Trustyle Furniture

By Frank 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.

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    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!

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  • Reupholstery of Jarvi Furniture Lounge

    A Special Wedding Gift

    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.

    The Lounge Suite Restoration Process

    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)
    • Placed a synthetic thumb-roll on the front edge and
    • Then finished with a high density foam overlay

    Finally, the front edge and borders were hand sewn to give the traditional finish.

    The Final Part of the Lounge Reupholstery

    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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  • Sofas to Size – Reupholster

    Sofas to Size evolved from Impact Designs, a company founded in 1996. The business manufactured wholesale upholstered furniture and was located at Buckingham Drive Wangara. Then in 2005 the business name was changed to Sofas to Size and marketed direct to the public from a retail premises located on Canning Highway in South Perth.

    The concept of marketing sofas custom-made to size was an excellent concept as the business grew rapidly in a short time. Sofas to Size ceased operating in 2010.

    We were contacted by a client who purchased several settees made by Sofas to Size. These settees were identical in design and custom-made to specific lengths to suit our clients living area. They were originally upholstered in a synthetic suede but they were to be re-upholstered in a quality plain chenille.

    The existing upholstery was completely removed from the timber framed settees then new heavy grade elastic webbing was fitted and then new body-work padding was laminated onto the frames. New polyester encased premium seat cushion inserts were fabricated along with polyester filled channelled and quilted back cushion inserts. The settees were then carefully upholstered to the original finish.

    Our clients was absolutely delighted with the result of their refurbished settees saying they were designed for the room and they still looked perfect for the room.

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  • Cornwell Norton chairs – Reupholster

    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.

    The fabric selected by our clients was an English striped chenille which was period for the furniture and also suited the particular design. The chair was then upholstered to its original condition trimmed with piping and the cushions completed with buttoning.

    Our clients were elated with their chair rejuvenated to back to its stylish sixties finish and no doubt it bought back many wonderful memories of the era.

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  • Reupholster Art Deco Chairs

    From our understanding these chairs were made in Czechoslovakia in the late 1920’s, manufacturer unknown. For their time the construction techniques used are quite advanced utilising a ‘push-in seat’ and back flutes located with spring-edge wire. However the most significant thing about these chairs is the general proportion and balance of the design.

    A client contacted us saying that she had acquired two art deco European chairs requiring restoration. Upon initial inspection we found the chairs had been shabbily re-upholstered and covered in decades of grime. As we stripped away the fabric on these chairs it exposed some of the original upholstery providing enough information for an authentic reconstruction.

    The first step was several construction repairs to the timber frames then removing the layers of grime. The show-wood components of the frames were then gently sanded back, stained a mid-tone Oak then three coats of clear lacquer. Then with the upholstery we re-constructed the sprung edge seats and backs by lacing in the springs, fabricated the spring edge wire and tying down the springs. We then sewed on the hessian overlays and ring-clipped on polyurethane edge moulding. The seats and backs were then layered with premium foam and polyester overlays. The client’s fabric selection suited the chairs and was practical to upholster. The panels were cut being carefully pattern matched then largely pre-sewn but requiring some hand stitching.

    The re-furbishing of these chairs combined traditional methods with modern materials however did not compromise the design integrity. Our client was overjoyed with the result and the chairs now take pride of place in her lounge room.

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  • Reupholster Merry Widow

    Little information has been passed down through the industry or indeed written about the history or origin of ‘Merry Widow’ settees or lounge furniture. We can only assume it is historically linked to the Austro-Hungarian opera the ‘Merry Widow’ which had its debut in 1906 and was marathon performing during the period. This would co-inside with the start of the art-deco period which a merry widow could feel indulged on such an opulent sofa. 

    A merry widow settee and two chairs were brought to us by a farming family from the south-west. The furniture belonged to her grandparents and she believed was made in the 1930’s and had already been re-upholstered twice and modified. Our job was to bring it back to its glorious by-gone past, a very labour intensive task.

    We removed the layers of fabric stripping the suite down to the bare timber frame. The turned legs were discarded which were an addition during an 80’s revamp then the frame joints knocked apart and glued with a two pack resin then screwed. The rear legs, front blocks and timber trays were sanded then stained as the Jarrah had bleached and finished with three coats of lacquer.

    The re-upholstery commenced with fitting jute webbing and lacing coil springs into the seat, back and arms, then fabricated the sprung edge, and tied down the springs then applied hessian overlays. We then fitted synthetic edging to the sprung edge, top inside back and arms and laminated premium foam layers overlayed with bonded polyester fibre. The upholstery fabric selected suited the period being a very high quality black abstract floral velvet which looked extremely sumptuous. The outside arms and backs were also lined and padded and finished with piped trim.

    Our clients were breath taken with the result as they had seen the previous re-upholstery when teenagers but this was far superior in every detail and designed to last for another lifetime.

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