Upholstered Mirrored Wing Backs

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Fabric chosen by the owners from my fabric library.

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New Hampshire Upholstery Antique Restoration

The chair on the right is the subject at hand.

Probably been 50 years that this chair has been serving.

Try that at your corporate box store furniture outlet.

 I see very few broken coil springs in my work, but this chair had one to replace.

Removal of lots of tacks throughout this piece & new traditional webbing on the bottom base.

 Hand tied coil springs, of course.

 Then tradition calls now for a coat of burlap.

 After dusting out the straw, reset.

 With a stock in house of horsehair, to add where needed.

 Hand sewn nosing, twice.

Then a rich full coat of cotton.

 With all the stuffings set in place, ready for final fabric to be tailored up.

 And a thin coat between the lining & top coat of in stock fabric.

The goal is to build the base up like a drum.

 The inside back reinforced with 7 strips of webbing.

 The wood freshened up with Howards restore-a-finish.

And this chair is ready for a long run.

Thanks for looking!

1850's Rocker Set

This pair of rockers have been on Mount Monadnock for well over 140 years.

The frame had a broken stringer which I sent out for repair.

Below shows the pieces returned and the frames inspected & ready for upholstery restoration.

I sure try to keep modern materials away from these classics.

 I start with traditional burlap webbing. Set just right.

 And then a coat of heavy burlap.

 The owner chose an in stock soft green upholstery fabric from my fabric library.

All the original horse hair saved & reset.

 Then a coat of fresh natural cotton.

 And then a liner set on top of the stuffings.

 And another coat on top of the liner. & the base seats are ready for final fabric.

And fresh stuffings for the inside back.

 And the best dust cover material money can buy.

 With a matching gimp ordered to set clean.

 These old timers are in great shape for their age.

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Upholstery New Hampshire Style

This couple has some really nice lines and size.  There are a lot of smaller frame wing backs with shy wings.  These are a great example of a pair of wing backs with good size and lines.

 After pulling lots of layers of staples and tacks, and freshened up the exposed wood.  Time to plot and cut a nice soft cherry color fabric that has a width of 108 inch width that came from a custom fabric house in San Francisco.

 Fresh cotton really helps set this pair up for years to come.

 These double rolled arms sure take a lot of tailoring.

Same with the wings.

The fabric is soft & subtle but sure shows any tailoring flaw.

 Lots of angles to these sleek wings.  A common mistake made by upholsterers is to overstuff the frame which loses the lines made by the frame builder.

 Backed & lined outsides help keep ones living area quiet.

 Nice clean complex intersections.

 Wing backs.

The best daily chair designed hundreds of years ago & still #1.

Thanks for looking!