Chair by Chair

Well,  it has been a seriously long time since I have posted on here...  Sorry that I haven't kept this blog more current, but please understand that this has been the hardest year of my life, well, I guess two years, as we approach the anniversary of my Mother's passing.  Sometimes those stupid facebook memes are helpful.  "the journey of one thousand miles begins with one step."  So, here goes!!!

     We are still cranking up here at the Seating Arrangement, and I think that the economic laws of supply and demand are finally catching up, as the demand for upholstery seems to be pretty high, and the number of upholsterers seems to be shrinking daily, of course punctuated by the death of my Mother, the greatest upholsterer that ever lived! :)

    So, here is a chair.  A woman brought in a bunch of swatches that she had found that had some commonalities in design and color, but nothing exact, or perfect, but she said, "just be creative, I trust your judgement."  It came out pretty cool! *(if I do say so myself)

This is a cute little parlour, or occasional chair for the library

Here, you can see the natural horse hair underlayment of material that will go under the layer of cotton.  I augmented the padding with a layer of dacron/poly batting

The finished product in the freight elevator, ready for delivery!!!

1938 Herman Miller Dresser

One of the biggest rewards that upholstery offers is the experience of collaborating with other crafts people and creative types.  This 1938 Herman Miller Dresser was scavenged from the streets of New York by a very savvy urban gleaner by the name of Peter Dupre and refinished by Jed VanDale at Back Alley Woodworks in Wakefield, RI.  The project was one of the final additions to Dupre's exquisite home built from designs by the early modernist architect, Richard Neutra.  The dresser is one of the early examples of modern furniture and includes the integration of vinyl drawers.  It was great to be able to add to Peter and Jed's creation with the upholstered square drawer front appliques.

Peter and Jed also came up with these really cool end tables to match, replacing peeled veneer with matching vinyl upholstery.  The drawer pulls that they used really brought it all together.

A Few Before and After Photos

Even though I've been working on chairs for over 2o years, it's only been a year or so since I took over my Mom's business and people aren't really aware of the quality of work I'm putting out there, so I figured I'd post a few before and after photos to let you see a sampling of the projects I worked on in 2012.

This was a fun club chair that I did to match a really nice Arts and Crafts Morris chair that I had done previously in the same fabric

another happy customer!!!

This is a REALLY cool custom sofa designed in NYC in the late 50's.  The father of the customer was a designer and had this built for the family home. 

The curved front, oversized square arms and low back really give this couch a cool style

Sometimes it's hard to imagine what things will look like...

A really fun paisley gave this little parlor chair a playful feel, finished with natural nail heads

The best part about upholstery is preserving the life and stories that are attached to furniture

This split sofa set was where my customers courted as teens 50 years ago, and now with some TLC, they can spend their golden years lounging in luxury!!!

A really cool piece

An interesting Club Chair gets a makeover

This is a past project that I reupholstered earlier this winter.  It was an interesting chair and the stripes were fun.  We eliminated the weird and bulky pleating on the rear panel, which led to an interesting challenge for mirroring and matching the pleats while fitting the panel to the upper curve and the overall tapered base of the chair.

this is the original, very light blue light cotton/poly fabric.

from the side with the pleats

nothing but poly/dacron

kind of matches the shop

the curves and interaction of the top front arm fold led to a little warping of the stripe.