Hello -- I recently scored an original Pierre Paulin Orange Slice Chair issued by Artifort. The fabric is lightly worn and stained, but since I got the chair for free, I decided I want to invest in quality re-upholstery.
Does anyone have any tips for finding a re-upholsterer with the expertise to re-do a chair like this? I want to make sure I find an experienced specialist in my area. I once got burned by a upholsterer (who came highly recommended) after he gave one of my authentic mid-century chairs the equivalent of bad plastic surgery.
I'd also like to welcome any suggestions for textile selection. Right now I'm considering re-covering this chair in Maharam Milestone (in either Aurora or Rush).
Any pointers/thoughts are highly appreciated. Thanks!
You could always ship them to
BK Upholstery in PA, or one of the other upholsterers who do a lot of this type of MCM work with curved shapes.
But I have to ask---why did you choose Milestone fabric? It's Maharam so it's very good quality, but it's polyester with a 300,000 wear rating which is essentially the fabric equivalent of steel. It is made for furniture for offices and other public places.
Why not one of their gorgeous wools from Kvadrat? Tonus would be perfect for this chair. It's a soft, fuzzy wool with 10% Helanca (elastic), ensuring a nice fit around the curves. Comes in lots of colors, too. I am about to do a chair of my own in this stuff, it's so nice. Yeah, it costs more than Milestone, but it's so worth it. And you don't even need that much for that chair---three yards, maybe?
You can get swatches from Maharam for free, which you may already know. I would order some of the Kvadrat wools just to get an idea of what's available, if for no other reason.
(No, I don't work for Maharam or Kvadrat or get any kind of perks from them, I just use their fabrics whenever I get a chance because I love beautiful things!)
Thanks for your input,...
Thanks for your input, Spanky! I'll look into BK Upholstery. (I'm in the NY metro area, BTW.)
I actually settled on the Milestone after browsing fabric samples in the DWR show room. I initially wanted to take a closer look at swatches of Kvadrat Tonica, but I changed my mind once I found out Milestone was stronger. Tonica's abrasion tolerance was only graded at 45,000+ cycles and the sales associate explained that it's relatively low for upholstery.
Even though Milestone also had a slightly more favorable price ($30/yard compared to $65/yard for Tonica), its high double-rub rating is what sold me. The chair is actually a former piece of office furniture and I believe it's currently covered in wool (or wool blend). It looks fairly dull despite being a relatively new manufacture. I know it was exposed to a lot more activity than it will ever face in my apartment -- but I just want to be on the safe side and cover it in something strong.
Anywho, I'm open to hearing more suggestions. Feel free to chime in if you think Milestone is overkill! While I admire its durability, I'm also concerned that its strength will prevent it from conforming to the chair's curves.
I think 300,000
is way, way overkill for home upholstery. It's probably overkill even for most offices and public spaces. Tonus is the one I was talking about, I think---it has a wear rating of 50,000 which is considered heavy duty in the industry. Tonica is 45,000, I think. It's thinner and has smaller diameter yarns than Tonus. It's really nice fabric but Tonus has a little bit extra give for curvy pieces. I have seen 50-year-old Swan chairs with the original Tonus on them and it was worn but not to the point of having holes in it. I wouldn't hesitate to put it on a chair for home use, especially a valuable chair.
The Milestone has less give, not because it's durable but because it's a polyester with a kind of a tight weave. Wool is a much more malleable fiber. The fiber just by itself has a lot more give to it than strands of polyester. High end men's suits are all wool. Cheap men's suits are polyester! Not that Milestone is cheap quality, it's just made for certain applications that require extreme durablity and probably lower costs. It's fine for that kind of thing.
It's also hard to get a nice curved seam with a thin polyester fabric. Wool is much more forgiving; stitches tend to disappear in it.
photo of the actual Wyzenbeek machine here:
http://kravet.typepad.com/inspiredtalk/2009/12/selecting-fabric-for-upho...
And at the link below (and at other sites I've seen), they mention that 3,000 double rubs is equal to one year's use, which I guess makes sense if one double rub is like a person sitting down and getting up again. If that's really the case, then a fabric with a 300,000 wear rating will last a hundred years!
So, yeah. Overkill.
http://www.furnituremagazine.com/id/080210.cfm
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I think Spanky is right. Although I am not greatly familiar with the fabrics recommended, they sound like they will work well. For curves like that, the upholsterer will have a much easier job with a fabric with some stretch. And additionally, a wool fabric can be steam eased before stitching to help make compound curves.
The easier the upholsterer's job, the better the likelihood of a perfect job.
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