Here is an interesting take on a traditional wing chair. This chair had some pet damage (scratch marks) as well as years of smoke damage.

Before:

This piece shows the original colour of the fabric.

Finished chair:

Here is a lovely antique chair that was in need of repairs. The frame had some loose joints, and the front of the seat had collapsed.

Here are the before photos:

You can’t see too well, but the entire front upholstery was loose and floppy/collapsed.

The old webbing and springs had bowed and stretched out the bottom quite a bit (which happens over time).

When Pierre opened the front of the seat, he found a bunch of wadding stuffed into the cavity in a poor attempt to repair the seat.

With the padding removed, we could see that the old burlap was all torn at the front (again, this is normal wear and tear over time).

The old springs showed signs of previous repairs (newer non-matching ties):

Original seat stuffing:

The chair before being reassembled:

New webbing:

Springs re-tied and burlap installed (sorry no photos). Front edge roll rebuilt and installed:

The original stuffing was re-installed, with a new rough cover, followed by the finish fabric.

Rough cover on the back rest.

And here’s the finished chair. We were very lucky to find a nearly perfect match for the gimp (decorative trim):

Here is a Sklar Peppler loveseat, which was going with the two previous blue arm chairs. This fabric is hard to show properly in the photos, but it is off-white (slightly grey) with a white satin paisley print over it.

Before:

Finished sofa:

This is how it will look with the two coordinating toss pillows.

These two chairs were fairly new, but one chair was lightly soiled, and the owner wanted to change the colour scheme. These two chairs also went with a loveseat which will be posted next.

Before:

Stripped down:

Pierre and I didn’t like how they had attached the foam at the front, since it left a bit of a hollow, so this area was filled-in with cotton.

During:

 

After:

When Pierre delivered the Eastlake settee to our client (who lives out of town), he thought we had been exaggerating when we told him he wouldn’t recognize the settee when he saw it.

He was so impressed with our work, that he was pretty sure he had the matching chair, and he wanted us to restore that one too.

This chair was equally butchered, and needed just as much work as the settee.

Again, way too much of the wood is covered for no reason.

Over half the arm is covered here.

A sneak peek:

On this chair, we found a label on the bottom, showing that it had been RESTORED by a company in nearby Nepean. This company is still in business (which is why we blurred-out the name). What is really alarming is that this company presents itself as one of the “best” in the world, having been in business for over 75 years, and if you believe what they advertise on their site, you would believe that they will carefully and lovingly restore your antiques. This is a direct quote:

(Name Withheld)’s Upholstering provides each of its clients with the highest quality workmanship available in the world. Our clients can be sure that each piece of furniture is carefully and meticulously attended to by hand, by our experienced artisans. We know that the quality of hand-craftsmanship is irreplaceable.

We’ll let you be the judge of that.

Back leg:

The stuffing visible here is coconut fibre (with cotton draped on the seat).

One of the previous old covers (cover#2):

Cover #3:

Cover #4 (the original rust red – same as the settee):

Some of the damage (lots of broken wood slivers on this chair):

The arm “add-on blocks” (see the settee blog post) had been screwed-on on this chair, which left 2 large holes on each arm.

This is just awful. Why would you do this to such a beautiful chair?

This arm needed some special attention (see farther below).

Both carvings were split.

Missing wood chunks.

The webbing on this chair had been nailed in place with 1 inch spiral nails. This is ridiculous, and extremely damaging to the wood rails.

One of the arms after patches, repairs, puttying, and sanding.

The carvings were re-cut in the new section of walnut.

Chair being reglued after all the repairs to the individual components (it was completely knocked apart just like the settee).

Fully restored frame after repairs and touch-ups. The sides of the rough arm tops were in very bad shape – new wood strips were glued in place. New corner blocks were cut. New front blocks were cut, and all the old staple and tack holes in the rails were filled.

Details:

 

New webbing:

Original stuffing (mainly straw, moss, and cotton) in place.

Back rough cover installed, and springs tied.

Arms re-stuffed with horsehair, burlap, and cotton (see settee blog post for more photos):

Original straw seat pad (first stuffing) before installation, new burlap, and hand stitching.

Second stuffing (mainly straw and cotton, followed by a muslin rough cover):

And finally, the completed chair! What a gorgeous piece.

This was one of those unbelievable restorations of a horribly beaten and butchered piece. Pierre and I just couldn’t believe how badly this piece had been treated, and modified.

We knew when we looked at it that something was wrong with the back, because it wouldn’t normally be scalloped at the top without some kind of piping, ribbing, or buttons, but you won’t believe what we found underneath.

QUICK NOTES: This was an extreme and expensive restoration, and as such, we documented all the repairs. That said, I trimmed down several hundred photos to the following 62. We hope that this will serve as a good example of our skills and love for antiques.

Before:

The owner loves antiques, and doesn’t mind some wear and tear, but these scratches will be touched-up (not refinished).

First sign of trouble on this piece was the way that the gimp (decorative trim) was applied to the arms. It’s crooked and it just doesn’t quite look right. It also covers some of the carving on the top of the arms.

Here, a LOT of the wood is covered-over by the fabric and gimp.

Here, for some unknown reason, they had installed 2 identical top fabrics. You can see the damage to the front arm.

We knew this piece had been butchered and modified when we removed the back piece and uncovered carved wood pieces and older upholstery sections.

A very poor repair to a broken carving (the back side):

When we uncovered the arm(s) we discovered more carved wood elements. This style of shallow carving with scallops, dots, and straight (often ribbed) mouldings (like the front rail) are typical of Eastlake style pieces (1880-1900).

When we peeled-back the newer upholstery from the back rest, this is what we found! The original rust red upholstery (stuffed with straw and cotton) and still intact. You can see the ribbing pattern, and we found a few small pieces of the original decorative cords.

The broken (and horribly stapled) carving:

This next photo shows the settee in “as close to original” shape as we can get (the seat has been redone previously). It would have been quite a beautiful piece in the deep rust red.

Some of the damage:

To cover over the original arms, a previous upholsterer added wooden blocks at the back of the arms (glued and nailed in place):

At this point, we contacted our client, and discussed what should be done with the piece. This was going to be an expensive project, but luckily he wanted to have it fully restored, therefore we continued to work on it.

The spring ties were still in good (usable) condition, but the entire piece would need to be knocked apart for the repairs, so they had to be removed.

Doesn’t this just make you want to cry?

Some of the wood rails were so badly damaged that we had to cut-away and reglue some new wood to the tops.

Lots of tack and staple holes under both arms into the decorative wood (they didn’t need to staple here).

All these staple marks should have been in the rough wood at the top. This is just awful.

The back legs were the most damaged, since a lot of the fabric panels got tacked here. There were also chunks of walnut missing, and large screw holes.

The entire back rail was crumbling and horribly butchered. We ended up having to completely replace it.

More awful “repairs”:

Once the settee was apart, all the holes were puttied (this may look like Bondo, but it’s wood filler).

Here is one of the arms after repairs and sanding (the front was left with the original finish). You can also see a patched wooden block (small rectangle on the left).

All the other parts were treated similarly, either with filler, or carefully cut, fitted, and sanded patches in walnut. We used a combination of stains, lacquer, touch-up markers, and tinted lacquers to blend all the repairs together as much as possible.

A close-up of the arms.

The back was assembled first, because it had a lot of pieces that needed clamping.

Fully restored frame after re-assembly:

You will note the replaced wood on the front rail (top part in light brown), as well as the touch-ups to the decorative carving.

Broken carving after repairs.

Note new back rail.

Here’s the new back rail, in solid white ash (the original was Elm, which is hard to find, but very similar to ash):

New webbing:

Springs re-tied:

First layer of burlap:

First stuffing in place (straw) and hand stitched:

Second stuffing (straw & cotton) and muslin rough cover in place.

Original back stuffing in place with rough cover.

Ribbing and buttons.

Restoring the arm tops, using horsehair, burlap, and cotton.

And finally, the completed settee (with nearly a month’s worth of work on and off):

Notice where the gimp is placed – NOT on the wood.

Here is a nice quality sofa set we redid. The upholstery on these was quite complex (the way that the pillow covers were sewn, and the arms were attached).

Before:

During:

This was the chair totally stripped down:

And after!

As someone who is still relatively new to upholstery, having worked at Lefebvre’s Upholstery since June 2013, I was excited to start looking for my first sofa and replace the two torn-up sofa chairs that I’ve been using for the past 10 years. After a bit of searching, I found this lovely antique settee for 30$.

Before (as purchased):

I knew the piece was in desperate need of a complete overhaul, but the price was right, and it looked like it had a good frame, it had coils (better than modern springs), and the size was perfect for my old house.

In this post, I will be doing a quick recap of the entire project, but if you wish to see the entire project in detail from start to finish (with nearly 80 photos) in 4 parts, you can have a look at these posts on my house blog:
My Settee Project Part 1 – Choosing Fabric
My Settee Project Part 2 – The Tear-Down
My Settee Project Part 3 – Frame Repairs & Foundation Work
My Settee Project Part 4 – Finishing The Settee

Before starting, the seat was very lumpy, the sofa was not very comfortable, and I had no idea what I would uncover. As it turns out, the sofa had 3 complete covers on it. The current dark green, followed by a rough beige corduroy type fabric (1970s or 80s), followed by a beige and brown striped cover (which could be as old as 1920 or so).

Green cover removed:

Beige cover removed:

Beige & brown striped cover removed, showing green “rough covers” over the original horsehair, moss, and straw stuffing:

Main stuffing removed. You can see why the seat was lumpy. The spring ties had broken, and the burlap was worn through. No one had ever bothered to properly repair the base layers of stuffing, and past upholsterers had simply covered-over the old layers and did awful patch jobs to try to fix the problems without actually doing the work needed to fix the sofa.

Seat stuffing, burlap, and ties removed, showing springs:

Bare frame (after many MANY hours of work). This is prior to repairing the frame (all the joints were loose and the legs needed to be sanded and refinished back to a dark mahogany). I also patched some of the wood, and filled the old holes:

And now for the new (traditional) upholstery! New webbing is first:

Springs are installed, and tied with an “8 way hand tie”:

New burlap, and re-stitching the front edge roll (using the original straw and moss stuffing):

The base layer is straw. Yes, STRAW. It is used very often in antique pieces, and it lasts centuries.

Then moss and mixed hair:

Then the nice black horse hair:

Followed by cotton, and then the rough muslin cover.

The same basic procedures were done on the back and arms.

And here’s the finished piece!

And here it is back in my living room.

Again, there are additional photos and more information if you follow the links above.

The same level of care and attention is given to all the antique pieces that come into the shop, and hopefully this “extreme restoration” will give you an idea of the work involved in restoring an antique sofa or chair.

I am proud to say that the sofa is now quite comfortable, and it should last a long time before it needs another overhaul. Comments are always welcome.

This is a lift chair (a type of recliner that lifts up with hydraulics to help someone get up more easily) that we reupholstered recently. The old upholstery was a worn vinyl, and the client chose a much more fun and interesting neutral fabric featuring leaves.

Before:

After:

This chair arrived at our shop from a friend of Pierre’s with the foundation work done, and ready for upholstering. The owner had already repaired the frame, and refinished the wood.

Here is the finished chair. It was finished with buttons to match the original layout (we had the old cover as a pattern) and a simple double piping around the edges of the decorative wood. The fabric was a kind of micro-suede (soft).