Stories

  • Reupholstery of Jarvi Furniture Lounge

    ByFrank Parker

    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

  • 1960’s American Sofa-Bed

    ByFrank Parker
    Sofa Bed Reupholstery Perth

    1960’s American Sofa Bed Restoration

    It started with a home consultation for our client

    A couple contacted us saying that they had just retired and had shifted into an inner city town house in Perth and they were wondering whether to rejuvenate or dispose of their sofa-bed. We immediately organised a home consultation to see the condition of their sofa-bed.

    This is the sofa-bed’s history

    Upon inspection of this sofa-bed it became apparent that it was made in the U.S in 1968. The frame was constructed from solid American Oak. The sofa-bed action was manufactured by Windsor of Canada who are renowned for their high quality mechanical componentry which tended to be over engineered and will subsequently last the decades. The result was with such a robust frame and action the sofa-bed was to be re-upholstered.

    The restoration process

     We removed the sofa-bed action and stripped the existing upholstery to the frame. The upholstery fabric selected by our client was similar to the original cover so it was guaranteed suitable. The cushion inserts were down and feather so we encased these in a bonded polyester fibre and replaced all the body padding with high density foam. We basically used the same upholstery techniques but tidied up the finish including doing the skirt in three sections to match the back cushions.

    Happy clients of Parker Interiors

    The final result is fine and yet functional sofa-bed superbly rejuvenated for our clients to enjoy for many years into the future.

    Call us Today for Sofa-Bed Reupholstery

  • Problems with re-upholstering your old lounge suite

    ByFrank Parker

    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