A Global Warming Recliner

Most recliners nowadays consume 6 to 10 yards of fabric.  I was able to restore this old time design with just 3 yards.  The wooden frame design is thin and designed to last a hundred years or more. The mechanics are not over engineered and built to last. And the piece is able to be re-upholstered and designed to be so.

I tapped open the back frame corners with blocks and re-glued them.

With all the finished wood, this frame hasn't had any attention paid to it in a long time. It cleaned up real nice.

The base came down to the bones.

The springs sure are in great shape for being 50 years older so.

Traditional burlap handsewn in on the edges.

Retained all of the natural horse hair.

And hand sewn the edges again

I added a bit of my virgin straw to go with it.

A nice fresh coat of cotton to top it off

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And a lining to set the stuffings. This so helps for everything to tailor up nice and clean.

And another thin coat of cotton on top of the lining.

The piping building and Main plate all Taylor cut up the center.

And again on the top of the inside and outside back.

I also reset some traditional decorative tacks on the outside back as original.

I'm The owner of this chair shows this great fabric to freshen up this old timer, chosen from my same day shipment fabrics.

What a great design recliner. Nothing over engineered here.

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Leather Bankers Chair & 1770's Bench

I have not seen a traditional old bankers chair in a very long time. I'm estimating this chair to be 80 years old, but could be another 20 older than that.

This was upholstered in a light red, this soft saddle brown we'll work up real sweet.

 With many decades of dust collected in the mechanism, a good cleaning is needed.

 Talk about some hefty mechanisms!

 The chair has a slight wobble to it as the top shaft has wear. 

Not a safety issue at all.

 The outside as well as the insides ,back and lined with a fresh coat of cotton.

 The backings are in really good shape but I added some strapping for a future Time.

 The down and feather seat cushion lining is in fantastic shape. I've seen these linings hold up hundred years solid.

I cut and sewed an extra cover out of down proof ticking.

From my in stock feathers and down I added some more to freshen the cushion up.

With a bottom plate for breathability.

 Decorative tacks chosen by the owner of from my in stock.

 The exposed wood cleaned up real nice with fine steel wool and Howard's restore a finish.

 With four new casters on the base, this chair is ready to roll for a few more generations.

1770's Bench

This  piece is really an old timer. It has really thin bones to it and is still in real solid shape.

It has worm wood holes which tells me it's was originally from Europe.

A real old timer this one.

 I got it all stripped down, lots of old tacks removed.

Fresh traditional burlap webbing of course.

 With traditional burlap on top of that.

 Replaced the back nosing.

 This horse hair is in the exact same shape it was when it was installed, who knows when.

 And a fresh thin coat of cotton.

You don't want to overstuff these old-timers.

 The customer supplied this awesome fabric.

                       This Picture below tells me that the piece was originally done in wicker.

 A couple pics of the hand made dowels.

It's a guess, but this could be a Rosewood frame.

 Clean straight lines.

Beautiful hand carved work on this one.

The woods finish was in need of attention. Find steel wool and Howard's restorer finish sure brought the woods back proper.

 Put this piece on light duty and it could go on for who knows how much longer!

Thanks for looking here!

Practical upholstery

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For North American upholstery shops!

Skirted, Button Back, Barrel Chair Set

This pair was originally created in 1968 or so.

With the barrel back, Full skirts, set in buttoned back cushions this pair is go to keep me on my toes.
As well as end cut 24 inch pattern.
This set used up a full 18 yards with no wasted fabric at all.

After removing lots of staples in tacks to get nice clean lines a frame inspection shows 50 years and this frame is still in great shape.

 The support strapping for the inside backs are different on each chair Time to pair them up properly.

 The outside arms still in good shape, but reinforced for generations to come.

Fresh cotton is a must throughout the reupholstery process.

 Fresh cotton underneath the decking handsewn in.

 A thin coat of cotton on the inside arms also.

 A good shop cleanup halfway through fitting the frames.

 The outsides are we enforced with webbing and a heavy weight upholstery fabric to help with Tailor up properly and not to bruise.

 Thin coat of cotton.

Mirror cut and set, of course.
With steam pressed seams.

 Quite a bit of stitching on these two t-cushions.
The present foam is of such good quality & so much life left, I steamed them back to original shape. There is no labor charges for freshening up the seat cushions for life, if they ever start looking lazy.

 Mirror cut and sewn Seat cushions looking from the top.

 And front

 And side

Skirts are always a challenge I made them an extra inch longer than the previous ones.

Backed & lined.

Sewn to the welting.

 mirror cut and set.

 l

Exact same tailoring on both fronts

From the seat cushion

To the decking

And the skirt.

 The design of the set in buttoned back cushion was definitely an advanced one.

Lots of tailoring and patterning to get these put up properly.

 Pairs of chairs are so nice!

Thanks for looking here!
Designed & tailored by David Whiton Vose.

Practical upholstery

The number one blog in all of blogdom

For  North American upholstery shops!