Eleanor Pemberton
Begin with the Room, Not the Piece
Before you fall in love with anything, measure. Period houses were furnished for people who owned far less than we do, and the proportions of a Georgian townhouse parlour have almost nothing in common with a low-beamed Suffolk cottage. Note your ceiling heights, the width of every doorway, the position of radiators, and which way the floorboards run. A 70cm door opening will not accept a 90cm dresser base, however lovely it is, and a tallboy in a room with 2.2-metre ceilings will dominate everything else you put in there.
A few working rules are worth holding in your head. Allow roughly 90cm behind a dining chair so it can be pushed back and sat on without a shuffle. A chest of drawers sits comfortably at 45–50cm deep; anything deeper eats floor space in a narrow room. For a dining table, aim for at least 60cm of width per diner and 75cm of clearance to the nearest wall. If a piece is more than a third of the length of the wall it stands against, it will look cramped rather than generous.
Look for Honest Patina
Patina is simply the record of use, and it is the single most reliable signal that a piece has had a long life rather than a clever afternoon in a workshop. Look for edges rubbed pale where hands have rested, a darker ring on a top where a lamp or a pot stood for fifty years, and a softening of carving that no amount of sanding can fake convincingly.
- Wear should appear where use actually happens: drawer fronts, chair rails, the foot of a leg, the leading edge of a table.
- Uniform colour across a piece said to be two centuries old is a warning sign. Wood darkens unevenly, and light does not fall evenly.
- Be wary of freshly "distressed" surfaces — sanded edges, wire-brushed grain, and dents in places nobody would ever knock.
- Peer underneath. Colour behind hinges, beneath escutcheons and inside drawer bottoms tells you more than the show face ever will.
Examine the Joints and Working Parts
Structure matters more than surface. Pull the drawers out and look at the sides: hand-cut dovetails are irregular, with pins of slightly different widths, while machine-cut ones are perfectly even and evenly spaced. Neither is fatal in itself, but it dates the piece and tells you what you are paying for.
Then test the things you will actually use every day. Drawers should slide without a fight and close flush — sticking usually means swollen runners or a warped carcass, not a quick fix. Place a hand on a chair and twist gently: a sound chair resists, a loose one clicks and shifts at the joints. Castors should turn freely and all match. Check veneers for lifting at the corners and along the edges, where warmth and damp get in first. Woodworm needs a careful eye — old flight holes are common and usually harmless, but fresh powdery frass beneath them means it is still active. Anything with soft, crumbling wood near the base of a leg deserves a second opinion before money changes hands.
Mix Eras, Don’t Recreate a Museum
Nobody wants to live inside a display case. The most convincing period rooms are the ones that have clearly been lived in and added to over time, because that is how they came about in the first place. A country oak refectory table with a set of Victorian balloon-back chairs and one good Windsor chair at the end looks collected rather than curated. A Georgian chest of drawers with a plain modern lamp on top is often more restful than a matched bedroom suite.
- Let one era anchor each room, then let the rest support it quietly.
- Repeat a material or a tone across eras — oak with aged brass, mahogany with dark wood and cream walls — rather than trying to match sets.
- Keep heavy pieces low and to the edges of a room; lighter, taller pieces read better against a wall than in the middle of the floor.
- Leave gaps. Space around a good piece does more for it than another good piece beside it.
Buying Well in the Country Saleroom
Local auctions remain the best value for honest, unfashionable furniture, but read the terms before you bid. Buyer's premium is typically added to the hammer price, and VAT may apply to both, so a £200 bid can easily become £260 before delivery. Always attend the viewing in person, take a torch and a tape measure, and ask for a condition report if you cannot get there.
Allow for transport properly. A large dresser base may need two people and a van, and narrow lanes and low branches are part of the calculation. If you are buying a set of chairs, count them and check that the seats are sound; re-webbing and re-stuffing six chairs is a job, not an afternoon.
Living With Old Wood
Feed waxed surfaces sparingly with a good beeswax polish once or twice a year — no silicone sprays, which build up a dull film and are difficult to remove. Keep pieces out of direct sun and away from radiators and open fires, since both will dry and split timber faster than anything else in the house. Felt pads under every foot will save your floorboards, and lifting rather than dragging will save the joints. Above all, use the furniture. A table that is wiped down daily, a chair that is sat on, a drawer that is opened — that is how patina is made, and how it continues.
