Last winter, I was drinking coffee in my local shop, Tango Palace, and I noticed that the chairs were looking a little, ummm...shabby, let's say. I took my biz card and walked up to the counter and offered my services. It just happened to be the owner that I had approached. He told me they were 100 year old oak chairs from the King Edward Hotel on King St. in Toronto, and suggested I put a bid in for the job as he was planning to get them upholstered in the spring. What perfect timing! I must have killer instincts for this upholstery operation. ;)
Long story short-ish, I got the job, and it was not a small one. There were 21 chairs in total and they all needed to be stripped to the bone and built back up with new foam, fabric and welting. Jeff had initially wanted them painted too, but due to budget constraints, he settled on maintaining the "vintage patina". Lucky for me, as I had my hands full as it was!
Here are some pics of the process:
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| Before, obviously! |
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| The back before. |
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| The room filled with "before" chairs. |
And so the stripping begins!
Since there are some upholsterers out there who cut corners by covering over existing fabric and foam, upholstery can be like archaeology: when you begin a "dig", you never know what you're going to find. Because I prefer to remove all the old materials, I am often surprised by what's beneath the surface. In this case, not one, but two layers of historic design choices revealed themselves! The discovery of such "fabric fossils" is thrilling at first because they tell a story about the chair's past.
Once that excitement wears off, I really am just left with more work to do.
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| Fabric fossil layers. (yes I do have a thumb ;) |
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| Stripping the back...oh so many staples to remove! |
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| Can you guess which seat is the new one? |
Each job grants an opportunity for learning, and for the Tango job my lesson was on making double welt cord. Once again...thank you YouTube and fellow crafty bloggers for my welting education!
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| Double welting doing it's thing. |
And the finished chair:
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| Ta-da! |
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| The chairs in their natural habitat. |
If you are in Leslieville and are looking for a cozy place to latte, or a wanting an oasis of a back patio to tea and read, this place is it! It's open early and closes late, so you can plant yourself and caffeineate with comfort in some new old chairs...Thank you Tango Palace!
Address: 1156 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M4M 3N5
Phone:(416) 465-8085
Hours:
Friday 7:00 am – 11:00 pm
