Teak Arm Chairs for Unknown by Unknown – 1950s (est.). These chairs are a simple beauty in the eye of the beholder story. I wish I had a before picture as the story would be easy to see. The seller purchased and used these chairs as a bridge to the designer chairs he really wanted. When the kids left for school, these were out and the named chairs were in. For this reason, he never truly cared for these very nice chairs, and moreover didn’t care to pay to have the totally worn (and ugly, really ugly) cushions redone. This was understood and the chairs were priced accordingly.
The work (my work) was pretty simple. There was no reason to do a total rework on these as some simple teak oil coating brought the wood back to life. The cushions were another story. The foam was dead and the zippers were not working. New cushions were an easy decision. It is important (to me at least), to keep things correct, namely to use period correct fabric when reupholstering is called for. In this case, I went with a manufacturer who has been making Danish fabrics for many decades. None of my projects are without a story, and this one is no different. I decided it best to order the fabric direct from the manufacturer and then farm out the work to a local upholstery shop. UPS tracking said the fabric was delivered, but I could not find it at my house despite an (overly) extensive search of all surrounding bushes. Always read the fine print – a few misplaced numbers and names, and the fabric ends up on the other side of town. Luckily I was able to find the person at the wrong address and of course my fabric.
In all, I am into these chairs to a level that is probably fair value, so this is not a “value creation” project. As with the person I purchased these chairs from, these chairs are going to end up as a bridge to another set of chairs that I would find months after having these reupholstered. I would be happy to discuss my thoughts on fabric suppliers and upholstery shops with interested parties.
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