Don Rex Furniture – Restoration

By Frank Parker

don rex furniture
don rex chairs
don rex furniture

Don Rex was a Brisbane based furniture manufacturer operating from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. They primarily manufactured Danish influenced designs now commonly referred to as mid-century furniture. Don Rex Furniture was renowned for utilising native hardwoods and high quality craftsmanship. Given this their refined designs are sought after by mid-century enthusiasts today.

Our business has always been focused on helping private clients with their upholstered furniture requirements and we value the constant stream of referrals. However as restored ‘mid-century’ furniture has gained popularity we have commenced working with several discerning furniture dealers. Working with these mid-century furniture dealers has introduced us to this brand of chairs, including Don Rex dining chairs and Don Rex armchairs. As they were only a medium sized manufacturer and based in Brisbane there is not a significant amount of this furniture brand circulating in W.A.

The Don Rex chairs we have restored have been soundly constructed and only occasionally requiring the frame joints to be re-glued. The frames are then sanded back then either lacquered or oiled depending upon client requirements. New cushion inserts are always fabricated from premium foam and wrapped with bonded polyester fibre. The chairs are always upholstered to the original finish which is not necessarily the way they arrive if they have been previously re-upholstered.

It is pleasing to see many younger clients purchasing this restored mid-century furniture. This displays the timeless quality of the designs but maybe more importantly young people turning away from a throw-away society.

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    TH Brown chair
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    Thomas Howard Brown in 1911 formed Brown Brothers Wholesale Chair Manufacturers based in Adelaide. They grew rapidly supplying furniture and department stores, then in 1942 became T.H. Brown & Sons. The business continued to grow and became one of Australia’s largest furniture manufacturers. With the death of Thomas in 1964 his sons Napier and Peter continued to expand the business with interstate manufacturing. In 1987 with the retirement of Peter the business was sold to Work Space Commercial Furniture. Thomas’s grandson Simon joined the business in 2015 forming a joint operation to re-launch some of T H Brown’s signature mid-century furniture.

    These classic T H Brown occasional chairs were supplied to us for restoration through a well known mid-century furniture retailer. The chairs had previously been poorly repaired so they were stripped to the bare frames. The frame joints were repaired then all surfaces sanded back, stained and three coats of low sheen lacquer applied. The chairs were fitted with quality elastic webbing and premium foam cushioning profiled then polyester fibre laminated. The small pattern textured upholstery fabric selected was carefully matched during cutting and sewing.

    The overall effect with the timber stain tone and upholstery fabric selected gave a slightly modern touch to the restored mid-century chair. However the most important point is that this furniture restoration bought joy to our client.

    • Parker’s restored these pieces so perfectly

      I am very blessed . . . Brendan suggested buying these two chairs for my office from Benskys Vintage. Naomi Baron chose some fabulous fabric and Parker’s restored these pieces so perfectly. Customer (me) extremely happy thank you.
      Vivienne
      Dianella W.A.
    Call us Today to Have Your Timeless Furniture Restored
  • Re-upholstery of a Jason Recliner Chair

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    Transforming the Classic Jason Recliner

    Jason recliner chairs are an iconic piece of Australian furniture valued for their quality craftsmanship and durability, making them sought after to this day. This restoration aimed to preserve the chair’s structure for future generations to come.

    The Origin of Jason Recliners

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    • The chair was completely stripped and the mechanism cleaned and lubricated
    • The show-wood rocker base and the turned wing sections were sanded and re-lacquered dark walnut
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    • New high density padding was laminated onto the body
    • New polyester encased premium cushioning was fabricated and
    • The chair was then re-upholstered to the same finish in an English Heritage Linen
    This chair was also of sentimental value as it previously belonged to our client’s father. We wish her many years of memorable moments in this special chair.
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  • Restoring a Tessa Lounge Suite

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    The History of Tessa Furniture

    Tessa Furniture was originally known as Twen commencing manufacturing in 1968 then adopted the name Tessa in 1970. Tessa was formed by Fred Lowen, his brother Howard Lindsey and design technician Sigi Danielzik. Prior to this Fred Lowen had undertaken furniture with Earnest Rodeck in the mid 1950’s having formed FLER which was sold in 1967. Tessa expanded operations during the 1970’s to become a national business with international links.  

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    A Complete Restoration Was Needed

    We were contacted by a client saying they had rescued a Tessa lounge suite requiring restoration. Upon initial inspection it was obvious the lounge suite had been re-upholstered involving poor workmanship and damage. Our clients decided to progress with the job which was going to be a complete restoration.

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    Tessa Chair Before Restoration Perth
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    We dismantled the lounge suite discarding all the upholstery cushioning and padding. Due to previous poor workmanship, we first replaced the ply outside back panels.

    • The frame rails were then re-glued and screwed with new end cap panels fabricated from 18mm ply to replace the fractured existing panels.
    • All the show-wood components were dismantled with the arm frames being re-glued.
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    Repair of Tessa Furniture Chair Before Perth WA
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    How We Finished Reupholstering the Tessa Lounge Suite

    The chair seats were fitted with a superior grade elastic webbing and the frames laminated with high-density foam padding. Polyester filled channelled and quilted back cushion inserts were fabricated along with polyester wrapped laminated premium foam seat cushion inserts.

    The furniture was upholstered in Tasman Tanning ‘Matisse Black’ leather. The upholstery finish was back to the original Tessa T1 finish including large panel cuts and the top-stitching detail.

    Quality Reupholstered Tessa Lounge Chair Perth WA

    Our clients were overwhelmed with the finished lounge suite our team restored, the frame had been stained to match the Cedar architraves and stairs and with the black leather upholstery it looked stunning in the lounge room. We would like to thank our clients for having the foresight in rescuing this classic Australian lounge suite.


    Contact Us to Have Your Much Loved Lounge Suite Restored
    • Frank and his team were extremely thorough, and the restoration is a masterpiece


      So pleased to have made the decision to trust Parker Interiors with the restoration of our ugly duckling Tessa suite I rescued from it’s inevitable fate. Frank and his team were extremely thorough, and the restoration is a masterpiece. The photos speak for themselves, I am so pleased with the outcome. Thank you, Frank.

       
      Monica
      Gnangara WA   
       
  • Restoring Fler Furniture

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    Background of Fler Furniture

    Fler Furniture was founded by Fred Lowen and Earnest Rodeck in 1946 and ran through until 1968 producing iconic designs now referred to as ‘mid-century’ furniture. Featured in this article are the Fler D71 ‘Norsk Divan’ and the E71 chair purchased from a Perth furniture retail store in 1960.

    Our Clients Furniture Request

    Our client contacted us saying she had furniture purchased by her parents in 1960 from a Perth furniture retailer. This furniture was then given to her daughter by the grandparents when she set up home then her daughter had the furniture re-upholstered in the late 1980’s. When this furniture was re-upholstered the upholstery design was altered and finished to a very poor standard. Her mother recently took back this furniture and wanted it restored to original condition and finish.

    How We Reupholstered The Fler Furniture

    The divan and chairs were completely disassembled including the timber frame components.

    The timber components were sanded back with the oversized fixing holes and dents filled with two pack resin then reassembled using a crosslinking PVA.

    The frames were then stained to the original timber tone and three coats of 30% gloss lacquer was applied then finished with a rub of superfine steel wool.

    New cushion inserts fabricated from premium foam with polyester overlays now conformed to the original dimensions. The fabric selected by our client was a sage velvet having a semi-crushed effect with the upholstery also detailed to the original finish.

    The Restored Mid-Century Furniture

    The result spoke for itself and our client was absolutely delighted with her restored mid-century furniture taking her back to childhood days.

    See more of our high quality furniture restorations.

    Call us Today
  • Our Restoration of a Manhattan Lounge Chair

    Reupholster Manhattan Chair
    Reupholster Manhattan Chair

    The Origin of Guy Rodgers

     The ‘Manhattan’ lounge chair was manufactured by Guy Rodgers of Liverpool. They were the largest and most well known makers of contemporary upholstered furniture, in the U.K. during the 1960’s. Their designs were all named after prominent U.S destinations. The Manhattan was the most popular Guy Rodgers style designed by Eric Phamphilon and George Fejer.

    Our Clients Story

    We were contacted by a client who we had previously reupholstered a lounge suite for. She explained that she had a single lounge chair remaining from her parent’s divan suite, brought over from the U.K when the family emigrated. She now wanted 
    to have the chair completely restored for her son and his family.

    Transforming the Chair

    The Reupholstering Process

    1. We removed all the existing upholstery and dismantled the timber frame. – the stained and lacquered surfaces were carefully sanded back. It revealed that the chair was constructed from solid Afromosia, an African timber bearing similar characteristics to Teak. 
    2. After the preparations had been completed the timber frame was stained a mid-tone walnut and lacquered with a 30% gloss to the original finish. 
    3. Completely new cushioning was fabricated from laminated premium foams then wrapped with bonded polyester fibre to replicate the seating comfort.
    4. The upholstery fabric selected by our client was a plain blue chenille, Wortley ‘Domo Capri’. This was reupholstered differently to the previous upholstery but was tailored to replicate the original finish
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    Our client told us her daughter in-law was ecstatic when collecting the chair and that her son also treasured the chair. These jobs are more than a monetary undertaking, we are trusted with family heirlooms just like this chair everyday – which are more valuable. 


    • “Looks Absolutely Brand New”


      This chair was part of a three-piece suite bought by my mother at a furniture store in Watford, Hertfordshire in the 1950’s. My parents were just a normal working-class 
       family with not much cash left before the next pay day, but we needed a new three- piece. Mum and I in the exciting outing finished up in the hoop which I believe was Calle Grange. We both fell in love with this particular suite, which was quite pricey. We committed to paying for the suite on hire purchase, paying a deposit then paid a fixed amount on a regular basis until it was fully paid. It was a rather unusual suite, the settee could become a single bed simply by turning the back over. The back panel was hollow designed for storing the bedding. We brought this suite with us when we immigrated to Perth in 1981. Mum had 
       it re-covered at some stage then after several years she decided it wasn’t needed and only kept one chair. When she passed my son said he would like the chair which 
       now required serious attention. Having seen the excellent job Parker Interiors had done in re-covering my armchairs Christopher asked them to restore this chair. Everything was done to perfection including the timber parts being restored and polished. In fact, it looks absolutely brand new and strangely enough the original upholstery was blue. Thank you all the craftsmen that had a hand in the restoration of a much-loved family heirloom, one that holds many treasured memories.
       

       
      Valerie
      Morley W.A. 
    Call us Today to Get Your Precious Family Furniture Transformed

  • Danish Deluxe – Restoration

    Danish Deluxe commenced operations in 1958 and was located at a series of factories in Huntingdale Victoria. The business was founded by Neville Ashkanasy, John Westacott and Borg Gjorstvang with most of the designing done in house however they also manufactured under licence. Danish Deluxe utilised moulded polystyrene frames to which they had an exclusive licence in Australia. The business grew rapidly reaching national distribution by 1968 and ceased operations in the early 1980’s. 

    Our client who has had a long term involvement and is well known in the local furniture manufacturing industry approached us regarding restoring a Danish Deluxe ‘Trina’ lounge suite. He had been going to restore the furniture for years however it only reached the dismantled stage. He had noticed another ‘Trina’ lounge suite displayed on our social media which we had also recently restored for another well-known Perth furniture family.

    This job was to be given the works so the timber base frames were first sanded then glued using two-pack resin and clamped overnight. The frames were then given another light sand and stained a blended Oak/Walnut returning the timber to its original colour. Then three coats of lacquer were applied with a light sand between coats then a final rub down with super fine steel wool returning bringing the frame back to the original mid-century finish.

    The arms were upholstered using a beautiful full-aniline leather which was top-stitched and moulded well to the polystyrene arms. The internal frames were knocked apart, glued and screwed then linked zig-zag springs fitted to the bases and quality elastic webbing fitted to the back frames. The back and seat carcases were also then upholstered in leather. Replacement seat and back cushion inserts were fabricated using premium foam and then encasing with bonded polyester fibre. The head-rest cushions featured quilted polyester filled inserts providing a more rounded and soft finish. The cushions were upholstered in a similar colour wool but the variation in covering textures displayed a classic mid-century finish.

    This suite restored about five and a half decades after manufacturing now resides in a mid-century Fremantle home. We trust it will now endure another five decades.

    • We are thrilled with the contrast and finish

      Hi Frank  – Alicia and I would like to thank you and your staff for the fantastic craftsmanship that you have done to revive our 1966 Danish Deluxe 3-seater and chairs. 
      I was given the furniture 15 years ago and never had the heart to throw it away. This has been restored to new with the Aniline leather on the base and wool cushions from Kvadrat Maharam on the seat cushion. Both the leather and fabric I have also had for several years, and we are thrilled with the contrast and finish.
       
      Once again, we greatly appreciate the great service and quality of work and comfortable lounge suite now to enjoy.
      Shaun & Alicia
      Fremantle W.A.
    Call us Today