If Your Antique Furniture Is This Color, It Could Be Worth A Fortune

While that modern brown couch you've carted around from apartment to apartment is probably not be worth more than its sentimental value, any antique "brown furniture" you might have could be worth a small fortune. You might already know that some old furniture is worth a lot, however furniture first considered pretty in the days of Alexander Hamilton and King George could be worth something else entirely. "Brown furniture" is the antiques and interior decorating industry's shorthand for stately 18th and 19th century antique furniture made from a variety of high quality hardwoods. Walnut, mahogany, teak, and rosewood typically fill out the roster of these highly sought-after brown woods, made into everything from room-spanning sideboards to small drop-leaf end tables.

The general aesthetic of antique brown furniture calls to mind visuals of old money and libraries stuffed with antique books that are worth a fortune, valuable Tiffany glass lamps, and even surprisingly pricey (and still in fashion) globes. While a combination of factors led to a general decline in values for heavy brown furniture pieces — with the brown furniture market even thought of as dead as recently as 2019 — the antique furniture style might be making a comeback as massive as a classic Chippendale china cabinet.

You might be wondering just how valuable brown furniture is — and you might be surprised by the answer. Chairish, a furniture resale site, listed a late 18th-century mahogany chest of drawers for $9,338, on sale, while a Chippendale carved sideboard was listed for $3,295. In December 2024, an executive leather-topped mahogany partners desk sold for a whopping $10,997.50 on ebay. Meanwhile, in January 2025, a 19th-century mahogany center table sold for $5,981.66, and a Georgian mahogany dollhouse-shaped bar cabinet sold for $6,615. These prices could be enough to turn even the most casual of antique shoppers into full-blown thrift store warriors in search of wooden gold.

While many brown furniture pieces are generally circulated by professional antiques dealers, there is still the chance that an excellent piece (or even one in need of a little TLC) can be found at an estate sale, thrift store, or even in a friend or family member's attic. These can be available free for the flipping — minus the price of any required labor. With that in mind, knowing what type of furniture pieces might be most in demand can be important when thrifting, shopping, and hunting. Thanks to more remote work options post-pandemic, sturdy antique brown writing desks are in particular demand these days, along with other library and study-related pieces. Old-fashioned home entertainment pieces are also sought after: think large bookcases, china cabinets, and long dining room tables.

Beyond what kinds of brown furniture pieces might be popular, it's also important to correctly identify certain qualities. To the untrained eye, antique brown furniture might all look like it belongs in a Victorian mansion, a gothic library, or even on the set of "Bridgerton." Valuable antique brown furniture spans a range of styles throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, with the brown furniture term generally referring to furniture from the Georgian and Regency periods in the United Kingdom — known as the Federal period in the U.S.

Rich wooden pieces made in America or England throughout the 1700s and 1800s were built to last. So, while there are connotations of wealth associated with many brown furniture pieces, chances are good that many current owners have taken advantage of this furniture style's quality to enjoy hand-me-down Chippendale-style chests or sideboards across generations. Another thing to consider is that these pieces were made when entertaining at home was the norm, which ultimately fueled the decline in their popularity. However, the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a resurgence in popularity for the classic pieces as people once-again began prioritizing entertaining at home.