Before a piece of antique furniture is restored, it pauses between past and present. Nancy Chase meets it there, hands on wood, seeing not damage and age, but possibility. For her, restoration is less about fixing and more about revealing what was always there.
The Cincinnati resident traces her appreciation for antiques back to her childhood in New England, where old furniture was simply part of everyday life.
“Antiques were just part of the landscape,” she recalls. “Most people had antique furniture and accessories. We bought antiques, we inherited antiques.”
Her mother’s love of visiting historic homes, paired with Nancy’s childhood chores, quietly shaped what would later become her profession.
“It was my job at home to polish the furniture,” she adds. “Something that I just loved to do.”
After graduating from Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley, she stayed in the area and apprenticed with an antique restorer serving private clients in New York City. The experience clarified an important distinction.
“Restoring antiques and creating something new are entirely different occupations,” she explains. “I am not a woodworker. I felt drawn to restoration—seeing something come back to life.”
That philosophy continues to guide her work today. Each project begins with a conversation.
“First, I discuss with the client what their expectations are,” Nancy explains.
Some pieces require full refinishing—taken down to bare wood and rebuilt with stain, shellac and wax—while others benefit from careful touch-ups, polishing and waxing.
“I will restore whatever the client has that they want restored,” she says. “I work both by the piece of furniture, and by the hour, doing in-house repair and waxing on-site in homes.”
Nancy is especially drawn to antiques with hidden character.
“I enjoy working on antiques that have secrets,” she notes, describing writing desks, davenports and dressers with secret drawers or compartments. Dining tables, side tables and gaming tables also cross her path frequently, pieces that show the most wear simply because they’ve been well used.
“When I work on a piece, I believe it is temporarily mine,” Nancy says. “I restore each piece as if it were my own.”
The reward comes when it’s returned.
“Returning a piece to a client, or finishing a day working in their home, it is always worth the reward of how happy they are when they see how beautiful everything looks,” she says.
Nancy works primarily by referral. Her work can be found throughout the region and at one of Cincinnati’s most storied institutions. The Mercantile Library, a private member library on Walnut Street, recently underwent a major renovation. Interior designer Naomi Dallob of Smitten Interiors recommended Nancy when the library’s antique collection came out of storage in need of care.
“I work there to repair antiques that have been donated to the library and take care of the upkeep to have it all be in good condition always,” Nancy explains.
Preservation matters deeply to Nancy. In a culture shaped by fast trends, antiques offer something lasting.
“I believe in the beauty of the past. The fine construction of good antique furniture is worth preserving,” she shares. “Antiques were made well, to pass along to future generations. Through restoration the wood just glows with warmth.”
Nancy believes the best candidates for restoration are often the pieces people hesitate to give up—the ones that feel worn, tired or no longer quite right, but still matter. Restoration is often the best investment in preserving a piece’s longevity and value. But value isn’t always financial. Nancy dreams of opening a community-centered repair shop someday, a place for people to bring the objects they love most.
“I am looking for a business partner to help the dream come to life,” she says.
Many treasures, she notes, may not be worth much money, but they are worth everything to the people who own them, and helping restore that connection is what motivates her work.
In Nancy Chase’s hands, the past isn’t discarded—it’s carefully preserved, one piece at a time.
Nancy Chase | nchase@fuse.net | 513.476.3918