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An antique painted cabinet from Sheppard Street Antiques anchors this living room. (Photo courtesy Stewart Allen)
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A collection of vintage prints and a diminutive antique cabinet add character to this bedroom by O'Brien & Muse. (Photo by Gordon Gregory)
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A glimpse of the selection of antique furnishings, art and ceramics at Justin Westbrook Antiques’ Shockoe Bottom showroom (Photo courtesy Justin Westbrook)
Sooner or later, everything old is new again.
That’s certainly the case for antique and vintage furniture. After a wave of minimalist design, buyers are turning to previously owned furniture for its unique details, high value and near-instant availability.
Sara Garza, owner of Sheppard Street Antiques in Scott’s Addition, says she’s noticed an uptick in customers in their 30s and 40s over the last five years. They often come to her because they want to replace their more “disposable” furniture with something sturdier. Some want to complement furniture inherited from their parents and grandparents, but many are seeking a style of their own.
“They want things they feel good about,” she says. “They want something that’s well made, that’s comfortable, that they can use alongside their mother’s things or their midcentury furniture and it mixes well.”
No Longer the Instant Generation
There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic played a role in the resurgence of antique furniture. As everyone spent more time at home, they paid more attention to the function and design of their environments. But when they went to order new furniture, they were met with delays of weeks or months.
“That was a big turnoff for my 30-something and 40-something customers,” Garza says. “They’re accustomed to Amazon deliveries in two days.”
With antique and vintage shops, buyers know what they see on the showroom floor is available for immediate purchase. And, says designer Lili O’Brien of O’Brien & Muse Interiors, her clients get a chance to test out a piece before they commit.
“There are so few opportunities these days to see furniture, to sit in it,” she says. “With antiques, we can bring it into a client’s home, and they can decide in real time if it’s a good fit for them. We want them to live with it and feel comfortable with it.”
“For the last 10 years, it’s been easy to order whatever you want while lying in bed at midnight,” says Justin Westbrook, owner of Justin Westbrook Antiques in Shockoe Bottom. “When all of that stopped, a big segment of the population remembered that they could just go buy a chest in a store.
“I think that was a catalyst for people to consider the wasteful culture of buying everything brand new. They started to ask, ‘How long will this [furniture] last?,’ ” Westbrook says.
Westbrook is a third-generation antique dealer. He says there’s always been a market for high-quality antiques, such as Georgian dining tables and Italian neoclassical chests. However, he has noticed a growing interest in mid-range, lower-cost antiques from those who are entering the market for the first time.
Kim Faison of Kim Faison Antiques in Westhampton agrees that while trends have shifted during her 40 years in business, “what hasn’t died out is beautiful period French furniture or Italian walnut furniture.
“It’s 200 or 300 years old, and 40 years from now, you’ll still have it, and you’re still going to remember the day you bought it. It has the weight of history.”
A Look Unlike Any Other
That history is just one part of the “rubbable” quality that Faison looks for on her buying trips to Europe. “It’s the patina,” she says. “The wood is warm and soft. It hasn’t been refinished and all of the color taken out.”
Even during the recent trend of midcentury modern, lucite and minimalist furniture, Faison says, she encouraged customers to also buy something older and heavier — like a 17th-century credenza — to ground their space.
“Some of the more modern items seem to float,” she says. “You have to have a beautiful piece of wood to weight it.”
O’Brien says antiques can breathe life and “legitimacy” into a space by creating a sense that the owner collected the items intentionally. She notes that more of her young customers perceive antiques and vintage items as a way to incorporate unique pieces into their decor.
For Faison, the grounding presence of antiques comes from something deeper than the rich color or texture of the wood. There’s a sense of history, that each piece brings with it the story of its previous owners. “I look for things that feel spiritual, that are made for someone,” she says. “To me, it’s more about the connection that you are living with something for your whole life.”
