I rewove the back with new rattan, which will eventually darken in color.  (Thanks to Rob Degenhard/Home Anthology for the rest of the photos here–my “after” shots were not up to par on this one!)

The new cushions are done in Knoll Classic Boucle in the Aegean colorway.

The notch on the arm rests dictated how thick the back cushions should be.  I did rounded edges with top-stitched seams, and I used invisible zippers instead of conventional ones so that all sides would look equally neat.

Olsen designed this settee too look as beautiful from the back as it does from the front.

Contact Home Anthology if you’re interesting in purchasing this settee.

Anyway, it had the original frieze fabric from the 1961, with a lot of wear.  A lot.

The owner chose Knoll “Classic Boucle” fabric in Aegean, a beautiful deep turquoise.

In addition to being worn, it was very faded.  The original color was a pretty jade green.

So much nicer!

The seat on this chair is a separate piece from the outer frame.  It has these sinuous springs that are attached to a center disc of wood.  The springs had a very disconcerting way of kind of collapsing when sat upon, which just wouldn’t do.   I started by sticking a blog of firm foam between the upholstery and the disc.

This is the outer frame.  The center of that X framing on the bottom was just under the disc of wood—with no support in between whatsoever!  So I stapled two coil springs to the base and now it’s got great support and is very comfortable.

I think it’s fine to stay as original as possible when restoring furniture, but if something is wildly uncomfortable and can be made more comfortable—and thus more functional—without changing the outward appearance, then I say GO for it.  Life is too short to spend any of it sitting on furniture that feels bad.

After the MCR makeover!

This is not the original upholstery.  They had been professionally redone long ago in this cotton fabric and then were abused like you wouldn’t believe.  This some of the dirtiest upholstery I’ve ever seen!

Fortunately it is possible to remove all of the old stuff down to the frame and replace it with clean new materials.  This is Knoll’s Classic Boucle, a wool/nylon blend that looks and feels lovely.  This is a dark brown that they call “Pumpernickel”.

Not only was the fabric dirty, but the teak was actually crusted with food in places, plus the usual paint scuffs—and whoever reupholstered them had also added a coat of lacquer to the wood, probably because it was dried out and someone thought it needed some gloss.

There’s nothing wrong with lacquer per se, but it was worn and peeling and kept my teak oil from being absorbed evenly.

I don’t normally do refinishing but since I had already begun upholstering these and the weather was cooperative, I dove in.  The wood looks about a million percent better now that it’s cleaned up.

Teak really only needs oil.

Ready for boarding!

This set is now available at Home Anthology in Catonsville, MD.

This is one of a set of six Cowhorn chairs by Hans Wegner that had been in the owners’ family since they were purchased in the late 50s or early 60s.  They were produced by Johannes Hansen, Copenhagen (and currently made by PP Møbler, Denmark).

At some point in the chairs’ early existence, they were coated with shellac.  Maybe this was to add some gloss to the teak.  I did some research to determine whether it was the original finish and the answer came back:  nope.  So I very carefully removed it and oiled the bare teak.

Oh, and I rewove the binder cane seat.

The seat had been shellacked too, but the cane had also darkened naturally.  The new cane will darken with age too, it’ll just take awhile.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with shellac as a finish, but it does get really dark over time and also can get gummy in humid weather.  You can actually see the wrinkles of someone’s shirt in the finish in this photo.  Dust and grime become imbedded in it.

The shellac was also faintly alligatored in areas.  Old shellac is brittle and it no longer flexes with minute swelling and contracting of the wood when the humidity changes.  It develops tiny cracks and feels and looks rough, kind of like an alligator hide.

This is the same chair back.  Wegner cut the back from mirrored pieces of the same block of wood and the light/dark effect is reversed if you look at it from the opposite angle.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.

That one little corner in the middle of the row of tenons is a chip that was filled in by the craftsman who made the chair.  It probably matched when he did it, but the wood darkened a bit more than the filler over time.  It must have been hard to get a perfect cut on those tenons on every chair, every time.  I imagine him cursing under his breath when that little corner broke off.

No, this is not a photo of my sweater sleeve.  It’s an extreme closeup of one of the chair backs showing the imprint of a Tshirt in the shellac.   That stuff just had to go.

The shellac had gotten so dark that it obscured the grain of the teak.

Wow, right?  I never got tired of looking at this.

These arms are just the perfect shape in your hand.

And now they look good, too.

I just like this photo.  Makes you just want to swoop your hand across that smooth wood.

Also, you don’t get that light/dark thing when you look at the backs straight on.  Only from an angle.

As so often happens, I forgot to take ‘before’ photos of this one.  You can find photos of old Pirelli webbing all over the internet, but what I wish I’d gotten was a photo of someone sitting on it.  Not only did it have a disconcerting sinking feeling, but the saggy webbing also caused the edges of the seat cushions to flip up, leaving big gaps around the sitter.

It really was a bit of a turn-off for this handsome piece of furniture.

I replaced the old stuff with new Pirelli webbing.  Now the same cushions are firmly supported and do not flip up when you sit.  It’s ready for a few more decades of use!

Thanks to Home Anthology for this one!

Some people might argue that the grime is part of the patina, but really it’s just…dirt.  It obscures the beauty of the wood.  Often it doesn’t even look that bad, especially because it builds up so slowly over such a long period that you don’t even realize it’s happening.

Here’s a good “before” shot of one chair back.  It’s not so bad, right?  The teak is a warm, rich color and you can see that interesting arched grain pattern, right?

This is actually not the same chair because I got them mixed up due to the very similar grain pattern.  But the difference between dirty and clean is the same on every chair.  Note that it doesn’t look brand new; that’s not what we’re after in cleaning these chairs–ever!  The wood has the look of old, well-care-for teak with color and grain that is not clouded by grime.  So simple and so beautiful.

I also converted this set from woven cord seats to black vinyl.  This model was produced with both types of seats, so this is acceptable.  It can also be easily reversed if someone wants woven seats on them again someday.

The new owners wanted a sleeker look so we decided on this foam cushion shaped to fit the curve of the back.  The new fabric is Knoll’s “Classic Boucle” in the Smoke colorway, medium gray with a hint of blue.

This was actually a new upholstery job but the fabric was thin and unforgiving did nothing to hide the uneven padding.

The owners asked for a shorter back cushion to give the chair a more modern look.  I think it works well and of course this restyling is easily reversible should a future owner want the original look again.

That front vertical seam—ouch.

I hand stitched the seam rather than using the hidden metal grip strip.  It’s just less noticeable.

You can also see a slight curve in the back cushion in this photo.  I added a layer of firm foam at the bottom for lumbar support.  It doesn’t look like much but it made a big difference in the comfort level of the chair.

This is the hand-done ladder stitch.  When you pull on it, the thread disappears and all you see is a neat, tidy seam.  This is the same stitch used on the Swan chair, Papa Bear chair, Egg chair, etc.

I hand stitched around the entire back, too.

This is a good view of the oiled walnut base and also the lower edge of the chair, which had been very lumpy and bumpy due to uneven padding and screw heads.

You can see the lumpy seam on the top outer edge of the arm in this one.   Note the big tucks in the corner of the cushion, too.

This chair was one of my favorite projects.

As is so often the case these days, I didn’t get a good “before” shot—just the one below of the lovely teal green vinyl that was original to the chairs.

I really wish I’d gotten one of the bent maple veneeer plywood arms/legs!  The original finish was glossy lacquer with no color added, but someone at some point had coated them with a very dark tinted varnish or polyurethane, maybe Minwax Polyshades.  It was streaky and they really looked like they’d been dipped in molasses.

Rob and Nini at HA had them refinished and now they have their natural color back with a smooth, satiny feel to it.

The fabric is Knoll’s “Rivington” in the Paprika colorway.  It has a vintage look that suits the chairs, and the color looks great with the maple.

These chairs have a curve to the back that fits the body beautifully.  Very comfortable!

The fabric was too bulky to fit onto the button blanks but fortunately I had this Italian glove leather in a red that matched perfectly.  Nice, huh?

The seats were a light-colored linen that was very worn, and the webbing and padding was DOA.

It was interesting to me as an upholsterer to see the different materials and methods used by Indian upholsterers vs. Danish or American.

For instance, this thin cotton/wool batting—cotton was standard here in that era and now we use mostly polyester.

The seat frames were some kind of exotic-looking wood.  Not the typical beech that you see in a Danish seat!

But enough of the geeky upholstery chit-chat.  Here are the finished chairs with new elastic webbing and a thin layer of foam for padding under the fabric.

The fabric is “Rivington” by Knoll, a slubby wool/acrylic/cotton blend with a hand-loomed look, designed by Dorothy Cosonas and woven in Belgium.

The original cotton cord was very worn with lots of broken strands.  I forgot to take photos of the whole chairs, as usual!

Same shot of the seat, redone with Danish paper cord which wears better than the cotton cord on the originals.  I think the cotton cord also stretches more than the paper cord, which you do not want.

The originals had a lot of knots like this one showing on the back.

I used a different weaving technique on the sides and also took care to attach all new strands with hidden staples instead of knots.

The originals always have these wrapped strands which end up bunched together unevenly.  Not a very sleek look.

With my method, there are wrapped strands but with wider spacing to avoid the bunched look.  And the side rails do not have those little wraps at all.

Another knot.

No knots, and that overlap on the lower rail turns into a pretty detail when repeated.

One more shot of those bunched-up wraps.  Last one, I promise.

These invite strumming, no?

Just as good-looking from the back as from the front so you can pull them out into the room if you want.