Man breathing new life into furniture one piece at a time
TUCKED down Renfrew Street near Glasgow’s School of Art is a unique and charming place where old furniture is lovingly breathed back to life.
Guild Antiques and Restoration is run by master upholsterer Jonathan Conkey and his team of skilled craftspeople who use traditional tools and techniques to painstakingly restore rare and beautiful heritage pieces and heirlooms.
Old things are nurtured and respected here, as are the old ways of looking after them.
Walking inside I am greeted with the sound of 1940s music, a wall of hanging fabrics and almost every kind of seating imaginable.
There are pieces with material made from horsehair woven with cotton, a 1930s chair with powder pink Pierre Frey velvet and silks commissioned by Marie Antoinette which survived a revolution.
And then there is the workshop, where towers of stacked sofas and chairs with their skeletons exposed wait patiently to be remade.
Jonathan says it feels like Glasgow’s answer to The Repair Shop, the popular BBC show where expert craftspeople restore beloved heirlooms.
“There are a lot of people who come in with furniture that belonged to their great grandmother and that sentimental attachment is what makes people want to restore them,” he says. “You can breathe new life into it with fancy new fabrics.
“You don’t have to be slavishly devoted to the past, but the best excuse for restoring something is the fundamental attachment.
“We have people who’ve inherited from their parents but recognise these things were built to last, they have a kind of soul to them.
“Today’s stuff is clinical whereas the old ones have a life. They have a character to them that modern furniture doesn’t.”
There is an ethos here which almost predates the term sustainable, of being frugal with resources and mending what is broken, rather than simply dumping it and replacing it with something new.
As well as restoring people’s cherished heirlooms, Jonathan finds items at auctions and salvages furniture destined for the tip. Even their scraps of fabrics are reused, given to local artists or fashion students.
He says: “I think things like The Repair Shop have helped immeasurably for people to value the things they have and understand it’s possible to renew things rather than throw them out.”
A former banker originally from Northern Ireland, Jonathan was working for the National Trust when his job was cut around 12 years ago.
He decided to move to Glasgow as it was one of the few places which had a traditional furniture restoration course.
“It’s satisfying rebuilding things – I was a Lego baby,” Jonathan says.
Now 50, Jonathan opened Guild Antiques and Restoration in January 2020, where he refurbishes pieces from the Regency era all the way to the 1950s and 60s.
“It’s keeping traditional skills alive,” he says. “There are not many people who do this. We do things right with all the stitching done properly and traditionally, knowing it will last another 100 years.”
Jonathan is also considering hosting classes for anyone interested in learning the techniques.
“There’s definitely a revived interest in it, of people wanting to keep things and give them a new life. There’s work being done to try and keep these traditional skills being taught and pass them on,” he adds.
To find out more, visit guild. scot