Stories

  • Re-upholster Charles Mackintosh chair

    ByFrank Parker

    A client approached us saying they had a ‘Mackintosh’ chair in desperate need of re-upholstery. They had purchased this lounge chair in the UK in the 1970’s and it had just been re-upholstered, they were told it was made about 1910 and was a Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) design reflecting the ‘Arts and Craft’ period.

    Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect and designer who played an important role in the turn of the century ‘Arts and Craft’ movement. He became interested in architecture at a young age and enrolled into the Glasgow School of Art at fifteen meeting the McNair children (marring one of the sisters). The foursome collaborated becoming renowned for their refined stylization of furniture. In 1889 Mackintosh became an apprentice at the architectural firm Honeyman Kreppie and was made a partner in 1901. He demonstrated a break from traditional Victorian design being influenced by Japanese and Celtic art. He was famously commissioned by Catherine Cranston to design the Willow Tearooms (Glasgow) interiors and furniture for which he developed the famous Argyle chair.

    We completely stripped the upholstery to the frame on this chair and judging from the construction techniques it coincides with the period. The chair was then re-sprung and completely re-upholstered being covered in a linen supplied by our clients.

    There is however something extremely strange regarding this chair? The construction techniques coincide with the with the ‘Arts and Craft’ period and the design coincides with the Mackintosh style of the period however from our research he never designed a fully upholstered lounge chair, only dining and occasional chairs with a few show-wood framed lounge chairs. Our client loved their rejuvenated chair and the mystery remains!

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  • Vince’s Upholstery – Reupholster

    ByFrank Parker

    We had previously reupholstered a Parker-Knoll 60’s wing back chair for a client who then requested us to reupholster two 2 ½ seater settees purchased in the early 80’s made by Vince’s Upholstery.

    Vince’s Upholstery was founded by Vince and Pina Scalisi who originally started the business from their home in East Perth making budget priced furniture. They progressed over time and became renowned for manufacturing top end custom-made lounge furniture from a purpose built factory in Morley.

    Our clients presented us with two identical looking 2 ½ seater settees however when we removed the fabric it became obvious they were purchased at different times as one settee featured a traditional sprung edge and the other a fabricated foam edge with different springs. The challenge was to reupholster the two settees so they both felt identical for comfort.

    We re-webbed the seats and fitted new coil springs of the same height and gauge then fabricated a foam edge on one settee to replicate the sprung edge of the other. We also replaced all existing hessian and body padding however the down and feather cushion inners were still in good condition so we encased these in 200g boned polyester fibre. The settees were reupholstered to the original finish in a cotton velvet then delivered to very happy clients!

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  • Cornwell Norton chairs – Reupholster

    ByFrank Parker

    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.

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