Stories

  • Restoration of Club Lounge

    ByFrank Parker
    Reupholster Club Lounge Perth

    What we generally recognise as Australian styled ‘club lounges’ were made from the late 1920’s through to the mid 1950’s. This design was not uniquely Australian however it was very popular in Australia during this era and the suite featured is typical of this period however many variations were available.

    These lounge suites all featured the wide arms, usually with timber trays and bases but some also had decorative timber trim on the arm facings. The upholstery finishes were also available in a wide variation of finishes. This included cord trim, contrast piping and raised panel patterns on the inside backs.

    A client approached us who is from a prominent furniture manufacturing family to restore their ‘club lounge’. This club lounge was not a family heirloom but a design from the era they had always found interesting and destined for their retirement home. It is always an honour to be asked by a contemporary to restore a favourite piece of furniture however the expectations are always as equally high.

    We stripped the 3 seater and 2 chairs down to the bare frames, removed the show-wood components then screwed the joints together. The timber arm trays were so badly damaged leaving us with no option than to completely replace them however the front base strips were sanded back and re-used have receiver three coats of lacquer.

    The bases and backs were re-webbed with jute webbing then the coil springs laced in, tied down and covered with heavy weight hessian. We then used synthetic ‘thumb roll’ to build up the edges and laminated layers of premium foam over the bases, arms and inside backs until the desired shapes were achieved. Flutes were sewn into the inside back covers and the suite was trimmed with contrast piping. The seat cushion inserts were fabricated by laminating various densities of premium foam then encasing them with bonded polyester fibre. The outside arms and outside backs were all lined padded providing a superior finish.

    The result was that we had brought furniture made about 80 years ago back to life. We trust the new owners will receive many years of enjoyable use of their furniture. However from a trade persons perspective we often wonder, what would those who originally made the furniture think of it now?

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  • Ramada Furniture – Reupholster

    ByFrank Parker

    Ramada Furniture commenced operations in the mid 1980’s and was owned by Graham and Justin Davies. Graham also owned Leather House a successful furniture retail business specialising in the sale of leather lounge furniture. His son Justine operated the factory in Canning Vale which took over a large purpose built factory from another lounge furniture manufacturer Stylecraft which had ceased operations.

    Grahame Davies sold Leather House in the early 2000’s and Ramada Furniture was subsequently sold to Lawrence Barnard. Lawrence also owned Featureline which locally manufactured more budget priced lounge furniture. He then operated the combined businesses wholesaling lounge furniture to the WA retail trade.  However due a changing market and the onslaught of inferior but cheaper imported lounge furniture the combined business failed after about 3 years.

    A couple approached us who were renovating their home which required updating their furniture. They were however mindful regarding waste and wanted to up-cycle as much as possible. They had purchased Ramada two leather lounge chairs and a footstool about thirty years ago which were looking seriously dated and if possible wanted them rejuvenated in fabric.

    We completely removed the existing upholstery from the two chairs and footstool then started the re-upholstery process fitting new heavy grade elastic webbing. High density foam was then laminated to the frame bodies and new polyester encased premium foam cushion inserts were fabricated. The lounge furniture was then carefully re-upholstered to original finish except the seat cushions were now reversible.

    Our clients were absolutely delighted with the result of their up-cycling. The chairs and footstool have again taken pride of place in their renovated upstairs sitting area.

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  • Custom Upholstery

    ByFrank Parker

    This custom-made dining lounge was designed and manufactured by a cabinet making firm then upholstered by a local upholstery business. The frame was well designed and constructed however there were continual substantial issues with the upholstery. Unfortunately this is something that occurs to often in our industry. 

    A client approached us saying she had a custom-made dining lounge and there were substantial issues with the upholstery and she had given up trying to negotiate any solution with this upholstery business. The entire front edge of the seat had collapsed and buttons which she did not want but were initiated by the upholstery firm had ‘popped’. Our client engaged us to completely re-upholster this dining lounge.

    We completely removed the existing upholstery and discovered the problems causing the clients concerns. The previous upholsterers had used high quality foam on the seat however they had used a water based contact adhesive to which there are still major application problems and is was simply just not effective. Also the reason they had to place buttons into the seat and back panels was that the patterns were not true to the frame sizes causing the cushions to distort.

    We started from scratch making templates true to the frame then fabricated premium cushioning and laminated it with bonded polyester fibre. The cushion covers were then carefully marked with sewing indicators and sewn to shape as such large panels can either be stretched or gathered. The lounge was then upholstered with minimal effort as the fabric covers fitted perfectly.

    The result was that our client was absolutely overwhelmed with the result and we have since received repeat work from her. This just goes to show that quality work is always the best form of advertising and everyone is a winner.

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