Friday, January 21, 2011

Our Chairs Are Back!

Elation! Elation!

Remember when I told you about how we'd found someone to reupholster some old furniture that came with the house? Here's a link to that post. You'll want to see it so you can view pictures of the chairs "before" reupholstering.

Well, we finally got them back! Today! This very afternoon!

And they look fantastic!

Here--!




They probably date back to the 1930s, apparently. The gold one is my personal favorite, and it has been for ages. It was the one I'd always choose when we came to visit Grandma.





The pink chair, I'm pretty sure, had belonged to Great Aunt Minnie (pictured in that earlier blog post I referenced above). My dad says he saw a chair (or chairs?) apparently identical to this at Mrs. Delong's house, out on ritzy Moreau Drive. (Mrs. Delong lives in a castle!) Dad was visiting her recently and noticed her chairs then. Mrs. Delong and Aunt Minnie were friends; maybe they bought the chairs at the same place--?




David, the fellow who did this lovely work for us, commented on how much "fun" it was to get the pattern on the back of the pink chair to be symmetrical: "I had to just walk away from it once or twice; it was more difficult than I'd thought it would be." I think he did a fine job, don't you?

I wasn't expecting it, but he also managed to create a sequential pattern on the back of the gold chair, too. Wow!

Check it out.





I include this picture of the foot of the gold chair, because I had included a "before" photo of it on that earlier post. David has a friend who does the refinishing for him. I think this was a good job, too. The legs of both the chairs look fantastic!



Ahhhh, here they are again. If I didn't have to be sitting up here in my office, I'd be down in the living room reading a Jane Austen novel to Sue, and we'd both be sitting in these chairs!




So: they're refinished, tightened and reglued, springs retied, webbings, twinings, burlap, and bindings and whatever all reattached or replaced, plus the new cotton cushioning and the foam pad, and, of course, the new fabric. He did more stuff, too, inside there, but I'm not smart enough to be able to describe it to you.

Oh, yeah, and when I asked him if he could make arm covers, he said "sure" and used the plastic wrap he'd used to transport them in to make a rough pattern for arm covers for both the chairs. He'll bring them to us, with the leftover fabric, when he brings us the finished sofa.

I asked David if he wanted me to get his name "out there"--I wasn't sure he was wanting more business, since he's got another job and only does reupholstery on the side--but he said yes. So here's his name: David Wieberg, in Centertown, Missouri. His upholstery business is called Greenridge Upholstery. I'm not gonna post his number because I'm afraid that telephone spammers and solicitors might latch on to him. But if you can't find him in the book, let me know and I'll give you his number.

Yes, uh-huh, I'm smiling tonight.

2 comments:

Osage Bluff Quilter said...

Oh La La, that pink chair reminds me of cotton candy and I so love cotton candy and that chair.
As for your 'guy' I've already passed his name to a friend that needs a love seat redone. Thanks

Oh and my Grandma that lived on Georgia Street about 2 miles from you, had a radio in her living room, that looked a lot like the one I see in your living room.

Julianna Schroeder said...

As we were carrying that chair up our front staircase (it was all wrapped up and I couldn't see it), I was wondering if we hadn't made a huge mistake on the color--you know how a color on a swatch can suddenly look garish when applied to a large object. But no problem: it's just right.

We tried to match the color of the original chair (see the picture on the earlier post), and I think we did well--if the color had faded on the original.

We have one bedroom that's done with rose wallpaper, and this pink chair will go perfectly in there.

As for the radio--that's another long story of restoration by a talented man! We found a fellow in Independence whose house "is like a rest home for elderly radios." He did a lovely job--it works and everything. The radio had been my Great Aunt Minnie's--it gets shortwave and AM, but no FM. Remember that big, boomy sound? It's great to listen to ballgames on!