Pair of Ribbed-Back Arm Chairs - Checkered Black & Beige

Here is a pair of arm chairs we did a short while ago. They were still covered in the original fabric, which was at one point a light mint green & gold. The green had faded away, and the fabric was quite worn. In addition, the client wanted the wood refinished.

Before:









Once the frames were stripped and sanded, the client decided that she liked the frames as-is, with just a clear coat.



Here's one of the only "in-between" photos I took. It shows a mostly finished chair, with new webbing on the curved back for strength.



The original seat cushion padding was quite poor (a mix of shredded foam and cotton bits), and we replaced those with new foam.

NOTE: From a distance, the camera gives the fabric a really odd look because of the tight pattern (a basket weave in black and beige). For better photos of what the fabric looks like, scroll down to the photos of the individual chair.

Pair of Ribbed-Back Chairs - Dark Orange/Brown

I was quite surprised that 2 more of these chairs dropped into our shop for re-upholstery. If you remember back in September, we worked on two identical chairs, which were refinished in a dark brown, and got an interesting brown & blue fabric over them. You can see those here: http://lefebvreupholstery.blogspot.ca/2013/09/pair-of-arm-chairs-modern-grey.html.

These two chairs were in similar (poor) condition. The owners wanted new (foam) stuffing, and we had to completely repair the frames. The owner also needed a colour and pattern that would match with her other pieces, so after a lot of back-and-forth between several options, she chose this nice orangey-brown patterned fabric, which matches well with the Birch frames, as well as with her existing sofa, etc.

Before:

Note the back, which is all lumpy, since the last person changed the chairs from having a ribbed back to a plain back. They didn't add enough stuffing to properly even-out everything.







While dis-assembling the chairs, we found an interesting repair, using an old box of Bostich staples. We had a similar box on hand.



The old stuffing on these (as with the previous pair) was mostly straw, with some cotton.



One of the two chairs disassembled.



Reassembled:



New webbing and burlap.



New foam and Terylene:





The original "tubes" of cotton stuffing for the back ribs were still there, and we reused them with some fresh cotton added where needed. The ribbed backs with the accent buttons (as it was done originally) really adds a lot of nice detail to these chairs.

Here they are, all done, and ready for many more years of service.

Pair of Arm Chairs - Modern Grey-Blue/Brown Floral

These were very interesting chairs to work on. At first glance, they didn't seem very old, but when I was dismantling them, we made several interesting discoveries...

First, here were the chairs "as received". They were both upholstered in an old textured fabric in two different colours.





The sagging was due to both seats having essentially "caved in" (see farther down).







We were not surprised to find that the previous upholsterer had just covered over the old fabric...



Both on the seat, and on the back.





A repair on both chairs had been attempted on the underside. One had this old 100LB bag of sugar...





A quick search reveals that this bag is actually a Redpath sugar bag, with most of the red ink faded.



The other had this old table cloth with decorative pom-pom details.





Both collapsed seats looked like this from the bottom. The burlap and ties on both sides had torn away, and the stuffing on both edges of the seats was being pushed into the bottom of the chairs. Note that these were stuffed with straw and cotton.



The client wanted the chair frames to be painted a dark brown/black colour. These were the stripped frames ready for spraying.



The seat portions were redone with foam, rather than the old straw and lumpy cotton, and the backs were entirely rebuilt from scratch (NOT covered over the old ones). These were re-stuffed with the existing cotton rolls. New buttons were made in the same fabric (the old ones were mismatched clothing buttons).