Modern Chair Restoration

change of pace

Posted on November 17, 2011 by MCR

Lately I’ve been making crewel embroidered pillows when I need a break from pulling staples and weaving paper cord.

These owls are a vintage design from the MCM period. I like little personal touches like this that fall outside the classic looks you see everywhere.

It’s a completely different mental and physical task, as you can imagine. Fun in a different way.

This one is based on a vintage illustration by Alice and Martin Provensen.

The embroidery is wool and the fabric is a cotton/linen blend in a flax-y color.

Whooo!

I keep thinking I’ll incorporate some different stitches but I end up doing the same few all the time.

These are all currently available at Home Anthology in Catonsville, MD.

Look for a robot pillow in the near future…

Posted in mid-century modern, vintage accessories | Tagged crewel birds, crewel owl, crewel pillow, vintage crewel pillow | Leave a comment

Erik Kierkegaard desk chair

Posted on November 14, 2011 by MCR

This desk chair by Danish designer Erik Kierkegaard arrived with an 80s beach print lightweight cotton fabric.

Oh, my, no.

Here it is in a much more appropriate “Arno” by Knoll, a rich, all-wool fabric in taupe. You can almost hear the chair sighing in relief.

(This chair, by the way, is one of the most comfortable out there.)

The original elastic webbing had been replaced with conventional jute webbing, which was worn out.

One fun thing about the stripping phase is discovering marks that were hidden. The last line here is a bit hard to make out but it says “E. KIRKEGAARD”.

The seat frame is ready for new webbing.

This elastic webbing is like what is used in clothing, only on very high doses of steroids. It provides firm support but with just enough give to make it comfortable under the foam padding.

After the foam and fabric are in place, the bottom is covered with non-woven, synthetic cambric, which I trim close to the staples.

The covering on the back is stapled and hand sewn. I like that little joint detail that shows just outside the edge of the fabric.

I’m a big fan of contrasting fabric and wood. I love how the cool gray looks with the warm teak, and how the fuzzy wool contrasts with the smooth wood.

Posted in Danish chairs, mid-century modern, mid-century modern office furniture | Tagged Danish teak chair, Erik Kierkegaard chair | 13 Comments

Danish Modern lounge chair

Posted on November 10, 2011 by MCR

I think this is an American-made chair. The frame is walnut with a glossy varnish finish. The Pirelli webbing had lost its stretch and was sagging, and it had no cushions at all.

I cleaned the grime and paint scuffs off the frame, put in new elastic webbing, and made new boxed, welted cushions. The fabric is a tweedy wool boucle in a color between brown and gray with coppery flecks. It’s a great foil for the warm tones of the wood.

One thing I liked about this chair was that it had a low profile but the seat was still at a good height for getting up out of. I think the legs are just an inch or two taller than most chairs of this style. It’s a subtle difference in looks that made a big difference in comfort.

Posted in Danish chairs, mid-century modern | Tagged Danish Modern lounge chair | 12 Comments

1965 Flex-Steel armchairs

Posted on November 7, 2011 by MCR

These two vintage armchairs had great lines but the original fabric was kind of tired-looking.

This photo by Rob of Home Anthology shows the chairs when HA acquired them. They did a lot of cleaning and spiffing up but even that wasn’t quite enough, plus the foam was shot. The seats had a saggy feel that went beyond the cushions.

The finished chairs in Knoll’s “Cross Stitch”, a wool tattersall check.

The chairs were made by Steelcase and were dated 1965 on a label stapled inside. They were very nicely made with rounded edges on the hardwood. This quality touch matters because fabric rubbing against unrounded edges will wear out much faster.

The back and had this kind of strange overlay of paper cord and piano wire attached to the sinuous springs. That was new to me.

Under the cord/wire web on the seat was this interesting metal band spring unit—also new to me. I think it was maybe a Flex-Steel innovation.

The neat little check pattern was well-suited to the tailored lines of the chair. Handsome!

Posted in mid-century modern | Tagged mid-century modern lounge chair, Steelcase armchair, Steelcase lounge chair | Leave a comment

Clifford Pascoe dining chairs

Posted on November 3, 2011 by MCR

These 50s dining chairs by Clifford Pascoe are often attributed to Paul McCobb but they just look similar to a design of his.

The original seat covering always seems to be an ivory vinyl and it’s always kind of bunchy at the corners. But they’re nice chairs!

The owner of this pair chose Eames “Small Dot” fabric in gray. Such an improvement.

The original seats were hard and I just assumed there was no padding under the vinyl. It looked like wood…sort of.

But then I looked more closely and saw that there was a thin layer of very compressed foam, like only 1/16″ thick, over the whole surface of the seat. It was easy to scrape off and underneath was nice clean plywood.

Done!

Posted in Eames, mid-century modern | Tagged Clifford Pascoe, Eames small dot fabric, McCobb-style, mid-century modern dining chair, mid-century modern kitchen chair | 9 Comments

Poul Hundevad “Gold Hill” stool

Posted on October 24, 2011 by MCR

Poul Hundevad designed this folding stool based on one that was found in a grave dating to the 1300s BC in Vamdrup, Denmark. It is the oldest known piece of Scandinavian furniture.

This is part of the label that was glued to the bottom of the original seat. (Note: “bronceage” = Bronze Age.) I always thought that Hundevad’s stool was a stylized version of the original but turns out it is identical except for the way the leather is held in place in the frame.

You can read more about it on Denmark’s Nationalmuseet site.

This particular stool’s original leather seat was very dried out and had torn down the middle. I didn’t get a photo of it before I took it apart but here’s a bit of the leather.

I cut a new seat of some beautiful cognac-colored leather with a waxy, pebbled finish. These doweled slot joints are Hundevad’s design, or maybe he got the idea from another old piece. Ingenious!

The stool is available at Home Anthology in Catonsville, MD.

Posted in Danish chairs, mid-century modern | Tagged early Scandinavian stool, Hundevad, Hundevad stool | 4 Comments

Goodform Steno Chair #2

Posted on October 18, 2011 by MCR

I found this Goodform steno chair in a thrift shop. It was dated 1978 and had seen a lot of use. The upholstery was sagging over the compressed foam and the aluminum frame was dirty and scuffed.

And that backrest! But I love the rectangular back part. Whatever it’s called.

I chose this wool frieze fabric in a bright tomato red.

It’s a nice change from the dreary old checked fabric that was on there.

The metal frames on some of these old chairs were coated with a lacquer that turns yellow and gets chipped over time. The only way I know of to fix it is to scrub it off with acetone and steel wool and lots of elbow grease.

You can see the yellowed lacquer here, plus some dirt and black heel marks.

Same thing after the MCR treatment!

The back, all straight and level. Turns out it was just a loose screw.

Posted in mid-century modern, mid-century modern office furniture | Tagged Goodform office chair, Goodform steno chair, Vintage Goodform | 4 Comments

Grete Jalk teak lounge chair

Posted on October 18, 2011 by MCR

This beautiful teak armchair by Danish designer Grete Jalk is the one you don’t see so often. I got it with no cushions and the webbing redone kind of incorrectly.

The zig-zag weave pattern looks a little odd but it is correct. What’s incorrect is the use of jute webbing that was cut lengthwise to the suitable width but that left it with fraying edges. The original webbing was an extruded vinyl.

Since the vinyl webbing is not available, I used heavy cotton webbing. I realized after this photo was taken that the front rail had been put on upside down a long time ago, so that was redone before proceeding. (The chair is of knock-down construction so this wasn’t too hard.)

The finished chair with sculpted foam cushions covered in a very soft nubby gray fabric. It really gives an understated elegance to this classic Danish chair.

This fabric is bulky so I did top-stitched seams instead of the usual welt. This is a nicer finish on the rounded edges anyway.

Posted in Danish chairs, mid-century modern | Tagged Danish furniture, Danish lounge chair, Grete Jalk, Made in Denmark, teak lounge chair | 16 Comments

Mad mod upholstered bench

Posted on October 11, 2011 by MCR

This upholstered bench had been languishing at Home Anthology for awhile.

The fabric on it was not awful—a lightweight cotton with a print of little orange-red shapes. But it was bland. And what you can’t see here is that the elastic webbing was totally shot under the upholstery.