Lefebvre's Upholstery

Pair of Easy Chairs - Chinoiserie Navy Toile

Here are two simple chairs that Pierre had done years ago. The client wanted something new, and since these are now being used in a Travel business, she thought the Chinoiserie (oriental) toile was both beautiful, and appropriate. This project was done in August 2014.

Before:

After!

To better match the new fabric, Pierre decided that we should lacquer the legs in an almond colour, which turned out beautifully.

Cooper Arm Chair / Wing Chair - Red & White Floral

Here is another chair from one of our favourite clients. This one is a chair made by Cooper Bros. from Toronto. I would say this chair is from around the 60s or 70s. Very well made, but in need of some help. This chair was done near the end of July 2014.

Before:

Please note how this wing was upholstered, and keep this image in mind when seeing the "after" photos below.

The current upholstery is not original. There are two easy ways to spot this. One is that the label was still visible through the thin white fabric which was upholstered right over the original, and the other is by the vertical seam down the centre back panel of the chair (you would not see this on an original piece unless it were upholstered in real leather).

Black tacks are also not a great way to attach the back. On old pieces, tacks are sometimes used, but they are painted to match the fabric. Otherwise, the back panel is usually hand-stitched in place on antiques.

The bottom webbing was completely collapsed.

We weren't completely sure what happened with the wings. It looks like the chair never had a "filler piece" in between, and the last upholsterer made some really terrible ones.

The original label.

Chair completely stripped down. New webbing, and springs re-tied.

Bottom fabric installed. Note that we were able to save the original label and reattach it. We don't do this often, but this client loves antiques, and we knew he would appreciate this.

We made new wing "filler blocks" and they were hand carved to fit in the frame.

Here's how the wings fit AFTER! What a huge difference. We had to stitch them with an angled sewing line because of how the frame is made, but the effect is wonderful.

Here is the finished chair. We opted to go without the skirts for this chair, since it already had nice decorative tapered legs. It's also not evident in the photos, but the chair has a custom made feather pillow, rather than foam.

It's very hard to see in the photos, but the back is stitched with the original diamond pattern on the back of the chair that we found on the original foam (which was deteriorated - and replaced). There are also small buttons in the intersections of the design. This is a very shallow tufted design.

Antique Arm Chair - Light Blue (Project of the Month July 2014)

I am far behind on updates to the blog, but I will be making several "backdated" additions today.

This is the Project of the Month from this past July. This chair was an exceptional amount of work to put back together, because of the numerous layers, multiple steps, hand stitching, and repairs that were needed.

I've condensed this project down to a manageable 24 photos, but I had dozens more that were taken during the process.

This was a HEAVY chair. For the average person, it's nearly unmovable. I'd say it weighs at least 40-60Lbs. Part of the reason for this (as you will see below) is that the chair has a massive wooden frame. Most of the wooden pieces are over an inch and a half thick, with the bottom rails being nearly 5 inches tall, and several inches thick. The hair also had a lot of heavy springs, and traditional horsehair stuffing (which is also quite heavy). The chair had been modified several times, and during our re-upholstery, we conferred with our client, and decided to return the chair as much as possible to the way it was originally.

Before:

The deep-tufted back was a later (foam) addition. This photo shows the majority of the original upholstery.

The front of both arms were originally round at the front, and someone cut them to be square.

The entire chair frame had been "repaired" by adding a large number of metal plates with lots of old wood screws. Despite all these added metal plates, the frame was loose and rickety, and we had to disassemble it and completely reglue it. It's hard to tell the size/weight of the frame, but just compare the size of the springs to the wood. The springs are around 4" wide on the ends.

Frame after repairs/re-assembly.

New webbing and spring ties.

Burlap, hand stitched to the springs.

Webbing on the back.

All the back springs were originally individually wrapped, and we redid this on the new upholstery. This takes more time than simply tying the springs to each other.

Because all the springs are basically "loose" from each other, they also need to be carefully hand tied to the base layer of burlap. Also note 3 large (very heavy gauge) lower lumbar springs. These were part of the reason that the client liked this chair.