So I am buying my grandfather's Papa Bear Chair from my aunt, and it needs re-upholstery. (No photos yet).
The Papa Bear really isn't my favorite design, so I am playing with the idea of upholstering it in something other than Kvadrat's Hallingdal. Only I don't know what that would be. I don't intend to be disrespectful to Wegner's design. And I am definitely not making it look like something from the WTF thread.
Was the Papa Bear ever _originally_ upholstered in anything other than a solid color Hallingdal-like flat weave?
Other thoughts...? (You can tell me to just use Hallingdal, but I reserve the right to pick the brightest colorway available).
stepping out on a ledge...
giving feedback on something I've never seen in the flesh. I've spent the last hour looking at hundreds of photos of your soon-to-be chair. I have to say, in my opinion, the form is exaggerated and layering a flat solid colour let's the chair speak for itself. I've seen a couple of doozies online: silky florals and a few velour(ish) fabrics. It's. Just. Too. Much to take. I love your idea of bright. Yellow or orange come to mind for me. Seems a lot of people love the turquoise. I saw a photo of a woman sitting in the chair - I didn't realize they're that large in scale. In the room setting, they look cool. Good luck!
Not Messenger.
It's a great fabric for office furniture but not for a Danish classic. It looks and feels very synthetic. There is a Maharam wool of the same weave, much nicer look but it's thin. I'd steer clear of anything very thin and flat. A little texture is more forgiving in a chair with this many seams and tufting.
What about Tonus? It's a very soft, fuzzy wool, pretty much the same weave as Hallingdal but cozier in feel, and also all colorways are solid. Someone had a big length of it on ebay recently in the beautiful smoky plum color for a ridiculous $15/yd. Dunno if it's still there.
Arrived
And as expected, in need of upholstery.
I can clearly see now why a simply textured fabric is ideal for this chair.
And to my great surprise, I really like the black wool fabric on the chair. It is a gabardine, I believe. Somebody correct me if that is not the case. Regardless it has a twilled weave.
Question: how do I find wool upholstery fabric similar to what it already has? (Maharam/Kvadrat nor Knoll seem to carry such a fabric)
Here you go-
"Cavalier" by Knoll is 100% wool sateen and comes in black. They sell to the public, too.
http://www.knoll.com/knolltextileproductdetail/Cavalier
That said...
...wool sateen is a thin, smooth fabric and requires that your padding be very even, tapering to smooth edges around the perimeter of each plane. If you're considering doing the work yourself, this will be a tough fabric to work with.
Also, black shows every bit of lint and whatever. If you've ever made the mistake of buying some black corduroy jeans, you will know what I'm talking about. (Not that black corduroy jeans have ever been in style. Not that I've ever bought any. Of course I haven't.)
Have you looked at Hallingdal 180? It's a very dark charcoal gray with some heathering that will hide some of that lint, and it's very, very handsome! I recently did a set of Erik Buch chairs in it and everyone who saw them audibly gasped. Really gorgeous with teak. Plus it's a very forgiving fabric, easy to work with.
Pantaloons,
do you remember which Kvadrat fabric you used? Kvadrat is a Danish company and Maharam is their distributor in the US. If you go to the Maharam site and search for Kvadrat, you'll see the entire range. A lot of the Kvadrat fabrics are contemporary synthetics but they still make a bunch of the wools that were designed in the 60s.
And yeah, wholesale only. But any upholsterer can set up an account with them and place an order.
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