Victorian Side Chair – Light Grey (& Our New Website)

We’re back! It’s been an entire month with no updates, but that doesn’t mean things have been quiet at the shop. I will be updating this week with all the projects from January, which included at least 8 pieces, plus several other small jobs (pillows, and other small repair jobs).

Along with a bunch of new projects comes a newly designed website (our main company website), and a new matching layout to this “sister” photo-blog. Visit our main company website here: http://lefebvresupholstery.com/site/ and please don’t hesitate to leave us some comments!

This first chair is a project we had started before the Christmas holidays. We finished it in early January. The chair needed to have the front legs and side rails reglued, the legs refinished, and the entire chair reupholstered.

Here are the before photos (notice the very lumpy seat, the incorrect seat edge, and a torn-off skirt):

Notice the missing front casters, and the resulting downward slope of the chair.

A fairly amateur job on the rear of the chair.

At some point, the bottom of the chair caved-in, and rather than have the chair re-webbed, they repaired it with a sheet of plywood.

The original webbing, and the burlap cover(s) were toast. Note remnants of a beautiful brilliant red-orange velvet.

The coils, spring ties, burlap, and stuffing on the back of the chair were still in very good shape, so we only replaced the webbing there.

Stripped chair before disassembling the lower frame (legs & side rails) for repairs & refinishing.

Frame reassembled, legs refinished, re-webbed, with springs attached.

8-way hand tie.

First burlap cover.

Original “first stuffing” and edge roll.

The first stuffing covered with new burlap, hand stitched in place, with bridle ties.

Not shown: original horsehair reapplied, with fresh cotton, and a muslin cover, followed by the new upholstery.

Here is the finished chair, complete with new (replacement) casters.

The previous stain & finish on the legs was a ruddy brick red pigment stain with shellac. The owner wanted a nice deep walnut colour, which turned out looking very nice over the beautiful Elm legs.

Here’s a detail that shows the original red-orange velvet. The chair would have been quite eye-catching originally. I absolutely love this shade of red.