Upcycled Chaise Lounge – From Curb-side to Family Heirloom

By Frank Parker

Warwick Fabric Chaise Lounge Reupholstered Perth WA

What is Up-cycling?

Up-cycling furniture is generally regarded as improving or transforming an existing piece of furniture into something better or more useful instead of disposing of it. However, ultimate furniture upcycling is the creative process of taking discarded pieces and giving them a new lease of life. The end result is a piece of furniture that is both functional and a beautiful heirloom.

How We Received This Up-cycling Opportunity

The History of the Chaise Lounge

This chaise lounge was a relatively common design dating back to the 1940’s to 1950’s.

The Steps We Took to Upcycle This Chaise Lounge

When upcycling furniture, it begins with undoing all the previous upholstery work that has been done. This is what we did:

Firstly we removed several layers of upholstery that revealed a basically intact frame that was requiring some attention.
The frame joints and timber rails were re-glued and screwed into place
Corner blocks were fitted
Lastly the show-wood frame were fine sanded and oiled

Now that we had taken the chaise lounge back to the framework, the next stage was the reupholstering. This is how we completed this part of the process:

The upholstery foundation was traditionally restored with jute webbing
Coil springs laced into place that were then tied down and with hessian overlays
The contemporary upholstery methods were used with a synthetic thumb-roll fitted to the frame perimeters and
Premium foam cushioning fabricated and laminated with bonded polyester fibre overlays

This provided the best of both worlds, a traditional foundation with the comfort and finish of modern materials.

The Finishing Touch

The upholstery fabric selected by our clients was Warwick Fabrics ‘Healesville Autumn’, a contemporary Australiana floral design with autumn tones picking up the oiled timber frame. The upholstery was trimmed with space studded self-covered banding which added a stunning finish to the work.

We were so happy for our clients, this restored chaise lounge was discarded by someone on the verge-side, ready for collection and has now been transformed into a family heirloom.

Can’t recommend him highly enough

Frank turned a free verge-side pick up into an incredible and unique piece of furniture which will last us 50 years and become a family heirloom. He’s also a genuine, lovely guy to deal with. Fantastic communication and incredibly quick turnaround time. Can’t recommend him highly enough. Absolutely beautiful work.

Angela
Beeliar W.A.

Restoring Furniture in Perth – Timberline Captain’s Chairs
ByFrank Parker

The History of Timberline Furniture in Western Australia

Timberline Furniture commenced operations in Perth WA with the factory being located in Willetton. The furniture manufacturing business was founded by Ron Jones and Hedley Van Der Straaten in the early 70’s and ran through to the mid 90’s with about 10 – 12 staff. Ron was a Wood-Turner by trade and managed operations with Hedley managing sales and general business. Timberline predominantly manufactured dining furniture but also made some lounge and occasional furniture. During the 80’s they entered into a collaborative venture with co-ordinated designs, Trustyle Furniture making the lounge suites, George’s Cabinets making the cabinetry and Timberline the dining suites. These co-ordinated furniture ranges were sold by furniture retailers throughout W.A.

Restoring Vintage Timberline Captain’s Chairs

Our clients were involved in furniture retailing and furniture transport for many decades and contacted us to re-upholster their Timberline ‘Captain’s Chairs’. These were a very popular occasional chair from the late 70’s and early 80’s not just in residential sales but they were also used in commercial hospitality applications.

Reupholstering the Captain’s Chairs

The chairs were originally upholstered in a Nylex ‘Deerhide’ vinyl which was a quality product in its days so we advised using a vinyl from the Austex ‘Studio’ as a quality replacement. The existing upholstery was completely removed, then the show-wood frames cleaned and polished. New high density foam was laminated onto the padded areas and the chairs were upholstered to the original finish with piped and space studded detail.

Our clients re-upholstered ‘Captain’s Chairs’ looked in place around their bar with complimentary comments passed over a few drinks.

Call us Today to Have Your Chairs Reupholstered

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Restoring Heritage Furniture
ByFrank Parker
The History

A gentleman approached us through a referral as he had a chair requiring restoration, it having been in his family since the 1860’s. The chair was described as a “Sewing Chair” and was apparently made in Victoria.

Our Clients Furniture Restoration Request

When clients are trusting you in restoring treasured family furniture we are driven by a responsibility to exceed their expectations. This was the case when we were given the task of restoring a “Sewing Chair” made in Victoria during the 1860’s.

The upholstery had been removed and the frame had been partially sanded back. It appears to have been constructed from Victorian Mountain Ash with the timber in good condition but the joints were extremely loose.

How Our Upholsterers Reupholstered the Chair

We followed the following steps carefully:
Knocked apart the chair frame

Drill out the broken dowels

Re-dowelled the joints using a crosslinking PVA

Victorian Ash corner blocks were fitted

Paint stripper was used on the show-wood sections of the chair frame

It was carefully sanded

The frame was originally stained a dark “Oak” tone so this was replicated

Three coats of 30% gloss lacquer was applied and the

Frame received a final light rub with super fine steel wool.
Traditional methods were utilised with the foundation upholstery. Jute webbing was fitted to the seat and coil springs laced into place with jute webbing also fitted onto the back with a hessian overlay. The coil springs were tied down and a hessian overlay fitted with a thumb roll on the seat front and side edges. Then modern techniques were used fabricating the padding using high density foam and polyester overlays. An Australian made fabric was selected for the upholstery covering featuring a small over-all pattern with the blue tone contrasting well against the stained oak frame.

This job did exceed our client’s expectations with the following testimonial.
Frank, thanks so much, chair is amazing
Frank, thanks so much, chair is amazing. My sister will get her piano stool restoration done by you mate. Warren reckons it’s just brilliant. Well done Frank.
Paul
Bridgetown W.A.
Call us Today to Have Your Heritage Furniture Restored
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