by Chris Harris
The Antiques Dealer’s Holding Pen
If you know anyone in the antiques trade, you’ll already know this truth: whether it’s a garage, a barn, a workshop, a storage unit or an entire warehouse, a significant portion of the space is always filled with what we politely call “goods awaiting attention.” In reality, that simply means pieces of furniture that need real work, the kind of work you fully intend to do, but somehow never seem to find the time for. It is part of the weekly rhythm of being an antiques dealer. You make your money when you’re out buying, and you must keep buying to keep the stock fresh and the business moving. But the pieces you pick up along the way, the ones you should have inspected a little more carefully, need stripping, gluing, clamping, refinishing or coaxing back into shape, and they begin to accumulate. They wait patiently in the wings, and the pile grows higher than any of us ever admit.
A Table Too Nice to Throw Away
One such item was a lovely G Plan coffee table. A beautiful thing with real character, but sadly it rocked like a boat in a storm and the top had long since lost its charm and been well and truly compromised. If restored properly it might have been worth around £140, but three or four hours of work would have gone into it, and realistically that just wasn’t a wise use of time. Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it. It was a lovely old table with history, and after forty years in the trade you develop a loyalty to these pieces. Destroying a piece of furniture, even a battered one, feels almost sacrilegious. It deserved better than ending up in a skip. Then, four years ago, we moved into a smart house near Lewes with a retro, slightly garish pink and grey kitchen. One wall was completely bare, and suddenly the solution presented itself.
Upcycling a Future for the Forgotten
I cut the G Plan table in half, screwed a couple of strips of 2×1 timber to the sawn ends, a job that took minutes, and realised the wood barely needed any paint at all. A few small tester pots from the local DIY shop were more than enough. The result was a pair of stylish wall shelves that fitted the retro kitchen perfectly. They look fantastic, are genuinely practical, and best of all, they had saved the table from ultimately being thrown when I die! Nothing wasted, nothing lost, simply a piece reborn. The only problem now is working out what to do with the dozens upon dozens of other items awaiting attention, because the house isn’t big enough for all the necessary projects, let alone my entire collection of future projects. But if an old rocking coffee table can become a pair of shelves, then perhaps there is hope for the rest of them yet.
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The Rights of Fans. 