Leather Furniture Repair

By Frank Parker

leather furniture repair perth
leather furniture repair perth

This leather is an exceptionally high quality semi-aniline leather used to upholster a beautiful contemporary settee. The client thought that the scarring was excessive and considered them as leather imperfections. With this type of rustic look natural leather defects are acceptable and indeed considered a feature. However scarring where the surface is broken can be seen as a type of leather damage and should be confined to inconspicuous areas of the upholstery.

This was a case in which the client complained with possible good reason. The manufacture should have been more prudent with the leather cutting process and the furniture retailer should have better explained the natural features of rustic semi-aniline leather to the client. Fortunately this settee was made in Australia and both the manufacturer and retailer acted quickly  to rectify the problem resulting in a happy ending!

Similar Posts

  • Re-styled 1940’s chairs

    Occasionally clients are unhappy with the style of the chairs presented to us for repair and re-upholstery. This can be as a result of either initial design flaws, poor re-upholstery or poor reconstruction as a result of previous damage or sometimes a combination of these factors. The idea is not necessarily to bring a chair back its purest original form but occasionally compromise with slight re-styling to compliment the client’s décor.

    These two 1940’s chairs were presented to us by a client as they had been passed down to her through the family. She wanted the chairs to be re-upholstered however she wanted the arms modified on one chair and the wings to be altered on the other chair. This re-styling was required partially due to initial design flaws but also due to past re-upholstery exaggerating these flaws.

    We completely stripped the existing upholstery on both chairs down to the bare frames. The top arms on one chair were then cut down to a cigar shaped arm in keeping with the design while the other chair had a plywood strip removed from the inside wings which improvised as a thumb roll. The two modified chair frames were then re-upholstered using a combination of traditional and contemporary methods.

    When these re-styled chairs were delivered to our client she was ecstatic with the outcome. We trust the chairs will be enjoyed and continued to be passed down to future generations.

    Call us Today
  • Ethen Allen Furniture – Reupholster

    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.

    What could we say, these recliner chairs looked like they had just been purchased from an Ethan Allen store forty five years ago! However the important thing was that our clients just loved their rejuvenated recliner chairs.

    Call us Today
  • 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.

    Call us Today to Get Your Furniture Reupholstered
  • 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.

    Call us Today
  • Problems with re-upholstering your old lounge suite

    Fixing up a previous reupholstery job

    This modular unit was manufactured by a local Perth, business ‘Farmer Furniture’ in the early 1980’s. It was re-upholstered 12 years ago however the clients had never been happy with the quality of the reupholstery job as it simply “did not feel like the old suite when new”.

    How we approached renewing this lounge suite

    We stripped the old upholstery from the modular frame. It revealed that the second layer of fabric had simply been placed over the initial fabric in which the suite was made. This style of reupholstery is very problematic. The issue is caused by the webbing, body padding and cushioning not being replaced resulting in this lounge furniture quickly returning to a dysfunctional state. Which is a waste of time and money for the owners.

    The next stage involved us:

    This process allowed us to modernise the upholstery finish without losing the authentic character of the lounge suite.

    The final result was a well finished and functional modular lounge this family will enjoy for many years into the future.

    Call us so we can help you reupholster your lounge suite
  • Tub Chair Reupholstery

    tub chairs perth

    These tub chairs were purchased three years ago from a leading WA furniture retailer. The clients paid a high price for these chairs which were sold to them as superior quality Italian made pieces of furniture. The manufacturing labels fixed under the chairs reveal they were made in China.

    The covering which is a very poor quality laminated fabric has delaminated in areas of wear. The frames can only be described as having been ‘slapped together’ by unskilled labour. The poor quality elastic seat webbing was breaking down and the low density foam collapsing.

    As part of the tub chair reupholstery process, a new seat frame was constructed from a single piece of structural grade plywood, laced with heavy duty elastic seat webbing then laminated with high density premium grade cushioning. The furniture recovering of these chairs was finished with a quality Australian made fabric.

    The end result was that the client spent about 70% of the initial purchase price to have their tub chair upholstery problems rectified. This makes a mockery of the old saying “the high purchase price is long forgotten but the bitterness of poor quality remains” as these clients were stung with a high purchase price and left with the bitter taste of poor quality. I guess the moral of the story is “buyer beware” so do your research prior to purchase and maybe look a bit closer to home!

    Call us Today