Antique art deco armchairs and real classic upholstery
In this day and age of foam seated reproductions made in China and the far east, the art of upholstery is slowly dying.
There’s very few places where people can train as a professional upholsterer and chair owners don’t really seem to care anymore whats inside their chairs.
Pretty sad really – but at the end of the day you get what you ask for. Foam is cheap and easy to use but loses its shape and support and makes the sofa or chair sag in the areas that get the most sitting.
Whats under the hood
The older way is much better that you find for example in our classic early 1900s swedish antique art deco armchairs . The chairs are fully sprung with 5″ copper coil springs held in a spiders web of twine and webbing.
Using real traditional materials
On top of this you place a layer of calico or hessian and then build the shape of the seat using natural fibre and horsehair. Then you add calico and cortel to create a perfect dome that holds its shape under the final upholstery fabric.
You can of course use leather and finish it off with classic handmade double piping or rope like this antique swedish art deco armchair
They look amazing and of course look just as a good in a standard fabric like this pair of antique alcoholiste art deco armchairs from sweden with the fluted backs.
This is what you get
Look at the lovely dome of the seats and the stunning plump flutes at the back married to the golden birch bentwood arms in a highly polished finish.
So you end up with the best design, the highest levels of comfort and most importantly comfort that will last and not sag slowly into oblivion.
Quite frankly foam is nasty to work with , cheap and a short cut that is best avoided IMHO.
Certainly you will see no foam in any of our antique armchairs – not now not ever!
There’s very few places where people can train as a professional upholsterer and chair owners don’t really seem to care anymore whats inside their chairs.
Pretty sad really – but at the end of the day you get what you ask for. Foam is cheap and easy to use but loses its shape and support and makes the sofa or chair sag in the areas that get the most sitting.
Whats under the hood
The older way is much better that you find for example in our classic early 1900s swedish antique art deco armchairs . The chairs are fully sprung with 5″ copper coil springs held in a spiders web of twine and webbing.
Using real traditional materials
On top of this you place a layer of calico or hessian and then build the shape of the seat using natural fibre and horsehair. Then you add calico and cortel to create a perfect dome that holds its shape under the final upholstery fabric.
You can of course use leather and finish it off with classic handmade double piping or rope like this antique swedish art deco armchair
They look amazing and of course look just as a good in a standard fabric like this pair of antique alcoholiste art deco armchairs from sweden with the fluted backs.
This is what you get
Look at the lovely dome of the seats and the stunning plump flutes at the back married to the golden birch bentwood arms in a highly polished finish.
So you end up with the best design, the highest levels of comfort and most importantly comfort that will last and not sag slowly into oblivion.
Quite frankly foam is nasty to work with , cheap and a short cut that is best avoided IMHO.
Certainly you will see no foam in any of our antique armchairs – not now not ever!
