Luxury Furniture and Resale Value: The UK Data

Furniture in Fashion opens this report with two uncomfortable facts: no UK standard defines luxury furniture, and no public index tracks second hand furniture values. What can be established is the mechanism behind onward value, and it is restoration rather than price paid. Solid timber can be sanded and refinished repeatedly, while a veneer under a millimetre thick allows one careful refinish at most. Marble is a carbonate stone, so acids etch the polish rather than stain it, and sealing does not prevent that. Bonded leather delaminates and cannot be repaired, unlike hides that can be cleaned, fed and recoloured. The report also sets out the regulation most owners discover too late: the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 cover upholstered furniture supplied in the course of a business, second hand included, so a sofa with its permanent labels removed becomes very hard to pass on. A material by material restoration table completes the analysis....