Before & After: Jean Prouve Grand Repos

Another Before & After! We just finished restoring & reupholstering a Jean Prouve Grand Repos chair. The leather was in quite bad condition and all the metal was rusted & pitted.

Jean Prouve was a French architect & designer (1901 - 1984), who, using the same techniques as in automobile construction, made architectural elements out of molded & welded metal and applied them to his work. Grand Repos is one of his earliest designs. It is an adjustable lounge chair, and the design allows the single seat/back to be pushed continuously on ball bearings along the steel supporting slat.

We cleaned up the steel frame & reupholstered it in beautiful blue leather, take a look!

Before & After: Swedish Grace Art Deco Lounge Chairs

We just restored & reupholstered these amazing art deco chairs. They were made in Sweden, circa 1930, and are referred to as Swedish Grace lounge chairs. The term, Swedish Grace, was coined by Phillip Morton Shand to describe Scandinavian design in the mid-1920's.

They are smaller in size, but the curves & lines are beautiful, as is the birch wood on the arms & feet.

Here is the before photo - not bad, but it needed some TLC!

Before & After: Fabricius & Kastholm Scimitar Chairs

We just finished the restoration of two Scimitar chairs, designed by Preben Fabricius & Jorgen Kastholm.

They are beautiful & amazing chairs, and due to the shape, not without challenges in terms of reupholstery in leather. A photo of the chairs before restoration & reupholstery is below:

Before & After: Eames Walnut Stool

These are such fabulous pieces! Charles & Ray Eames designed three shapes of stools in 1960 for the lobby of the Time Life Building in New York City. They are lathe-turned walnut and can also be used as little side table (although there is a slight curved indentation on top, better suited for a derriere than a teacup).

Oh, and here is the after! It just needed a little time with our talented finishing team!

All three shapes are still in production and sold through Herman Miller.

Edited: we just had a reader reach out to us on the upkeep & maintenance of these, and other, pieces. We did a blog post on this, which you can find here! Thank you!

Jean Michel Frank sofa series

The Jean Michel Frank inspired sofa (or JMF, as we refer to it) is one of the most requested pieces, and with good reason, don't you think? With its' classic, clean, simple lines, it is so beautiful and elegant, and really works well in both contemporary or traditional decor.

This JMF sofa was fabricated in a Perennials outdoor fabric for a family room; the fabric is sturdy and will be perfect for the hours of use it will see. And considering it is an outdoor fabric, it's really quite nice and soft.

This JMF style sofa was fabricated in ivory silk velvet for a more traditional living room.

And finally, we just finished two JMF style sofas in red mohair for a formal living room.

Tufted Upholstered Curved Headboard

Apologies for the silence over here! We have had a very busy summer and the workshop has been very occupied. We finished a large hospitality project in early June (photos soon!) and have been playing catch up. We just jumped into another hospitality project, but I wanted to share some of the projects we finished in between.

This is a gorgeous upholstered headboard in classic French tufting. It's difficult to see, but there is a very slight curve at the sides, which really gives it a bit of a comtemporary style. The fabric the client selected is a beautiful biscuit colored velvet, which was also used on the box base. The entire bed is set very high to accommodate the clients' television storage system under the bed.

Before & After: Andre Sornay Chairs Modernist Chairs

We just recovered a set of Sornay chairs for a client and couldn't be happier with the result.

Andre Sornay was an innovative French furniture designer who wasn't well known during his time. This was partially because he lived & designed outside of Paris, which was the epicenter of the French modernist furniture movement in the mid-century era. Many of his designs were simple, with minimalist details.

One of his trademark techniques is referred to as 'cloutage', which is the method of studding the perimeter of furniture panels & frames with a line of brass nails.

Andre Sornay's pieces have become quite collectible, and sometimes sell in the five figures at auction - this modernist is finally getting his due! 

Before & After: Mid Century Settee

Our client sent us a pair of mid century love sets a while ago, that she inherited from her grandmother. We estimated that they were most likely from the 1940's or 1950's, and they needed a complete overhaul - everything needed replacing in these little babies!

She picked out a pretty lilac nubuck, and besides the reupholstery, we also powder coated the legs black (they were brown). The result is adorable!

Before & After: Vladimir Kagan Cloud Sofa

Our client had this vintage Vladimir Kagan sofa delivered to our workshop, greatly in need of a little (complete!) TLC. It's difficult to see in this photo, but the fabric was extremely worn and pulled in places. We completely reupholstered the sofa, and gave it quite a facelift!

Our client was also interested in having an ottoman made to complement the sofa - we matched the lines, shape and base to create a new piece.

Remembering Steven Shortridge

It was with such sadness that we learned of Steven Shortridge's death last week - he was a client, colleague and good friend for many years. His design aesthetic was modern and clean, and his work graced the pages of many design & shelter publications including Architectural Digest, House & Garden and Metropolitan Home.

Some of the projects we worked on with him included:

inset tufted leather headboard

home office sofa

outdoor banquette

leather headboard

built-in sofa

our friend...taken way too early.

He will be missed.

The secret life of chairs...

Not all of our restorations are modern; we just finished restoring 4 of these 18th century French chairs, and it got me thinking: EIGHTEENTH CENTURY! As they are almost 300 years old, I can't help but wonder - where have they been and what have they seen?! They were most likely handcrafted by Jacob Brothers in Faubourg Saint Antoine, Paris, which is near Bastille and was (and still is) the center of furniture manufacturing in Paris. Many of the pieces for Versailles were made here.

They are part of a personal collection (which includes more pieces), and I do not know how they were acquired, but they have been clearly well taken care of. Only minor touch ups were necessary, and those were done with strict adherence to period practices (as much as we could).

As well, the reupholstery was done as the original, and we are proud of the results: