Victorian Buttoned Chair

This ornate overstuffed Victorian Buttoned Chair proved a lot more ‘interesting’ than expected!

The chair obviously needed a new cover and the polish work was dull and needed sprucing up. The brass castors at the front had tarnished over time and needed a clean up.

The ‘interesting’ part started when the chair was turned over to remove the undercloth. And feathers fell out!

With some of the sagging webbing removed, the remainder of these malodorous things that appeared to have no purpose, could be taken out. What the feathers were doing there will be an unsolved mystery.

Attention turned to the back. The cover was in three pieces, the sides being released before the centre back could be taken off.

The side pieces were also attached to the ornate show wood above the front legs. With the fixings removed, the fabric was taken off.

At the front, the seat fabric was freed above the show wood and along the sides.

The fabric, the underlying stuffings, layers of hessian and the springs, were all removed.

The inner back fabric was secured at the back as were the buttons.

With all the threads snipped, the last piece of fabric could be removed. A new layer of barrier cloth was added to hold the older stuffings in place.

Reconstruction started with rebuilding the seat. Springs were attached to a webbing base, then held in place with laid cord.

The springs were covered in hessian, coir attached and again covered in hessian.

A rolled edge was made, hand sewing through the coir and hessian.

Hair was added and covered in barrier cloth to complete the rebuilding of the seat.

The opportunity was taken to clean the brass castors and cups. Not perfect but better. The show wood was also cleaned off and polished.

The inner back fabric was positioned and buttons added from the centre of the back, working outwards and pleating the fabric as progress was made.

With the inner arms covered, the seat fabric was added, folding over the front.

At the back, support hessian was stretched over the curving back.

The central panel of the back fabric was added over barrier cloth followed by the two outer side panels.

A new undercover was added to complete this interesting project.

JBerryUpholstery has many examples of furniture Recovering and Restoration and also Soft Furnishings to add to or complement the finished items. You can see pictures of these in the Galleries – Recovering Gallery, Restoration Gallery, Soft Furnishings Gallery and Transformations.

If you have some upholstery that is in need of a bit of TLC or you are interested in Soft Furnishings then please contact us.