Category Archives: Restoration

Leather sofa with Linwood seat and back

Updating Leather Chair and Sofa using Linwood Fabric

A clever idea this; our customer has a wonderful set of leather chair and sofa. The seat and back cushions were remade in a beautiful Linwood weave fabric to transform a dated leather set to a modern contemporary and stylish sofa and chair.

 Linwood Fabric is a very high-quality fabric at a great cost. All our fabrics are first quality and always upholstery grade. These fabrics are superior to the mass-produced fabric used for retail outlets. Therefore when you upgrade and reupholster you are creating a top line piece of furniture that will last for a long time.

We made the new scatter cushions too – also in Linwood Fabric.

Leather chair with Linwood seat and back
20's Drop Arm Sofa

1920’s Drop Arm Sofa

These were extremely popular in the early 1900’s, therefore, we see a lot of them. A sofa that can turn into a chaise long and an occasional bed. The arm has a substantial metal mechanism to ‘drop’ the arm.

The quality of build is extremely robust, I know this from experience as I have owned one for over twenty years.  Mine has moved house at least three times and has lived in the lounge, hall, bedroom, holiday cottage and now sits in the kitchen.  Kids have used it as a climbing frame and I sat on it last night – it’s in perfect condition.  A 100-year-old sofa – Truly amazing.

Detail of quality of work

Reupholster and Restoration – Detail of the quality of work

Here are two occasional chairs we restored and reupholstered.

I’ve added nice close-up photographs to show the detailed quality of our work.

Detail of quality of work Detail of quality of work Detail of quality of work

I am often asked ‘what will it look like when it comes back’.  Our reupholstery service is not a second option to buying new. When we restore a chair or sofa etc we re-manufacture to the highest standard.  In some cases actually better than the original mass produced furniture or as close as we can when restoring ancient and antique furniture.  For example, we will use tacks and horse hair to match ancient reupholstery work.

1930's Fluted back chairs

1930’s Fluted Back sofa

We often talk here about the value of buying older quality furniture and restoring it to your style and taste.

This 1930’s Fluted back sofa is a perfect example. With a matching pair of chairs.

Our customer selected the combination of carved and plain high-quality velore to create a stunning one-off showpiece that you can sit on and look at to enjoy.  And of course, if you were to order a new version of this quality the total investment will be about double.

1930's flute backed sofa

1930's Fluted back chairs

Just amazing!

Traditional wingback chair restored and updated with an ‘on-trend’ fabric.

We often talk with customers who want to update or change the fabric on a chair or sofa.

The hurdle often can be the price.  It costs more to reupholster say a Next Interiors or Laura Ashley chair than it does to buy a new one.  The great thing about the likes of Next Interiors or Laura Ashley is that they are ‘on-trend’ and the fabrics used are very lovely to look at.  The negative is that they are made to a price and probably mass produced in China or India – nothing wrong with that as it gives us a great deal – but they are made to a price and engineered to last just a few years with average use.

For value for money and a piece of furniture that will last much longer your better off buying an older quality chair and investing in a restoration of your design.

Here is an example of a fairly standard traditional wingback chair restored and updated with an ‘on-trend’ fabric.  Costs a bit more, take a little more time to instigate but made to your style using British craftsmen and quality fabrics.  There is no other like it!

Wingback chair

Chaise Long restoration

Chaise Long restored and reupholstered to ‘as-new’.

Ready to serve and look stylish in any home for another 100 years

Chaise Long

We restore antique furniture as originally built using tie-in coil springs and modernised wadding with rubberised ‘horse hair’. So the result is a classic handmade piece of historic furniture you can use every day and will last far longer than a modern version.  I’m in love!

On the bench this week, Cadillac Car Seats.

Car seats are not something we reupholster too often.

We usually only work on car seat restoration rather that regular repairs etc.

This customer asked us to restore the front and back seats of his ‘desert find’ Cadillac from Arizona where it sat for 30 years.

This is an interesting historic car seat restoration.

Real leather hide was requested to replace the original blue and grey, the cloth now almost turned to dust.

Here are the Cadillac Eldorado seats waiting to be stripped down.

Photos of the completed Cadillac Car Seats are below.

Cadillac Seats

Cadillac Seats

The Leather Hides are ready for the car seat restoration.

Leather Hide for Cadillac Seats

Cadillac seat

Cadillac seat

 Photos from a feature of the car in Classic American Magazine