When it comes to moving antique furniture, we always suggest that you contract a professional mover to help you as this cuts out a lot of the hassle with the process. We are always happy to recommend one as well as offering delivery options with trusted shipping partners ourselves.
However, we recognise that some of our customers might want to manage moving their antique furniture themselves so, to help you, we have put together this guide. Over the years we have been helping our customers choose their ideal antique, we have noticed that many people, even those who treasure antiques greatly, aren’t sure about the correct procedure when it comes to moving those antiques so we will cover:
- Lifting furniture properly
- Protecting furniture in transit
- Some useful moving tips
- When to call an expert
How do you lift antique furniture safely?
There are two parts when it comes to lifting anything: where to lift the object itself, and the correct lifting procedure.
When it comes to working out where to lift the object from your first port of call is to visually inspect it, just actually look at it. Understand how it is put together. Where are the solid, structural parts like the main carcass, the base frame, the seat rails? And where are the fragile ones such as applied mouldings, decorative feet, drawer runners and handles? Identifying the strong points you can safely lift the piece by is the important first step.
There is a golden rule for lifting furniture: always lift from the base, never from the top.
This applies to almost everything. Never lift a chest of drawers by its handles as those handles were designed to open drawers, not to bear the chest’s full weight. Never lift an antique chair by its arms or back. Never use decorative elements like carved feet, applied finials or bracket mouldings as grip points. These decorative elements are often attached with old animal glue, and can easily come away. The same goes for original castors as they were not made to take a lateral shunting load, and can crack or shear off with surprising ease.
The correct approach is to lift from the sturdiest part of the structure, which is usually the underframe or back, and to have at least two people taking an even load.
Always lift with your knees, not your back. The lifting guidance published by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends bending at the hips and knees, keeping the piece close to your body and then standing straight up and is well worth a read before starting moving anything heavy.
Before you lift, remove anything that adds extra weight. For example, you should remove the drawers from a chest of drawers before you move it, both to significantly reduce weight and to stop drawers from sliding out mid-move. The same applies to things like removable shelves, loose glass, and anything stored inside a cabinet.
After you’ve lifted, move slowly. Clear the route before you pick anything up. Make sure doors are fully open, rugs are folded back and that there is nothing on the floor that you or your piece could catch on.
Plan your route and commit it to memory so that you know where you are going before you start, and make sure whoever is walking backwards has someone guiding them. The moment you are concentrating hard on holding a heavy piece is exactly the moment you need to have already thought about what is behind you.
Finally, never drag anything. Dragging furniture across the floor even a few inches can put enormous lateral strain on joints that were designed to bear vertical load only.
Old mortice-and-tenon joints, wooden dowels, and animal glue can all fail silently and invisibly under this kind of stress, leaving a piece structurally compromised even if it looks unchanged.
Always lift. If a piece is genuinely too heavy to lift, use furniture sliders rather than dragging it directly on the floor.
How do you protect antique furniture in transit?
Just as important as lifting and getting your piece out of the shop or house is making sure that you protect it in transit. This breaks down into two factors: wrapping your piece and then loading and securing it.
You also need to remember that, even in a perfectly loaded van, things can and do move and you can’t rely on things staying still. When the vehicle brakes, corners or goes over a speed bump whatever is in the back can shift. Any surface in contact with another surface is at risk of a scratch and any protruding corner or edge that is unprotected is at risk of a chip or break.
To protect against this you must first consider:
How do I correctly wrap antique furniture?
For wrapping antique furniture in transit you can just use furniture blankets that will protect the piece from dust or anything shaken loose in the van as well as absorbing incidental contact that happens, like small jolts and shifts that you might not notice, thus preventing annoying and unnecessary surface damage.
How do I load and secure antique furniture?
Loading a van well is a skill, not unlike an irregularly shaped puzzle, or a very expensive game of Tetris.
Heaviest items go in first, against the van’s bulkhead. Taller pieces should be secured upright if possible because laying a wardrobe on its side applies stress it wasn’t designed to take.
Always use furniture and ratchet straps to fix pieces to the anchor points inside the van. The goal here is to eliminate movement as much as humanly possible.
Pack any void spaces, where damage is mostly likely to occur, between items with folded blankets or padding. The more tightly and carefully everything is fitted together, with each piece wrapped and cushioned against its neighbour, the safer the load will be overall.
Antique furniture moving tips
- Make sure you get the right sized van – While it can be tempting to economise and hire the smallest vehicle you can get away with; this is a false economy in our experience. An overloaded van means pieces are crammed together without adequate wrapping, loads cannot be strapped properly, and corners end up in contact with things they should not be. If in doubt, go a size up.
- Never skimp on wrapping materials – One less layer of bubble wrap is not worth the risk. The cost of materials is trivial compared to the cost of restoring a damaged piece and the emotional pain that comes with that.
- Always pack boxes properly – If smaller items are going into boxes, fill every void with packaging material so that there is no space for movement at all. An item that can rattle around inside a box is an item that could arrive damaged.
- Do a pre-move inspection – Before the piece leaves your hands, or before you accept delivery, check it over carefully and note any existing damage. This matters if there is ever a dispute with a courier, and also means that you won’t discover a scratch months later and wonder where it came from.
- Think about where your piece is going on arrival – Measure doorways, staircases, and tight corners at the destination before moving day. A piece that cannot get through the front door is a problem nobody wants to solve with the van waiting outside.
- Strap everything you can – Even pieces that feel stable when stationary will shift in transit. Strapping takes just minutes and can prevent a catastrophe.
When should I call an expert?
For anything fragile, valuable, or large, our honest advice is always the same: use a specialist. General removal firms are experienced at moving houses, but moving antiques is a different discipline and requires an understanding of the pieces themselves, not just the logistics of getting them from A to B. The difference in outcome can be considerable.
Over the years we have built up a trusted group of shippers and carriers that we use and recommend depending on what is being moved and where it is going.
Martins of Frome
Best for: Domestic moves, multiple or fragile pieces.
Website: https://www.martinbrosltd.com/
Our first call for any domestic shipment involving multiple pieces or anything particularly delicate. Martins specialise in antiques and fine furniture and they understand how to handle things properly, how to wrap them, and how to place them carefully at the other end. They are the people we trust with delicate or fragile pieces where damage is even more of a consideration than normal.
Pack & Send
Best for: International shipping
Website: https://www.packsend.co.uk/bristolwest/
For international shipments, we have found Pack & Send to be excellent. They offer competitive pricing and will custom-build crates to fit your piece which matters both for protection and for keeping shipping costs as low as possible and you aren’t paying for cubic metres of air inside an oversized crate.
Proovia / AnyVan
Best for: Domestic shipping, sturdier items.
Websites: https://proovia.delivery/ & https://www.anyvan.com/
For robust pieces going to domestic addresses where cost is a priority, both Proovia and AnyVan are reliable options. We pack everything ourselves before handover, and they handle the delivery. They are efficient and good value. Although for anything truly fragile, we would always use a specialist antiques handler.
Browse our collection and get a quote
If you have seen something in our shop and you would like to know what it would cost to get it to you, whether you are a town or a continent away, please do get in touch.
We will always give you an honest assessment of the best way to move it and what it is likely to cost. Either give us a call or drop us a message and we will come back to you promptly.
One other thing worth knowing is that we make runs to London twice a month. If you have a piece destined for a W or SW postcode, there is a good chance we can bring it with us directly which often saves our customers a significant amount on shipping costs. Just ask when you are enquiring and we will let you know if the timing works.
