Stories

  • Upholstery Up-cycling

    ByFrank Parker

    Over the decades we have found considerable change in consumer sentiment towards reducing waste and up-cycling furniture. This tends to mainly occur with furniture that is built to last but the design has become out dated over time. Unfortunately lower quality furniture after several years of use ends up on verge collections, unnecessarily depleting resources and contributing to the landfill problem.  

    A client approached us with a Moran sofa-bed she had purchased many years ago as a student as she required both a sofa and some were to sleep. This was well constructed and the bed action was very good condition warranting re-upholstery.

    We completely removed the existing upholstery and laminated new high density foam padding to the frame body. Then fabricated new polyester filled channelled and quilted back cushion inserts and new polyester encased premium foam seat cushion inserts. The upholstery finish was modified deleting the skirts and replacing them with piped borders. The result was a smart contemporary sofa-bed which will function for another few decades.

    We were also approached by a senior citizens home with quality furniture however it had become outdated over time and was also looking slightly tired. We suggested the settees could be re-styled with some cosmetic changes to the upholstery.

    The settees were stripped to the frames then new heavy grade elastic webbing fitted and high density foam laminated to the body work. New channelled and quilted polyester filled back cushion inserts were fabricated and polyester encased premium foam seat cushions were also constructed. The main change in the upholstery was the deletion of skirts which was replaced in the front by a padded piped border with the outside arms and backs also then lined and padded providing a plush finish. The previous fabric was a striped satin weave and was replaced with a fresh looking abstract floral in a flat weave. The clients were elated with the result!

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  • Ercol Furniture – upholster

    ByFrank Parker

    Ercol Furniture was established in 1920 by Lucian Ercolani in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire manufacturing timber framed lounge furniture and occasional furniture. In 1944 Ercol was awarded a contract by the Government Board of Trade to produce 100 000 low cost spindled/bentwood framed chairs. This involved a process the company developed of steam pressing English Elm so the chairs could be assembled from pre-formed components.

    In 2002 Ercol moved into a purpose built factory at Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire. The company has gone on to produce many award winning ranges of furniture. Like many western countries, the UK has in more recent years also had a reversion back to purchasing from local manufacturers.

    A client from the Peel region approached us requiring a quote to have her Ercol lounge suite re-furbished. The furniture was originally purchased by her parents in the UK prior to her birth in Australia. There had been some rather amateur attempts to both polish and re-upholster this suite which has the effect of adding to the work involved.

    We removed all the upholstery and stripped back the lacquer to bare timber. The frame was then stained a mid-tone walnut and coated with three coats of 30% gloss lacquer. Quality seat webbing was then fitted and then we fabricated premium foam cushioning laminating it with bonded polyester fibre. We disregarded the old cushion covers and made new patterns bringing everything back to original with a blue tone fabric featuring a wide abstract diamond pattern being selected by our client.

    When delivering the furniture the look on our client’s face said it all, she simply said “Amazing!” This just reinforces our factory philosophy ‘work hard and enjoy the journey’.

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  • Oliver’s Upholstery

    ByFrank 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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