Buying vintage furniture - What should you take into account?

This afternoon I will go shopping for vintage furniture again. Every time it is the question whether I will come home with beautiful 'new' items. It feels like a real hunt for the most beautiful vintage interior items. If I come across something beautiful, two important questions will come into play.

Is the condition of the vintage furniture good enough?

In other words: how much time does it take to make the item ready for sale. Over time, I have learned quite a bit about restoring furniture, but I am not a professional furniture maker. Restoring or repairing furniture takes a lot of time, you need expertise, and the right materials. It is not profitable for me to take a vintage cabinet with me that still needs a lot of work.

What I do is thoroughly clean each piece of furniture, check it, make small repairs and oil it. If I expect the piece of furniture to meet my sales requirements, I will take it with me, provided it also meets the following requirement.

What is the price?

A very important one of course. If I buy a piece of furniture, clean it and refurbish it, how much can I ask for it? Do I earn enough to put my bread on the table? What is the market value of the product? Can I offer you, my customers, a good price if I still earn something from it myself?

So many aspects to consider. That makes every shopping trip an adventure! Sometimes I'm lucky and find the most special items. Sometimes I'm unlucky and I could have spent my time better. And sometimes my eyes are bigger than my van. But there are solutions for that too. You have to force luck, so I'll get back into my van this afternoon full of courage!

Want to know where I buy vintage furniture? You can read that in this blog: Buying vintage furniture