New England Safe House

These two are the leader of the pack to a set of eleven Jacobean dining chairs.

The set reside in a beautiful casual country safe house nestled in a secret location in the mountains of New England. 

These two have arrived in my shop since it has been a while since they have had any attention.

"I know a guy" who happened to stop in while I was cracking' on these pieces.

He placed these as a very nicely done jacobean set.  The originals were created in the 1600's.

These sure have plenty of age, but not back that far.

They are in nice solid shape with no play in the joints at all.

Solid oak wood which is amazing when considering all the ornate carving.

Below note all the stippling (holes) throughout.

 And hand made pegs and joints throughout the chair.

 The narrow blocks and no coil springs really date these back in time as well as the oxidization of the wood inside the base.

 Flying cherubs holding up a crown with triple triangles.

There is just over a half an inch tack line to upholster the outside back plate & inside back plate & gimp.

Squared off circles.

 The horse hair dusted out & trimmed.

 The old cotton discarded & new fresh cotton applied.

 Looking all the while for strait clean crisp lines all the way through applying the gimp with hot melt glue.

After removing the old base fabric & cotton, inspecting & adding more horse hair from my shop "bone yard".

 It's all about keeping these pieces proper. Any excessive crown on the seat base will ruin this job, 

in my humble opinion.

Just right, is right.

Time to work a full coat of cotton & the finish fabric.

I say I've been in the school of hard knocks for a long time to get the corner cuts crisp clean & wrinkle free.

 And the piping as well, to trim out the seat bases as before.

 No inexpensive dust cover on these old timers.

 Keep those circles squared away.

More pics of the awesome carvings.

 The arm caps all carefully mirror set of course.

 Lets enjoy a few more carving pics

 Ready to go back to their safe house.

Thanks for looking!

Practical Upholstery

The #1 blog in all of blogdom

for North American upholstery shops.

Spring base restoration

This love seat and chair set in units sure got some age to them.

The longer bench was totally warped out and the owner re-made another and set the springs in also.

Sure did a nice job.

 Old timers deserve traditional build up as much as practical.

Hand sewn the front lines to the spring rail.

 This 3/4 inch decking pad sure smooths out the spring base for a smooth sitting experience.

And hand sewn around all 4 sides of both bases.

 I "know a guy" that supplies me with the cleanest cotton batting around!

The right amount is key to this job coming out beyond criticism.

 The front lines set strait without any waves.

 The corners nice and full, with no scalloping.

Upholstery is such an inexact science.

Sure did some head work to get the design cuts right so they are looking sharp for years to come.

The seam in the back, exactly in the center.

And the front line crisp and strait as possible.

 And "topped off" with cleanly set dust covers.

And after a good inspection, a nice wrap to protect, until these pieces rejoin the main frames.

Thanks for looking!

Practical Upholstery

The #1 blog in all of blogdom

For small town North American upholstery shops!

Labor Day Wing Backs

I acquired after a country ride through the woods of New Hampshire.

With customer supplied krill velvet.

 With double rolled arms, setting all four arms the same is important.

The outsides all backed & lined with natural cotton.

Cotton is so nice to give soft sounds in the room where these chairs reside.

They sure looked nice under the lights over the long weekend at night.

 The wood cleaned up nicely.

Velvet is always a challenge to tailor up.

Any discrepancy will jump out at your eye.

 The pair of seat cushions tailored up with improvements made to the pattern.

 Custom deep fitted surged arm covers.

 After a final look over and wrap the seat cushions.

This pair is ready to serve.

The owner got 14 yards for these large wing backs.

There is 1/2 yard to spare.

Thanks for looking!