Furniture Repair and Restore

These beautiful painted screens were damaged, having tears and fold lines. I replaced the leather around the edges, put backing on the canvas to prevent further tearing and added 'bottoming' cloth on the backs to finish the look.

The oldest items to have come my way. 19th century carved walnut folding scissors Savonarola chairs featuring hand tooling in the leather. Typical of the Italian Renaissance with a carved Florentine structure . This pair, created in the 19th century, most likely 1840's-1850's, are in good condition. The wood was in good health, but the leather was damaged. I did not want to replace the leather, in order to keep these as original as possible. I lined the underside of the seat and the backrest. It is the lining that takes the strain, helping to prevent further tearing of the leather.

This seat is from a Korium chair. The leather was torn along the stitches, typical of this type of furniture. The old leather was removed and replaced with new veg tanned leather, stitched, dyed and finished, all by hand.

New leather inlays for a desk and two wine tables (actually, they are antique vase stands now used as side tables). The inlay was supplied and gold embossed by Ron Berry at https://www.desktopleatherlinings.co.uk/

I made and added tassels to replace the old ones and treated the leather. You can see the difference between the treated (darker) and untreated (lighter) leather.

The leather binding (made from rawhide) hand deteriorated, dried out and hand become brittle. The new binding was made from natural veg tanned leather.

This is a simple Workshop/Bar Stool, which was covered in PVC. Inspired by Bettega Vaneta, I decided to replace the original cover with this woven pattern. I cut the legs a bit shorter in order to turn it into my sewing stool when I need to machine stitch.

This is a set of 14 chairs. All leather was replaced with an Italian aniline veg tanned hide. The weave and lacing were redone in the same style as the originals. Leather feet replaced the missing or damage felt feet.

This client had a sample done by a leather worker, which was badly done. I was asked to do a sample on one chair. This required choosing the right leather for the job, cutting and splitting the strips, weaving and replicating the lacing. The torn and worn felt feet were replaced with leather feet. I am glad to say that I got the contract for all 14 chairs!

A folding camp chair with leather arms, seat and back needed minor repairs and a stain removed from the seat. Stains are particularly difficult to remove (and often can't be removed) from leather. This is because leather soaks up liquids deep into the fibres.

Chinese Chair. Ok, it doesn't have any leather - but - what a wonderful piece it turned out to be after sanding, repairing and staining.

The top was replaced with hair on hide leather provided and the bottom strengthened. The lacing was replaced and holes in the base had eyelets installed to prevent further tearing. The pouffe was finally colour and was treated.