Refurbish TV Chairs & Daynite sofa

By Frank Parker

“TV chairs” and “Daynite sofas” became popular from the late 1950’s and remained in production through to the early 1970’s. This coincided with the introduction of television and the modern appliance age. Today we generally refer to TV chairs and Daynite sofas as mid-century furniture which has regained popularity amongst novices and enthusiasts of this era. This furniture setting was made in W.A. by Condor Furniture in Osborne Park owned by the Trethowan family.

This set of TV chairs and Daynite sofa were presented to us by our client who wanted them completely refurbished to original condition. The existing upholstery was striped to the frames then the frames sanded back to raw timber. The timber frames were constructed from Nyatoh, a Malaysian timber which is ideal for this type of furniture. The frames were then stained brown teak and three coats of clear lacquer applied.

The new upholstery started with replacing the no-sag springs then fabricating polyester encased premium cushion inserts. The upholstery fabric selected was similar to the original covering being a flat woven rust coloured fabric.

The result was a refurbished classic mid-century lounge setting that took our clients back to the time of their initial purchase. We have no doubt that just as nostalgic memories will be relived good times are still to come for our clients to enjoy their furniture.

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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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    This American company was founded in 1932 by two brothers-in-law starting business as a homewares manufacturer. In 1936 they purchased a bankrupt high-end furniture manufacturer in Vermont and adopted the name Ethan Allen in 1939.

    Ethan Allen now a public company and has four manufacturing plants in the USA and one in Mexico with retail outlets across the USA and Canada. Although the company had suffered a severe decline in business over the last few decades the share price is now rebounding with the strong public sentiment towards supporting home grown products and businesses.

    A couple were referred to us to have their two Ethan Allen ‘Restocrat Recliners’ re-upholstered. They purchased these recliner chairs in the mid 70’s while living in the U.S. Their present home still reflected the architecture and furnishings from the 70’s so it was the preferable option.

    These recliner chairs were stripped back to the bare frames and the mechanisms were removed. The quality of the mechanisms were outstanding, we just cleaned them up with the timber frames only requiring minor repairs. The frames were re-sprung and new cushioning was fabricated from premium foam and encased with bonded polyester fibre. The fabric selected by our client was a 70’s pin stripe velvet which was a prefect replacement.

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    A couple were getting married and had requested of their wedding guests to contribute to the re-upholstery of their ‘Jarvi’ lounge suite. This lounge furniture with a matching table and cabinetry was purchased by the Groom in NSW some time ago and the fabric for the re-upholstery selected by the Bride.

    The History of Jarvi Furniture

    Jarvi Furniture was founded by Len Jarvi, who was born in Finland in 1910. Len migrated to Australia learning his trade at Chesterfield Furniture in Botany NSW. He then established Jarvi Furniture in Sydney after the war. They were focused on manufacturing high quality lounge and dining furniture influenced on the Jacobean style of furniture. Len Jarvi died in an accident on his farm in 1959 however his quality furniture still lives on today.

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    We worked on restoring the frame of the lounge through the following process:

    • Stripped this lounge suite down to the bare frame
    • Repaired several minor structural defects
    • cleaned and polished the show-wood frame
    • re-webbed the bases with jute webbing
    • coil springs were laced into place and then overlayed with hessian
    • Several modern materials were used to finish of the sprung edge (whilst maintaining quality)
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    Finally, the front edge and borders were hand sewn to give the traditional finish.

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    The seat and back cushions were box piped using cotton piping cord. We also incorporated zip borders so the cushions are removable. The cushion inserts we used were laminated premium quality polyurethane foams encased in bonded polyester fibre. The result being firm resilient cushioning that will last for decades.

    Such a special gift for this newly married couple.

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  • Ramada Furniture – Reupholster

    Ramada Furniture commenced operations in the mid 1980’s and was owned by Graham and Justin Davies. Graham also owned Leather House a successful furniture retail business specialising in the sale of leather lounge furniture. His son Justine operated the factory in Canning Vale which took over a large purpose built factory from another lounge furniture manufacturer Stylecraft which had ceased operations.

    Grahame Davies sold Leather House in the early 2000’s and Ramada Furniture was subsequently sold to Lawrence Barnard. Lawrence also owned Featureline which locally manufactured more budget priced lounge furniture. He then operated the combined businesses wholesaling lounge furniture to the WA retail trade.  However due a changing market and the onslaught of inferior but cheaper imported lounge furniture the combined business failed after about 3 years.

    A couple approached us who were renovating their home which required updating their furniture. They were however mindful regarding waste and wanted to up-cycle as much as possible. They had purchased Ramada two leather lounge chairs and a footstool about thirty years ago which were looking seriously dated and if possible wanted them rejuvenated in fabric.

    We completely removed the existing upholstery from the two chairs and footstool then started the re-upholstery process fitting new heavy grade elastic webbing. High density foam was then laminated to the frame bodies and new polyester encased premium foam cushion inserts were fabricated. The lounge furniture was then carefully re-upholstered to original finish except the seat cushions were now reversible.

    Our clients were absolutely delighted with the result of their up-cycling. The chairs and footstool have again taken pride of place in their renovated upstairs sitting area.

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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.

    Our clients presented us with two identical looking 2 ½ seater settees however when we removed the fabric it became obvious they were purchased at different times as one settee featured a traditional sprung edge and the other a fabricated foam edge with different springs. The challenge was to reupholster the two settees so they both felt identical for comfort.

    We re-webbed the seats and fitted new coil springs of the same height and gauge then fabricated a foam edge on one settee to replicate the sprung edge of the other. We also replaced all existing hessian and body padding however the down and feather cushion inners were still in good condition so we encased these in 200g boned polyester fibre. The settees were reupholstered to the original finish in a cotton velvet then delivered to very happy clients!

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  • Ercol Furniture – upholster

    Ercol Furniture was established in 1920 by Lucian Ercolani in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire manufacturing timber framed lounge furniture and occasional furniture. In 1944 Ercol was awarded a contract by the Government Board of Trade to produce 100 000 low cost spindled/bentwood framed chairs. This involved a process the company developed of steam pressing English Elm so the chairs could be assembled from pre-formed components.

    In 2002 Ercol moved into a purpose built factory at Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire. The company has gone on to produce many award winning ranges of furniture. Like many western countries, the UK has in more recent years also had a reversion back to purchasing from local manufacturers.

    A client from the Peel region approached us requiring a quote to have her Ercol lounge suite re-furbished. The furniture was originally purchased by her parents in the UK prior to her birth in Australia. There had been some rather amateur attempts to both polish and re-upholster this suite which has the effect of adding to the work involved.

    We removed all the upholstery and stripped back the lacquer to bare timber. The frame was then stained a mid-tone walnut and coated with three coats of 30% gloss lacquer. Quality seat webbing was then fitted and then we fabricated premium foam cushioning laminating it with bonded polyester fibre. We disregarded the old cushion covers and made new patterns bringing everything back to original with a blue tone fabric featuring a wide abstract diamond pattern being selected by our client.

    When delivering the furniture the look on our client’s face said it all, she simply said “Amazing!” This just reinforces our factory philosophy ‘work hard and enjoy the journey’.

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