Cleaning Antique Upholstered Furniture

From time to time our clients bring some very special upholstered furniture to our attention and if you have read any of our other material you will know that prior to attempting to clean any furniture a complete “test clean” is required to help determine the efficacy of our upholstery cleaning detergents and methods. Test cleaning is especially important when considering the sentimental value of some of these antique items. Usually these very unique items have a wonderful story behind them-it’s our job to peel back the layers of soil so our clients can proudly display them in their home or office again. Upholstery like the Queen Anne sofa to the left is an example of a Boston area client’s piece of furniture that has been neglected for more than 15 years. In situations like this we will try to reverse the yellowing/browning on the cotton fabric. Many times success is dependent on the fill material, that is the natural or synthetic material used by the upholsterer to create the “stuffing” under the face fabric. Some of the older jute and horse hair fillers can leach impurities up into the face fabric when cleaned. Thankfully, a thorough test clean usually will bring this to our attention prior to a complete cleaning attempt. It should be noted that even with the most thorough test clean a degree of risk needs to be accepted by the client-not all problems can be anticipated from a pre-cleaning test clean.

The following video should give you an idea of some of the Antique Upholstered Furniture we asked to clean:

Not all of the Antique Upholstered Furniture in the Boston area we are asked to clean are 200 or more years old, but we will treat any of your fabrics with the care and workmanship they deserve-to us they are all priceless! 781-995-0683 or info@regalfabriccare.com .

The photo below shows another example of an incredible piece of Antique Furniture: This is sofa is on display at Sotheby’s in New York City. The age is well over 150 yrs.