Modern Antique Chairs

By Frank Parker

It is becoming more common to re-upholster antique furniture using bright modern fabrics. At first this may seem sacrilege to connoisseurs of fine furniture but if quality antique furniture is being saved no one can complain.    

A client approached us saying she had found a pair of identical ‘Grandfather’ antique chairs beside the railway line in York W.A. At first we just assumed these were nothing but discarded antique reproduction chairs however upon inspection our client was correct, they were indeed genuine antique chairs from the mid to late 19th century.

We completely removed the existing upholstery and carried out some structural repairs then touched up the polish work. We then used traditional methods to re-upholster these chairs only compromising by using premium foam seat and inside arm/back overlays. A modern teal velvet with black velvet piping was used to cover the chairs and trimmed with black gimp.

Well what could we say, the clients were elated and the chairs looked stunning! The chairs were saved and our clients can enjoy their rejuvenated furniture for many years.

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    Clients approached us as they had shifted from an older traditional styled house into a new modern mid-century styled home located in the Perth hills. They had a much loved traditional Torrance & McKenna lounge suite consisting of 2 x wing back chairs and a low back 4 seater settee. They wanted to retain this lounge furniture but re-upholster it to suit their new home.

    The most important aspect of this process is to select an appropriate fabric for the re-upholstery process. Our clients had two issues to consider, the upholstery fabric selected had to suit their existing lounge furniture while looking in place in a new mid-century styled home. The upholstery fabric selected fulfilled the criteria being an abstract floral design with the blue and autumn tones looking effective on the polished concrete floor and picking up the tones of the timber cabinetry.

    This job was a complete re-build so we removed all the existing upholstery. The frame was re-webbed with heavy weight jute webbing and the coil springs laced into place then the sprung edges constructed. New high density foam padding was laminated to the frame bodies with the upholstery back to original including lined and padded outside arms and backs. The cushion inserts were fabricated using premium foam and then encased with bonded polyester fibre. The cushions were upholstered back to the original finish being boxed piped seats and centre piped back and arm cushions.

    The result spoke for its self and our clients were ecstatic when their re-upholstered furniture was delivered. This is great example of up-cycling fine furniture which was purchased new 45 years ago and is now good for another 45 years.

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    Cornwell Furniture was formed in the 1960’s, a division of Parker Knoll Furniture in the United Kingdom. Cornwell was a signature range of Parker-Knoll specialising in high quality mass production motion chairs.

    The chair pictured is branded “Cornwell-Norton Ltd” which signifies it was manufactured in the Cornwell factory located at Chipping Norton in West Oxfordshire which commenced operations in the mid 60’s and closed in 2003.

    Our clients having migrated from the UK in the 1970’s had by now only a few remnant pieces of furniture from the homeland but their pride piece was this Cornwell Norton motion chair which they wanted rejuvenated..

    We completely removed all the upholstery from the frame which was well constructed from Beech and plywood. The mechanical action was a simple push mechanism however it remained in good working condition which is a tribute to the designers of the day. The frame required no attention and was re-webbed using heavy grade elastic webbing then padded utilising high density polyurethane foam. The cushion inserts were fabricated from premium foam and encased with bonded polyester fibre and the outside arms and outside back were lined then padded.

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    We had previously reupholstered a Parker-Knoll 60’s wing back chair for a client who then requested us to reupholster two 2 ½ seater settees purchased in the early 80’s made by Vince’s Upholstery.

    Vince’s Upholstery was founded by Vince and Pina Scalisi who originally started the business from their home in East Perth making budget priced furniture. They progressed over time and became renowned for manufacturing top end custom-made lounge furniture from a purpose built factory in Morley.

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  • Boans Furniture – reupholster

    The Boan brothers opened their first department store at Wellington Street Perth in 1895 then moved into selling furniture in 1912. After the First World War demand for furniture was strong so Boans commenced manufacturing furniture from a factory located corner Saunders and Glide Streets Perth. The range of furniture made was extensive from cabinetry to upholstered furniture, mattresses and cane furniture.

    With the anti -Asian sentiment dominate during this period the Factories Act of 1904 forced Asian furniture manufacturing companies to stamp on their products “Asiatic Labour” and so Boans like many other local furniture manufacturers of time took advantage of this situation advertising that their furniture was made with “European Labour Only”.

    During the late 1960’s Boans started retailing furniture from other specialist manufactures and also started importing furniture. Boans remained dominate and indeed an iconic retailing business in WA for almost a century and was sold to Myer in 1986.

    We were approached by a mother and daughter who had fond memories of their lounge furniture purchased from Boans in the early 1960’s which was made under licence to Parker Knoll in the UK. The lounge suite had served the family well for almost 60 years however it was certainly due for re-upholstery.

    They selected a Warwick linen to replace the original Sanderson linen so the furniture would retain an elegant appearance in their sitting room. We completely removed all existing upholstery then rectified a few minor structural issues with the timber frames. The tension springs were replaced and the bodywork padding was replaced with high density polyurethane foam and the cushions were fabricated from premium foam and encased with bonded polyester. The linen was pattern matched, cut and sewn then upholstered to its original splendour.

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  • Le Cornu Furniture – reupholster

    Le Cornu was an iconic South Australian furniture manufacturing and retailing business. Operations commenced in 1861 when Phillip Le Cornu started a wholesale cabinet making business in Adelaide. In 1885 the factory was largely destroyed by fire and recommenced operations at a former church in North Adelaide. In 1921 the founder died and his son Phillip took over the business expanding operations and by 1924 employed 25 people.

    In 1954 the business went factory direct with a diversified range of furniture and over the next two decades expanded retail stores in S.A and Darwin. In 1989 the North Adelaide store was closed and then the business was sold to Fantastic Holdings in 2008.

    Our client approached us wanting to re-upholster a settee purchased by his parents from Le Cornu in 1959. This settee was the surviving piece of the lounge suite which he grew up with and lounged upon as a teenager. It was still upholstered in the original fabric being a ribbed velvet which would have been the latest trend at the time of purchase.

    We removed all the existing upholstery from the settee frame and it was well constructed with little structural work required. The frame was re-sprung with heavier gauge no-sag springs on the seat and the back springs were replaced with the same gauge. The springs were linked, outside arms and back were lined with hessian and high density body work padding applied. The original cushion inserts were latex and these were replaced with polyester encased premium cushions. The two seater settee was then upholstered to its original finish in a ribbed Zepel gold velvet.

    Our client was gobsmacked upon delivery of the settee saying it was just as he remembered it as a child growing up in Adelaide.

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  • Re-upholster Charles Mackintosh chair

    A client approached us saying they had a ‘Mackintosh’ chair in desperate need of re-upholstery. They had purchased this lounge chair in the UK in the 1970’s and it had just been re-upholstered, they were told it was made about 1910 and was a Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) design reflecting the ‘Arts and Craft’ period.

    Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect and designer who played an important role in the turn of the century ‘Arts and Craft’ movement. He became interested in architecture at a young age and enrolled into the Glasgow School of Art at fifteen meeting the McNair children (marring one of the sisters). The foursome collaborated becoming renowned for their refined stylization of furniture. In 1889 Mackintosh became an apprentice at the architectural firm Honeyman Kreppie and was made a partner in 1901. He demonstrated a break from traditional Victorian design being influenced by Japanese and Celtic art. He was famously commissioned by Catherine Cranston to design the Willow Tearooms (Glasgow) interiors and furniture for which he developed the famous Argyle chair.

    We completely stripped the upholstery to the frame on this chair and judging from the construction techniques it coincides with the period. The chair was then re-sprung and completely re-upholstered being covered in a linen supplied by our clients.

    There is however something extremely strange regarding this chair? The construction techniques coincide with the with the ‘Arts and Craft’ period and the design coincides with the Mackintosh style of the period however from our research he never designed a fully upholstered lounge chair, only dining and occasional chairs with a few show-wood framed lounge chairs. Our client loved their rejuvenated chair and the mystery remains!

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