Oliver’s Upholstery

By Frank 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!

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    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.

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  • Sentimental Furniture For Years

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    Our client still insisted the furniture be restored and this was now going to be a collaborative operation. Our friend from Eachells Fine Furniture was engaged to replace the rotten carved timber rails. He ascertained the species of Eastern States Eucalypt used in construction so replacements would look identical. The resurrected timber frames were then polished looking like original.

    Our client still insisted the furniture be restored and this was now going to be a collaborative operation. Our friend from Eachells Fine Furniture was engaged to replace the rotten carved timber rails. He ascertained the species of Eastern States Eucalypt used in construction so replacements would look identical. The resurrected timber frames were then polished looking like original.

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    A local Perth client approached us who had acquired quality pieces of furniture during the 1960’s and 70’s but was having to downsize and could only take her favourite two Moran chairs purchased new in 1972.

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    The Moran story started with John Moran completing his upholstery apprenticeship then starting John Moran Furniture in 1950 at his mother’s garage then shifting to a rented factory. Moran Furniture grew over the decades providing furniture for several generations of Australians.

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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.

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