Gilboy's Antique Furniture Repairs, Restoration and Conservation, South Devon - the most comprehensive professional antique furniture restoration workshops in the South West of England.

We are proud to have the most comprehensive professional antique furniture restoration workshops in the South West of England, and our team of Antique Restorers & French Polishers have a great understanding of the importance of keeping your antique furniture original. It not only helps to hold your antique furniture's value but also keeps the restoration costs to a minimum.

Our Services

Unsure whether to restore or buy new?

Antique furniture is very recyclable.. no matter how bad the state, don't dismiss it as unrepairable. We can transform your furniture back to an original well cared-for antique even if it wouldn't stand on it's own legs. An antique furniture restorer uses next to nothing in newly sourced materials. An old vintage chair or table can be revived back to life to go on for decades to come.

Is your furniture looking slightly tired or well-used?

We don't just provide a full restoration service. Many customers turn to us (once the children have finally moved out) to simply tidy up the years of good honest family wear and tear on dining tables, chairs, coffee tables and side tables. We touch-up the small scratches and revive the existing finish, giving your furniture a new lease of life - that is until the grandchildren arrive!

Dining chairs & Side chairs

From a simple single loose joint to complicated dismantling, restoration and complete rebuild.
Call us before it gets too late and you end up on your deriere surrounded by a pile of wood!

Inherited a treasured but tired antique?

If you have or are about to inherit a family treasured antique and you are unsure of how to preserve it, call us and we will carry out a sympathetic restoration programme allowing you to treasure it and the memories it gives you for years to come. We have done this for scores of clients over the years.

We also buy antiques, so please contact us if you are thinking of selling - if we do not buy we can certainly advise you of the best way to sell your antique on.

Picture frame and Painting conservation

We are lucky enough to know a world class painting restorer who is capable of very detailed canvass restoration but equally happy to simply clean the surface of any work of art.

Traditional Upholstery

At Gilboy's we have a dedicated upholstery workshop designed specifically to integrate with the furniture repair workshop. From a simple re-covering of a drop-in seat to the complete traditional re-upholstering of a deep buttoned chesterfield.
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On-site French Polishing

If you can't bring your staircase to us, we will send a French Polisher/restorer to your staircase!

We can be called out to provide on-site repairs, restoration and French Polishing for many varied tasks such as staircases, yacht interiors, oak panelling and even the re-leathering of Totnes Guildhall chambers!

Fire or Flood damage

If you have been unfortunate enough to suffer a disaster (small or large), we can provide a full written quotation for the insurers and provide a comprehensive restoration programme for all your furniture.

Auctions...

Are you thinking of buying a tired antique from an auction and unsure if it can be restored? Take a photograph of it first, and send it to us by email or simply send us the auction link and we will be able to advise you on the restoration costs.

Our Team

Our professional craftsmen have been apprenticed for over 4 years and only use hot melt fish bone glue for all of our antique restoration work, this is the traditional glue used for hundreds of years by furniture makers. For our antique repairs and conservation we only use hand selected wood from our own extensive time aged antique wood store and we will take time to choose the right species of wood from the right period so that your restored antique will retain as much of the original finish as possible.

21^st Century customer service

We are happy to work on modern as well as antique furniture.
If you email photographs of your furniture we will quickly reply with an estimte by return.
We provide a fully insured delivery & collection service with times to suit you, with a regular service from central London & the Midlands to our workshop.
All of our clients receive quotations with a comprehensive written restoration programme listing all the necessary work required.
All our clients are more than welcome to visit our restoration workshops to view the quality of restoration in our extensive antique furniture showroom.

How long does it take?

Depending on the amount of repair work required and the amount of work currently in our workshops, we generally require four to five weeks. An uncomplicated repair to a break on an antique chair usually takes about 10 days to complete.

Skilled restoration and the traditional processes involved do take time so please contact us months in advance if you would like your antique completely restored in time for a special occasion.

We welcome all enquiries regarding restoration and repair - so if you chair only has a slight wobble or a loose joint do contact us and we will sort it for you. Similarly we also have the workshop capacity for very large antique repairs.

Additional specialist restoration services

Over the years we have built up good working relationships with other similar hard to find craft businesses. If your antique furniture requires some specialist work, we have the contacts to get the job done while it is here in our workshop.

Desk Leathers
100% real sheepskin leather in a range of colours fitted with gold embossing to suit your furniture

Split Cane and Rush Seating
Brigitte Graham has been restoring and re-seating cane and rush furniture for over 27 years. She is a highly respected craftsperson and regarded as the very best in the South West. Brigitte harvests the materials herself which include Split Cane, Seagrass & Rush. We have been using her professional services for over 15 years and have had nothing but compliments on the quality of her work.

Brass Matching Service
We have a number of comprehensive catalogues from which we are able to match most period brass handles & cabinet-ware. If we are unable to find a suitable match, we are able to have one or many cast for you. Please contact us or call in to the workshop for a price guide.

Woodworm Treatment
The treatment is applied by spray and also with syringes directly into the flight holes to ensure that there are no more of these ravenous antique destroying insects for at least ten years. Woodworm beetles are most active in June. Link to YouTube Video

Gilding (the application of precious metals to wood)
We repair damaged picture and mirror frames using the traditional methods of gilding. For moulded or carved frames, we make a new mould from another part of the frame, then gild and distress it (if necessary) to match the original finish.

The Horologist
Simon Coulton has been an antique clock restorer for 27 years and has been repairing and restoring all our long-case, grandfather and carriage clock movements for more than 10 years. He was bench trained and apprenticed in the north of England before taking up a position in the antique clock department at Asprey in London’s Bond Street. Simon uses the traditional techniques and materials that would be recognisable to any 19th century master clock maker, although they may be surprised by the use of electric lighting and impressed with his high quality spectacles.