s used. “Oftentimes, in a bedroom, we’ll use a desk as a nightstand,” Mr. Fink said, noting that he once used a restored antique French desk with gilt details as a bedside table.
In the same project, Mr. Fink framed a Japanese folding screen that wasn’t needed as a room divider and installed it as a large-scale artwork behind the bed. “That’s something we often do — we take a piece and turn it into art,” he said. “It’s quite beautiful.”
Mr. Mele has transformed garden urns into lamps by having them wired with sockets and adding shades.
Skip Antiques Altogether
If there is a fabric, trim or finish you want to try out on furniture, but just can’t find the right vintage piece, there’s no need to wait. Most of the designers interviewed for this article have used the same techniques to customize new furniture.
Ms. Kemper, for instance, reupholstered chairs from West Elm in Paul Smith fabric for a home on Park Avenue. As a result “they felt better in the room, and a lot more high-end,” she said. “But the fabric definitely cost more than the chairs did.”
