Reupholstery of Late 19th to Mid 20th Century Classic Australian Furniture

By Frank Parker

mid century chair upholstery
mid century chair upholstery

This classic mid century three seater couch was manufactured in 1948 by Hicks Furniture in Kalgoorlie Western Australia. Some classic furniture was made in major WA regional centres from the late-19th century through to the mid-20th century. This was due to the problems associated with long distance transport of bulky fragile items and the fact that many skilled trades people from all walks of life migrated to these areas during the preceding gold rushes. However the other important factor is that the demand existed during this time frame for quality upholstered furniture.

This midcentury couch was purchased by its current owner who is now 93 years of age when he was married at the age of 24, as a present for his wife. It is interesting to note that it was re-upholstered in the 1970’s. The original sprung edge was replaced with timber rails. The initial upholstery fabric was a tapestry and it was re-upholstered in an olive velvet. Unfortunately the furniture repair of this piece wasn’t detailed. It was limited to only replacing a sprung edge with timber and placing the new fabric over the old sandwiched with a layer of foam.

We stripped the existing upholstery back to the frame then carefully knocked the joints apart, glued then clamped and screwed the frame where necessary. Our client wanted to retain the history of this mid century sofa so we simply cleaned up the show-wood timber. We also touched up the chips with an oak stain and then used a quality furniture polish to bring back the shine. The frame was then webbed and re-sprung mainly using traditional upholstery methods with an art-deco upholstery fabric. The result is that a classic Australian made couch has been given a new lease of life for future generations to enjoy.

Call us Today to Have Your Mid Century Furniture Beautifully Restored

Similar Posts

  • Re-styled 1940’s chairs

    ByFrank Parker

    Occasionally clients are unhappy with the style of the chairs presented to us for repair and re-upholstery. This can be as a result of either initial design flaws, poor re-upholstery or poor reconstruction as a result of previous damage or sometimes a combination of these factors. The idea is not necessarily to bring a chair back its purest original form but occasionally compromise with slight re-styling to compliment the client’s décor.

    These two 1940’s chairs were presented to us by a client as they had been passed down to her through the family. She wanted the chairs to be re-upholstered however she wanted the arms modified on one chair and the wings to be altered on the other chair. This re-styling was required partially due to initial design flaws but also due to past re-upholstery exaggerating these flaws.

    We completely stripped the existing upholstery on both chairs down to the bare frames. The top arms on one chair were then cut down to a cigar shaped arm in keeping with the design while the other chair had a plywood strip removed from the inside wings which improvised as a thumb roll. The two modified chair frames were then re-upholstered using a combination of traditional and contemporary methods.

    When these re-styled chairs were delivered to our client she was ecstatic with the outcome. We trust the chairs will be enjoyed and continued to be passed down to future generations.

    Call us Today

  • Tub Chair Reupholstery

    ByFrank Parker
    tub chairs perth

    These tub chairs were purchased three years ago from a leading WA furniture retailer. The clients paid a high price for these chairs which were sold to them as superior quality Italian made pieces of furniture. The manufacturing labels fixed under the chairs reveal they were made in China.

    The covering which is a very poor quality laminated fabric has delaminated in areas of wear. The frames can only be described as having been ‘slapped together’ by unskilled labour. The poor quality elastic seat webbing was breaking down and the low density foam collapsing.

    As part of the tub chair reupholstery process, a new seat frame was constructed from a single piece of structural grade plywood, laced with heavy duty elastic seat webbing then laminated with high density premium grade cushioning. The furniture recovering of these chairs was finished with a quality Australian made fabric.

    The end result was that the client spent about 70% of the initial purchase price to have their tub chair upholstery problems rectified. This makes a mockery of the old saying “the high purchase price is long forgotten but the bitterness of poor quality remains” as these clients were stung with a high purchase price and left with the bitter taste of poor quality. I guess the moral of the story is “buyer beware” so do your research prior to purchase and maybe look a bit closer to home!

    Call us Today

  • Re-upholster Antique Chairs

    ByFrank Parker

    Occasionally we receive antique chairs which are basically well preserved but they have been previously shabbily re-upholstered or upholstered out of context with the era. This rarely does the furniture justice and usually results in complete restoration.

    Our client came to us with a lounge chair made in the 1890’s having been originally purchased by her deceased husband’s grandparents. She was honest in explaining that under her instructions the chair had been re-upholstered in the early 1980’s in a pastel cotton and the style modernised to match their décor at a previous residence. She was now ashamed of her previous decision and wanted the chair re-upholstered to its previous glory.

    The chair’s design had been modernised by having a loose seat cushion fitted and absence of piped detail. We removed all the upholstery stripping the chair down to the bare frame and the turned timber legs were then cleaned and polished. Heavy weight jute webbing was then fitted to the seat and back, the coil springs laced, tied down then hessian overlays fitted. We used synthetic ‘thumb roll’ on the seat front, arms and back scrolls then laminated premium polyurethane foams finished with polyester overlays. The seat cushion inner was fabricated from high resilience foam and encased with bonded polyester fibre.

    The chair was then upholstered using a fabric selected by our client which suited the chair and was basically in keeping with the period. The result was a chair which was modernised to a degree under the cover for comfort however retained much authenticity with the upholstery finish and piped detail. Our client was over joyed with her chair and no doubt will become a family heirloom.

    Call us Today

  • Trustyle Furniture

    ByFrank Parker

    Truestyle evolved from a lounge furniture manufacturing business which came into existence as W. E. Young & Co. The business was founded by Bill and Beryl Young who came to WA from Victoria starting the manufacturing business in the late 1950’s originally located in Claverton Street east Perth. In the late 1960’s the business relocated to Osborne Park.  The business was then taken over by several of the employees in the mid 1970’s with Colin Bainbridge running operations. The business then shifted to River road Bayswater to a purpose built factory.

    Trustyle manufactured styles incorporating show-wood frames with the furniture being in the upper middle class for price and quality always being considered good value for money in the industry.

    A client contacted us wishing to have her Trustyle lounge suite and dining chair seats re-upholstered. The Lounge suite was over thirty years old but remained structurally sound. It was originally upholstered in a patterned transfer print which were popular in the late 80’s and early 90’s but she decided to have the furniture re-upholstered in a plain chenille.

    This was a straight forward job, we replaced the elastic webbing laminated new high density arm foam and fabricated new premium foam seat and back cushions encasing them with bonded polyester fibre. The upholstery was also relatively simple and back to original including the buttoning.

    Our client was happy as her favourite piece of furniture was back to new condition and hopefully she will have many years of enjoyable use.

    Call us Today

  • Mechanical rocker/glider chair – reupholster

    ByFrank Parker

    Mechanical rocker/glider chairs or platform rocker chairs are a type of rocking chair which moves as a swing seat, where the entire frame of the seat is attached to the base by means of a double rocker four bar linkage. The non-parallel suspension arms of the linkage cause the chair to simulate the motion of a rocking chair. The mechanical rocker/glider chairs were first manufactured in the United States and Canada during the 1930’s.

    Our client in her late 80’s approached us to rejuvenate her rocker glider chair and we just loved her story. As a young child in the pre-war years she travelled from her home in Rugby England with her father by train to Edinburgh Scotland to visit her grandmother. Apparently her grandmother had very strict house rules however when she had the chance she would love to rock in her grandmother’s chair. A few years later after the passing of her grandmother her aunty asked if she would like any of her grandmother’s possessions with the obvious response, “the rocking chair”. Then some eighty years later we were given the task of reupholstering her special chair.

    Our client had selected an olive cut pile cotton velvet for the upholstery which suited the chair and reflected the era. All the upholstery was removed from the chair then the timber frame was cleaned and polished. Jute webbing was fitted over the seat and then a hessian overlay and premium padding with a polyester overlay. After the outside back was fitted the same process as the seat occurred then the arms pads were built up with premium padding and polyester overlays. The inside back, seat and arm pads were then upholstered and unlike the original chair which was trimmed with gimp we used self-covered banding which was then space studded.

    When the chair was delivered our client had tears of joy saying this was something she had wanted to do all her life.

    Call us Today

  • Oliver’s Upholstery

    ByFrank Parker

    Oliver’s Upholstery was founded by Andrew Oliver in the late 1980’s being situated in Perth Western Australia. The business manufactured economically priced upholstered furniture for the WA retail sector. The business grew quickly becoming one of the larger upholstery manufacturers by volume in the State. However about a decade of operation cheap inferior products started coming into Australia from Malaysia and Thailand then flooding in from China.

    With the value area of the local market being displaced with imported furniture Andrew Oliver changed directions renaming the business Oliver’s Re-upholstery focusing on re-upholstery and commercial upholstery.

    Long term clients approached us when renovating their home wanting to have two wing back chairs re-upholstered. These clients resided in a leafy Perth suburb and thought the chairs were rather special but it’s difficult to explain to such clients that their taste in furniture maybe a bit ordinary, especially if they want the chairs re-upholstered in a high quality leather.

    The upholstery was rather tacky so we stripped the chairs back to the bare frames and were rather surprised that the frames were soundly constructed. We sprung the frames, laminated the body work with high density foam padding slightly redesigning the upholstery. The leather was a full-aniline leather from Tasman Tanning and was a pleasure to use as the chairs took shape. Using more traditional labour intensive upholstery techniques paid off as displayed by the finished product.

    Our clients were simply “gob-smacked” with their re-upholstered wing back chairs which just goes to show that you can make a silk purse from a sow’s ear!

    Call us Today