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Milne at Home Antiques in Kingston, New York in the Hudson Valley
What types of unique or specialty furniture items do you find people ask for the most?
I think the things people are looking for most are arm tables for their homes in the Hudson Valley and tables that look great but still work in a really small space but then can be made bigger with the extensions further in the apartments in the city. I also find that a lot of people are looking for different ways to do their kitchens, so a lot of people are looking for interesting cupboards, different bits and pieces that they can put in their kitchens to make them a little more unique than the standard drawers and cupboards that are normally in the kitchen.
Cool. Great. When it comes to furniture, what advice would you give to someone looking to combine some older pieces for a fresh modern feel?
One thing that I love to do is to tell people to pick pieces they love, no matter what time period and what style they think they are. And the reason that I love to tell people to do that is that that’s really how somebody creates their own unique, fresh look. Whether that’s with just a couple of antique pieces thrown in with a lot of great modern pieces or whether that is half and half or whether it is more antique than just modern pieces, if you are picking pieces that you love just based on the fact that you love them, more than likely they are going to be in the same family because people usually love things that are in the same family whether they are old or new or different shades or even different colors as long as they are pieces that person uniquely loves, they will fit together in a fresh, interesting way for that person which is the most important thing.
Great. Are there any styles or periods that you feel really don’t combine well?
I think that any style and any period can be combined in a way that would work. What I don’t think works is when somebody tries it with just one style or one period and is not willing to look at any other style or any other period that may complement the one they are going with. For instance, if somebody has a 1880s house and they only want 1880s furniture in their 1880s house, that can start to look a little stuffy and a little bit more like a museum and not really like a comfortable home for somebody to live in.
Interesting. Let us say you are thinking in terms of being a collector. What advice would you give to someone who is younger who is looking to refine their own style while collecting things that are going to be valuable?
I think the one thing that is really important is that when people collect, they collect things they know they are buying because they want to keep them for quite some time. You never want to buy something because you think you are going to buy it and then throw it into an auction the next week and make your money back or make a huge profit. That’s not what antique collecting and antique habits can be about. What it is – is collecting something that you love and that you want to live with for sometime but something that you know retains its value. Like for example, a weather vane – a weather vane is something that you can value so you can say a weather vane from this genre right now are worth X amount and you know that as they age and as they become more rare, they are going to go up in their value. But you don’t want to collect one because you think you are going to sell it next week for a profit. You want to live with it, have it in your collection for sometime and then go ahead and sell it and make your profits.
Great advice. Do you see any trends in the antique world lately?
I think one thing that is really interesting that is going on in the antiques world is that as other countries have more money, for instance China a couple of years ago and now Russia. As people in certain countries are able to buy things that they may not have been able to before, they actually are collecting the artifacts from their countries and bringing them back. So, for instance, a few years ago, there was this huge explosion in the Chinese collectibles market and that was mainly Chinese businessmen buying Chinese artifacts that were in the US that they then brought back to China. And in some cases, even gave them back to public collections instead of having them in private homes. And now the same thing is happening with Russian artifacts. It’s a really interesting thing to see especially in the auction world.
Yes. That is interesting. Let us switch to care for these pieces of furniture. What kind of maintenance does vintage leather require?
Vintage leather is really interesting. Because the most important thing for Vintage leather is that it really needs to be fed. If you don’t feed leather, then it becomes very dry and it cracks. The wonderful thing about leather is because it is a natural thing it will come back if you treat it properly. One big trick in the antique world that we have learnt about restoring leather more of its luster is to find a very mild shoe polish that is a close match to the leather and during the first oiling so it already has some luster from it rubbed back into it and then giving it a dusting with a shoe polish and then oiling it again will really bring back that luster and color.
In terms of caring for it, leather is very very good. Because you can jump on it, spill red wine on it and it is still really going to be wipe-able, which is wonderful. But you want to definitely want to keep feeding it so it doesn’t re-dry and crack, so you want to oil it with a good leather oil at least twice a year.
Is there a product you recommend?
I prefer to do anything that I find with Johnsons because they have been around for over 200 years and they make excellent waxes and oils and they are actually the least expensive as well which is great. So Johnson’s oil and Johnson’s wax is the one we use in our shop.
What about furniture that has fabrics, old fabrics? How do you care for old fabrics on furniture?
Old fabrics are really difficult to care for. Especially if they stain because the stains actually get into the fibers and if you are going to clean them properly then the stains can actually set further into the fibers and you actually have to cut into the fibers and pretty much ruin the fabric to get the stains out. One thing that we suggest is that you have them cleaned organically by a professional. And the reason you want to do it organically is that these fabrics are even more porous than the standard fabric. So, they are going to absorb more of the chemicals and these fabrics sometimes have natural dyes in them and the chemical treatments will actually take these natural dyes out and save those fabrics. There is actually a local person in Kingston that we love to use to clean all our vintage fabrics. She does a wonderful job and their name is Fix Your Wagon. But there are people all over the country that do organic cleaning on fabrics and that’s definitely the way to go as a professional with vintage fabrics.
Great. What about wood? Wooden tables and dining room pieces?
Wood, like leather, definitely needs to be fed well. One thing that we really love to do is to feed it by doing a really good cleaning with an oil – we like to use Murphy’s oil soap because you often get off the old wood on the top of it that way, that really brings back the luster. And then if you wax it with Johnson’s Bees wax, you retain the moisture in it. But you still want to every year you want to do a nice cleaning with the Murphy’s oil and then the waxing.
Great. This was awesome. Have to say.
Thank you.