LIFESTYLE
By Anita Oldham & Jessica Alyea | Photos submitted
Bringing Old Treasures Back To Life
W
hen you talk to Gerry Masse, owner of Louisville Antique Restoration, you’ll be inspired to take a new look at the old furniture in your life. Old furniture tells a story — just think of your kitchen table growing up, Gerry says. It held Christmas dinners. It held your homework (and perhaps your head) as you worked on it. It holds memories, and Gerry, an artist at heart, taps into that energy when he restores heirloom pieces. He recalls the woman who at 16 ran away to be a hippie in New York and bought a dining room table at a yard sale on the way. “Now she’s in her 70s, and she was showing me every cigarette mark, every ding and scratch on this table,” Gerry says. “She liked certain ones and hated others because they reminded her of bad memories. So I took a picture and printed it, and told her to circle all the ones she loved. I got rid of all the ones she hated. I buried them deep because we can do layers, so really deep down in there. When she saw it [restored], she got those tears and gave me a big, long hug.” There are countless other stories — particularly since COVID. The pandemic seemed to remind people that life is fragile and nudged them to take note of their family’s history, even in furniture, Gerry says. “I hear ‘I always wanted Grandma’s rocking chair fixed for the next baby coming,’ or ‘I want to fix up these wagons and tricycles for the grandkids.’” That ‘energy’ of the furniture or antiques gives them character and adds to the reason behind the restoration, Gerry says. And such good energy may be something you want to bring more of into your home. “We’ve redone a ton of furniture from hotels — zero energy. It’s weird,” Gerry says. “Then we’ll get estate furniture, like something from a grandma, and it has this good, loving energy.”
42 Fall 2025 / TodaysTransitions.com
Choosing the right restoration method A sculptor by trade and previously an art educator at UK, Gerry has learned which restoration methods work best for antique pieces. “We do what’s called a conservation finish,” he says. “It’s the best thing and least expensive thing you can do for an antique.” He contrasts this method with the ‘dip it and strip it’ approach that was popular in the ’80s, which he says will affect the glue joints in a piece of furniture — making it look beautiful for a time, but likely to fall apart later. “The correct thing to do for an antique is to build on top of what’s there,” Gerry says. “So we de-wax, then we can see the truth. From there we do any woodworking, and feather it in and build, and then we end it all with a wax and a buff. So it all looks consistent and close to what it would have been when it was built.” PAGE 44 >>
“SEEING HOW MUCH THOSE OBJECTS MEAN TO A WHOLE FAMILY, AND ALL THE ENERGY IN THEM, BLOWS MY MIND.”