I have encountered every type injury a piece of furniture can experience---basement floods, a roll top desk wrecked when a tornado crashed a tree through the client's roof, chairs that bit the asphalt when the owner was driving too fast and they got blown out of the pickup bed, chair rungs and legs gnawed to splinters by puppies, beautiful pieces of furniture that succumbed to the dreaded "antique glazing" craze of the 70's (I got a LOT of business undoing that stuff!), items that came to me in a boxful of pieces that I had to put back together like a jigsaw puzzle, hundreds of broken chair rungs caused by little ones who used them as ladders to get up on grandma's lap and several pieces that should have been given last rights and cremated but were too valuable as heirlooms.
MY PHILOSOPHY
The most frequent question I am asked (right after giving the client the price) is "Is this piece worth restoring"? If the piece was bought for a few bucks at a garage sale and you want to have me restore it so you can sell it for a profit, the answer is NO. If you really, really like it and have the perfect place for it, then maybe. In 99% of the cases, you will never be able to sell it for what it costs to restore.
I then try to find out if it is a family piece, that is,does it have a familial history? If it does, then my answer is always YES, restore it. I have a fondness for old things (I love you too, Mom). Things that are a treasure to you will be even more treasured by your grandkids. Things that were new in your childhood will be heirlooms to your great great grandchildren. I don't define heirlooms as old things with great monetary value, I define heirlooms as things passed down through out the generations, regardless of dollar value. I have had clients unflinchingly pay $400 to restore a chair that might fetch $25 at a yard sale. Why? Because it was great grandma's chair.
Heirlooms have to start new at some point. Wouldn't you just love to have a chair owned by your great great great great grandfather? To him, the chair was probably no big deal. To me it would be a prized possession.
Another thing; when it comes time for your kids to argue over your possessions, they will fight over the fully restored, beautiful antique rocker in the living room. The same rocker, un-restored, wobbly, smelly and in the attic or basement will likely be thrown out and part of your family history will be forever gone. I always advise my clients to write down the "ancestry" of the piece so the later generations will know. So many clients come to me with pieces that were either "my grandmothers sister, my great uncle's or my mother's grandfather, I don't know which". That advice also goes to pottery, jewelry, silverware, dishes, toys, photographs, just about anything old that someday one of your descendants will treasure.
I have my great grandfather's gold pocket watch. It is precious to me. It is the first thing I would save during a fire, right after my family and dogs.