“Fully upholstered Victorian Horse Shoe Chair” by Emma Mullender

Crushed velvet fabric on antique chair (2016) by Emma Mullender

Thank you so much for the painstaking attention to detail in restoring my chair. It looks and feels beautiful and has been given a whole new lease of life. The care, craftmanship and professional service was more than I had hoped for and I am therefore a very happy customer.

Zoe Constable

The Brief

This Victorian Horse shoe chair had been in the clients family for many years. Nothing was salvageable needed a full strip down and be rebuilt. My client found some great quality crushed velvet fabric that was a dream to work with. She wanted the chair to sit pride and place again in her home.

The Process

Rebuilding a chair is a physical job. It requires a lot of patience and a huge amount of time to strip and rebuild a chair. Traditional methods, which include re-webbing, sewing in new springs and a gradual build up of stuffing using hessian, horse hair, coconut fibre, cotton wadding and special stiches were used to complete this antique chair. Double piping frames the arms and side panels.

Fully upholstered chair covered in Themis fabric by Sanderson.

Upholstered chair (2018) by Emma Mullender

“Emma went above and beyond to help me source the most beautiful fabric. She has an excellent eye for detail and has given my chair a new lease of life. I love it”

Liz Stark

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The Brief

Quite often the reason I’m asked to upholster a chair is because it has been inherited and has a sentimental value. Liz wanted to transform her dads old chair and small footstool. She wanted a modern fabric, but a design that would stand the test of time.

The Process

I took Liz fabric shopping to get a feel of what she likes. She chose a beautiful peacock design fabric, made by Sanderson. When I received the chair it was in a sorry state to say the least! It needed to be stripped back to the wood and built back up again. Originally the chair had a very flimsy box cushion seat made of foam, which I changed to a fixed seat by building up layers using traditional upholstery methods. I also sanded the dark varnish off the arms, exposing a lighter shade of oak, which matched perfectly with the feathers in the fabric.

“Pub Bench” Stig Ljunberg fabric” by Emma Mullender

Upcycled Bench (2019) by Emma Mullender

Creativity is making marvellous out of the discarded

Inspiration

I was lucky enough to be gifted some beautiful fabric from my mother in law. She bought the fabric, which designed by the famous designer Stig Ljungberg, whilst visiting Sweden. Ljungbergs fabrics was founded by Erik Ljungberg in 1948 and sold a collection of fabrics designed by Stig Ljunberg. I was super impressed by the design, it was right up my street! and I knew that I wanted to use it to cover a bench for our kitchen. Now I just needed to find the bench!

The Process

It took a while, but I eventually found a bench that would be suitable for our kitchen table. As always, I bought the bench second hand for the bargain price of £20! The bench was in great condition, but I wanted to paint the wood. I used a chalk paint (which rarely use) because I didn’t quite fancy the job of sanding the wood down! I also had the arms on the bench shortened by a carpenter so it would fit under the table better.

Unfortunately the fabric wasn’t quite long enough, but I was determined to use it, so I sewed in some black end panels each side and made a feature out of them by decorating the ends with some yellow studs. I’m really happy with the finished result and the bench sits happily in our kitchen. I even made some art to match the design!

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The Best Things in Life Are Old, Loved & Rescued!

Leopard Print Cabinet

We bought this from Emma to use as a drinks cabinet. High quality finish. We are very pleased and looks great in our room. Thanks Emma!

Maggie Sharp-Smith

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Large Retro Sideboard

“Emma transformed an old and very weathered G plan sideboard for us. I fell in love with the wallpaper and set about finding a sideboard to put it on. Emma was very helpful and gave great ideas and solutions. The sideboard is now the main focus in our room, and we all love it!”

Yvonne Leggett

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1960s G-Plan sideboard

We bought this lovely sideboard from Emma. We were impressed by her professional approach and her helpful manner. We highly recommend her to others!

Mr & Mrs Southcott

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Retro Chest of Drawers

The essence of art is to produce the modern idea under an antique form.     

Oscar Wilde

Do you have some retro furniture that needs bringing back to life?

Get in Touch!

Emma x