I recently purchased a France and Sons sofa to replace my knock-off (but nice) Hans Wegner type daybed. The daybed would have needed recovering as I didn't care for the fabric even though it was in good condition. After considering the cost of the reupholstery, I decided to sell the knock-off daybed and save on reupholstery costs and get one of the France and Sons sofas I have always drooled over. A local shop had one and I got a good deal since I am a regular customer there. The sofa I purchased had been recently reupholstered by the previous owner in a nice light neutral fabric. So we're all good there.
My issue comes down to two cool mid-century modern chairs I received when my grandma passed away. They desperately need to be reupholstered. Her undisciplined cats tore the fabric to pieces. I am also not a fan of the shade of green she had them covered in. These chairs have teak legs but everything else is all fabric (seat, back, arms, etc). I'm definitely keeping the chairs as they are from my grandma and I really like the style. My question is should I upholster them in neutral fabric similar to the sofa or bring a small punch of color in with the upholstery. Other then the walls in the room (a grassy green color), there isn't much color in the room besides a painting with some mustard yellow colors in it and a mustard yellow Laurel lamp. I also have a few bronze/copper accents in the room in a couple Curtis Jere sculptures. All the other furniture on the room is teak. I also have a rug made of white sheep wool. I would potentially love something that incorporates some orange as this is my favorite color...possibly a tweed fabric with orange accents? Does anyone have suggestions? Should I go with a solid fabric, a printed fabric, etc? Thanks!
...
Greetings cloudburst.
Just an opinion, here. Don't try to match the sofa fabric on the chairs. They will probably never be an exact match, nor should they be. I would consider a print/pattern on both chairs. Maharam makes some lovely textiles (affordable on ebay). Your friendly upholsterer should be able to determine the amount of yardage, etc. Post some snappy's of the chairs and the room (including the sofa). And paint your walls white.
just a thought,
Aunt Mark
Thanks for the advice. I...
Thanks for the advice. I wasn't planning on trying to match the upholstery on the chairs to sofa. Was just curious if I should also do a neutral on the chairs...possibly a darker neutral then the sofa as it is fairly light, or would that be too much neutral? I like some of the Maraham printed fabrics but wonder if many of the are 'too busy' looking for such a large upholstery job. Many of them I think would look much better where only perhaps the back and bottom cushions needed upholstery. I could just see them being a bit much to look at when it's the entire chair minus the legs that need upholstery. I think they would look much better on mostly wood chairs with just back and bottom cushions unlike my chairs which are mostly fabric with teak legs only. Perhaps, I just need to find some pics of these fabrics on chairs that are mostly fabric. I really like the Maraham letters fabric in red but saw it on a chair similar to mine and it was just too much, IMHO, but I love the fabric on that Eames lounge chair (enough wood to tone down the pattern so it's not overwhelming).
And I am embarrassed to show pics of the chairs. My grandma's cats were hooligans and the chairs look pitiful LOL I also haven't picked up my new sofa yet so pics of that will have to wait.
Nope, about painting the walls white. I like color on my walls. Maybe it's a female thing LOL
I'm a huge fan of
olive green with teak. Love it.
I love pattern too, but so far I've avoided using much pattern for long-term upholstery for myself. I stick to interesting textures and colors and then go nuts with throw pillows. I just redid my sofa in a very subtle tweedy stripe that reads pretty much as a solid and the pillows are Jack Lenor Larsen's Caravan printed velvet in olive/teal/taupe.
I love orange too but be careful of the shade with teak. Most teak has a lot of orange in it and in my opinion it doesn't work well with most oranges.
You could also consider doing the chairs in a highly textured neutral that is also lighter or darker than the sofa. I love rooms that are neutral in color but highly contrasting in texture. And then you can go crazy with pillows and throws and art! Pillow covers are cheap enough that you can have a bunch of sets and rotate them when you want a change.
I was considering just using...
I was considering just using pillows to dress up the chairs if I did them in neutral. My only problem with neutral is that sometimes too much neutral gets on my nerves. I wonder if pillows would be enough to offset this. I really like orange but was more considering fabric that had hints of orange as opposed to full on orange color. I saw a teak sofa done in a greyish color that had orange threaded through it. I liked the hint of orange but it wasn't overwhelmingly orange. I had also considered a possibly mustard yellowish fabric as this is also a favorite color. I like olive green but doubt it would look good with the grassy green walls.
And whatever fabric I am like, I will get swatches of so I can make sure that they compliment the other colors in the room.
Well, I live in a 100+ year...
Well, I live in a 100+ year old home. So the fireplace in the room on question has those ceramic tiles that combined colors. The tiles are ivory with green and maroon mixed into the tiles. I don't like white walls with the ivory tiles, and the tiles stay since the fireplace is original to the home. The walls are painted green to compliment the tiles, and I like walls with a bit of color anyway.
Is there a good website that lists various well-made modern fabrics besides just Maraham and Eames fabrics? I am looking for a nice quality as well as nice looking fabric.
It sounds like
you already have quite a bit of color in the room, yes? Green walls, mustard-colored accents, maroon and green tile surround, etc. I would stick with a neutral solid on the chairs or maybe a very subtle print like a tone-on-tone stripe.
If you go with orange, that room is going to start to remind you a Harvest Festival.
P.S. Pix would help.
Anyone know where I can find...
Anyone know where I can find some pics of the Eames Small Dot Pattern covering a chair? I'm mostly interested in the more neutral tone of sand. I got a swatch of it in the mail. Can this fabric be used with either side facing up? One side is a light neutral fabric with darker neutral 'dot' patterns while the other side is darker neutral with lighter neutral dot patterns...so basically the two sides are opposite of each other. I like the light colored side with darker dots best but the other side is nice too. Though I would like to see it on a piece of mostly fabric furniture before making a decision. Thanks!
I also found a mustardish yellow fabric that I really like. It has no designs on it, just a plain fabric. I saw it at a local shop. How can you tell a really good quality fabric from just a decent quality. What should I be looking for exactly?
link below for chair pics
As for fabric, it is possible to tell quality by looking at fabric but you need to know how to identify fiber content and I don't really know how to describe that in words. It's a very tactile thing. Maybe there's a website somewhere with clues. There used to be a site that described how to read results from a burn test but it's long gone. Maybe there are others now, I dunno.
If it's loosely woven, forget it. If it's thin and not tightly woven, forget it.
Maybe you should talk to a local upholsterer? Someone who knows fabrics?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=eames+small+dot+fabric+chair
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com