We offer Trunk restoration service on your trunks.
WE ARE NOT CURRENTLY TAKING TRUNK RESTORATION REQUESTS
 SINCE WE ARE CURRENTLY BOOKED.

If you are looking for pricing on trunks, We do not do appraisals or evaluations

Thanks, Sidnee and Blake
Click here to contact us for a free estimate on your special Trunk .

Read Information about our Restoration Services and Costs below


Legacy Trunk Restoration Service Information and General Cost Estimates

 The average cost for a basic restoration of a trunk starts in the $550.00 or more range, and any parts, or extras are at additional costs. Then there are the shipping costs.  The time to completion also runs a minimum of a few of weeks to months depending on the work to be done.....
Please 
Click here to contact us for a free restoration / refinishing estimate on your special Trunk .

 

Click Here to see photos of our trunk restoration / refinishing

Legacy Trunks Basic Refinishing Pricing

 Shipping IS NOT included in any of the pricing
You will need to pay shipping to us through UPS and then add this price in to get it shipped back to you.

  • Basic costs DO NOT include any repair work.  All extra work is detailed below.

  • Basic Trunk Refinishing

    1. Canvas Covered  $550.00 Canvas covered with paper backing extra!
    2. Flat Metal Trunk $550.00 (1 color on hardware, 1 color on banding, and  1 color on metal covering)
    3. Embossed Metal Trunk  $600.00 (1 color on hardware, 1 color on banding, and 2 colors on embossed metal)
    4. Paper Covered or Leather Trunk $550.00
  • Saratoga Trunks, Trunks with Elaborate Hardware, Unusual Trunks. If you do not know the difference we will be able to tell you during our consultation.

    1. Canvas or Metal Covered $750.00
    2. Embossed Metal  $850.00
  • Pricing Includes 1 color on the Hardware and 1 color on the Banding, Stain and finishing work, pair of black leather handles and end caps if needed.


  • All interiors are stripped to wood and sanded, stained if needed and then
    finished with a fine  wood preservative product like 'Feed n wax.



Extra Costs will be applied to the base cost for the following items

  • Replacing damaged metal
    Repairs start and $50.00 and up depending on replacement


  • Wood Damage  - split wood, cracks
    Repairs start at $25.00 and up depending on repair


  • Hardware replacement
    Replacements start at $25.00 plus the cost of the Parts


  • Leather Straps and keepers
    Replacement start at $75.00 plus cost of the Parts

  • Replace bottoms or overlay new bottoms
    Replacement start at $100.00 depending extent of damage

  • Lining lids with fabric or paper
    We do not line trunks as we like the look of the original wood interior. We do sand and treat the interior wood with beeswax and high quality lemon oil to preserve it. This also removes any odors associated with age primarily caused by the original lining and the glue used. If you prefer to line your trunk, we will leave the wood interior untreated as per your request.

  • Detailed hand painting
    Any hand painting of hardware starts at $50.00 depending on your requirements

  • Stripping Paint
    Some trunks are painted…AHHH! If we need to strip any of them it starts at $75.00 and we cannot guarantee that ALL the paint will be gone.  Sometimes in knots and heavy wood grain you can’t get it out even with a lot of sanding!

The Process
Once you have sent pictures to us and we have discussed your project, and you are ready to ship the trunk to us  we  will send you an estimate of the cost and time for completion.  You will then need to set up payment with us and ship the trunk to us through UPS unless other arrangements are made.

Payment Terms:
½ of the initial estimate is due when you ship the trunk to us.  The balance is due upon our completion and your review of pictures of your trunk.  Then we ship the trunk back home to you.


We can also sell  you one of our Beautifully finished trunks,
ready for you to enjoy, which will become your Family Heirloom Legacy.
Check out our trunks for sale

 

General Restoration Information
Like with anything which is to be restored, refurbished, or refinished, what you begin with determines the difficulty you have in the process. If you start with a trunk in Mint condition, your work is simple. The initial cost for the trunk is also considerably higher than one in good, average, or poor condition. Most trunks we have found are in the average to poor condition with a few in the good range, and I have yet to find one in original mint condition! Now with that said, there is a lot to refinishing an old trunk. First of all, most of these trunks are close to or over a Hundred years old! The metal generally is damaged, rusted, or corroded, if it is even all there. The wood is Very Brittle and easily broken. This is a problem when putting new nails in as the wood will often split. There is a lot to refinishing trunks. Hardware must be removed, refinished, or replaced. The interior must be stripped of old coverings which might be paper, leather, paint, or cloth, and will require anything from solvents and scraping to stripping and nail/staple removal. The exterior must be refinished which can include complete removal of all hardware, metal, canvas, wood slats, etc. The exterior can be more simple on some trunks, but it is always time consuming, and requires special tools to remove the nails and hardware. If you are lucky, all the original hardware, metal banding, slats, etc. are there. If not, you have to find replacements, and matching what is there is often very difficult if even possible. After all the stripping and removing, you have to refinish and re-assemble the trunk. This is Very time consuming to get a good result.


Below is more specific information about different types of trunk restoration.
READ THIS BEFORE TRYING IT YOURSELF!

Canvas Covered Trunks
Check out our Trunks for Sale

Removing the canvas from a flat top to be refinished is a personal choice between original look and updating the trunk to a new beautiful look. Once in a while we see a flat top that has canvas good enough to leave on but this is very rare. In this case we usually remove the old finish from the slats, sand, maybe stain and then finish the hardwood of the staves. The canvas can then be coated with a protective clear coat.

After the canvas is removed on a trunk being refinished there is usually a coat of crystallized glue on the background wood. This has to be removed before the wood can be refinished and is difficult. The wood is cleaned as well as possible and then sanded before receiving its finish. Great care must be taken as the wood is generally a hundred years old. The result is a wonderful wood finish!

 After the canvas is removed from between the slats and hardware on the trunk then you're usually left with MANY little threads under the edges of the slats and hardware. Removing these can take a lot of time and depending on the canvas different techniques. There is usually a lot of time and effort spent removing the canvas from these trunks. Fortunately, the canvas has protected the wood underneath for all those years, which allows us to have a Great end result. The wood requires a lot of work to refinish. Lots of gluing, sanding, staining, and Many coats of Good Tung Oil Finish with sanding between coats to get a good finish. This takes about a week if things go well. Now you need to clean the hardware, banding, latches, lock, etc. You generally have lots of decorative hardware which have to be cleaned of rust, and then repainted. Many parts had to be completely replaced, which means you have to find and buy new hardware.
This is NOT INEXPENSIVE or EASY TO FIND!


Metal Covered Trunks
Check out our Trunks for Sale

Metal covered Trunks are divided into two types, Embossed Metal (click here to see examples of metal patterns) and smooth steel (commonly called tin covered). Most Trunk restorers will not Remove the metal to expose the wood underneath due to the difficulty. In the Embossed Metal trunks, there is a lot of cleaning, rust removal, or repair in most cases to get these trunks to look good again. In the case where the metal is removed, it is a Very difficult process. Metal covered trunks generally have a multitude of nails holding the metal to the wood box and in order to remove the metal, if desired, you must remove all the nails and all the slats and hardware to get to the base wood box and lid. Let me say that this is a Serious Task! Not only is it very time consuming, and difficult, but you can easily do serious damage to the wood box and lid  in the process. I remember the first one of these I did, and it took almost a week to remove all the nails, hardware, slats, etc. When I was done, I felt like all I had accomplished was to destroy what was once a beautiful trunk. I decided to do the removal of the metal, because like many of these metal covered trunks, it was damaged in some areas, and rusted in other areas.

First of all, there are often Hundreds of nails to remove! The ends of the nails have been turned back into the wood when they are put in to lock them in place, so you can't just pull them out, or it will destroy the wood and tear holes in it as well as break sections of it. You have to slowly pry them until you can cut the heads off, then punch the nail back into the wood, nip the curl in the nail, and then slowly pull the nails out from the inside, and you still end up doing damage in some cases. I had many repairs to do to the wood on my first trunk! Once you get all the hardware, banding, and metal off, you have to strengthen the box and lid. This usually means pulling the main box and lid nails, gluing them, and putting them back in. Then you have to fix all the damage you've done, sand it, and refinish the wood. The wood requires a lot of work to refinish. Lots of gluing, sanding, staining, and Many coats of Good Tung Oil Finish with sanding between coats to get a good finish. This takes about a week if things go well. Now you need to clean the hardware, banding, latches, lock, etc. My first trunk had Lots of decorative hardware which I had to clean of rust, and repaint. Many parts had to be completely replaced, which meant I had to find and then buy new hardware.
This is NOT INEXPENSIVE or EASY TO FIND!

I finally got the box and lid refinished as well as the wood slats. Then I replaced the metal banding as needed, put the wood slats on, replaced the hardware, and did the finish touch-up and polish. The trunk came out to be Incredibly Beautiful. It took over a month and a lot of cost to get it done, and although it came out so nice, This type of trunk takes extreme time and patience. As I do others of this type, they will Certainly have to be Very Special trunks, and they will sell in the highest price range of the trunks we offer.


We are sellers of many types of Wonderful Antique trunks, and we are very dedicated to our customers.
If you are here, you must be looking for a rare and Beautiful Trunk which you and generations to come can love and cherish. We have a large selection of many types of Trunks. In many cases these trunks are a
Hundred or more years old ! As with any Antique they often show signs of their age.

We are constantly increasing our trunk inventory and many are in restoration currently.
If you don't see what you are looking for, please come back again, or feel free to contact us with your request.
We always try our best to satisfy our loyal customers!

We currently Many Collectible Antique Steamer Trunks!
We will be selling them as we have them restored.
CHECK OUT OUR COLLECTION

The collection is growing!

See our 'Before and After' restoration page