I'm glad I could help in some way. And I totally understand your point about the materials you would and would not use. It's a difficult topic really. I think it touches the issue of respect for a designer and his work but also the issue of a room becoming a 'time capsule', that we discused in another thread a couple of days ago. Sometimes I feel offended when I see a new edition of Jacobsen chairs covered in purple velvet. Or Wegner chairs painted in some fancy colors, limited edition. Blasphemy! You must not do that! But on another occation I might get bored when I see the same old fabric on that same old chair. And I think: velvet might fit here perfectly. Because, hey, I like the design. But this is not my granmas house and we're not living in the 50s anymore.
"People buy a chair, and they don't really care who designed it." (Arne Jacobsen)
Mohair or wool velvet would be appropriate, I think--but they're also pricey fabrics and can be itchy to sit on.
I have some fabric like the Porridge that you mention---it is a cotton/linen blend, with off-white cotton threads running in one direction and natural colored linen in the other, same as many of the Hallingdal colorways are woven. I got a bolt of it 30 years ago to make a slipcover for a conventional sofa and have slowly been using up the remainder ever since.
Be sure to subscribe to Modern-Fabric's mailing list---they send it out weekly, i think, and it lists all their new arrivals. But check their stock daily anyway because the good colors get snapped up quickly.
Are you sure there aren't mill end shops in the UK? Seems like there would be since there are fabric mills in Scotland, at least. There used to be some about 100 miles from where I live that routinely had Knoll fabrics and sometimes Maharam/Kvadrat stuff. The highest anything ever was was $14/yd but then every 2-3 months they have a sale were everything was half off. I got a lot of good stuff there, including 16 yards of Lanalux by Alexander Girard for $4/yd. Finally the owner, who was 75, got tired of driving all over to mills to buy stuff so he put the business on the market but couldn't find a buyer. They had one gigantic final sale. I actually stood in a very long line for I think 5 hours just to get my fabric measured and cut. It was insane. I miss that place.
@Lexi, I had not. I have heard of Bute, but assumed it was an American market thing. I have already had a look and there's some things I'll be getting some samples of.
@Herringbone You make a convincing and intimidating point. I would like to achieve both avoiding the time capsule and being true to the design. I do wonder if that's possible at all.
Perhaps we have another term for mill end outlet here, maybe I'm missing a bit of nomenclature that's keeping me in the dark. In the fabric outlets I've searched in the past no brands of any interest (the ones I know of anyway) have popped up, and I'd probably search for a fabric outlet first.
I'll continue searching.
Almost none of the upholstery fabric in the big mill end shop that I liked so much was labeled and often I'd see something that i thought looked very good and I was sure it was wool---then later I'd do a search of Maharam or Knoll or one of the other big names and would find it there.
There was another place that catered to a different market and they had nice stuff at times but nothing really that would be appropriate for mid-century modern---then one day I went in and there was a bolt of Eames Small Dot fabric. Strange.
I think one way to avoid the time capsule look but still stick to appropriate fabrics is to pick a colorway that wasn't used much back in the day. I don't think gray was all that big back then, for instance, and I happen to think it looks stunning with teak. Olive green and burnt orange were popular, as were earth tones in general.
I'd probably just do the chairs up in whatever wool I happened to love in a color that looked good with the wood---and then let decorative objects and framed art keep the room from looking too of the period.
Ole Wanscher was a very traditionalist designer, often in the English tradition. So I think that plain box cushions in fabric are just too informal for it. It really wants the uptight traditional formality of welting, tufting, and leather, preferably black, Connoly Vaumol.
Or horsehair, but that is insanely expensive. I suppose a wool tweed might work, maybe with a herringbone weave, and leather welt and buttons (might be a bit professorial vs senatorial). I am afraid this is not the design for excesses in color or modernist flippancy like an Eames pattern. A print would make the chair look like it is wearing a Halloween costume. I think you actually might get a Scottish plaid to work if you really wanted to. Or an elephant hide. It really is not a very politically correct chair, frankly.
It just needs that stiff upper lip of the British upper classes. It is that chair. Unfortuntely what the chair really wants is by nature expensive. But you should have plenty of the most appropriate options homegrown on British soil. I think this is one design where you would come close to erring to look for too Danish of a textile. There isn
@Leif I will be after some leather seats for them in the long run. I got a quote for them to be done to original specification in leather. Suffice to say my eyes started to water, but it's not off the table forever. Maybe I'll find another set with some leather seats, I'll swap whatever cushions I've made and keep the leather ones!
I agree about Wanscher's designs in general, but not these in particular. I think they don't adhere to traditionalism and they don't really adhere to the norms of Danish modern either. The profile of the wood is too heavy set to be seen as familiar in the mid century or danish modern wheelhouse and the design is too sculptural and simple to be traditional - it also looks very obviously machine made to me at least.
I still have over half a hide left from my Moller 80/65 project, so maybe I could still incoporate leather tufting and welting on a wool fabric. I don't even know if that's a practical idea. But it's a cool thought!
I'm not gonna go overboard here, I'm going to say very calmly: thank you, Leif. But don't let the brevity and clarity of this post make you think I am not geeking out at the other end of the inernet. I am.
Thanks for making that effort, it's greatly appreciated and will be pored over.
They advise vaseline for leather care. I love it.
Congrats on the chairs Kyle and great original stuff by Leif to make a starting point.
Spanky, speaking of Belgian mills I just know of Vescom. Kyle, they could be an interesting contender for Kvadrat as they have some interesting wools:
https://www.vescom.com/dessins-upholstery-nl--0-0---0--wol----
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