Wingback Armchairs in Sanderson Wool

A pair of late 19th Century wingback armchairs fully reupholstered and covered in Sanderson Woodford Plaid 100% wool.

Sometimes upholstery is like tailoring, and while chairs are certainly less fidgety than people, they can be just as demanding. Those large checks still have to line up you know.

It's fair to say that this shapely pair took more a fair bit longer than anticipated, but worth it in the end I think.

These are a commission.

Enormous Bean Bag

I made this huge bean bag floor cushion as a prop for Jem Moore for his new photography studio in Aberaeron. It's 5 feet long and three feet wide.

I'd never made one this size before and getting 30 cubic feet of polystyrene beans into it soon became a family matter. 2 adults, one eight year old and a home-made cardboard funnel did the trick. So if you need a vast floor-lounger, it looks like I'm your man.

A succession of stools

I've been making lots footstools and dressing stools for sale in local retailers, all covered in Welsh wool and ready for Christmas. Here are a few:

I've been stocking up on small items at the auction houses recently, let me know quickly if you need any for Christmas presents.


(Some terrible photography/Photoshop work here I know but you get the general idea.)

Milking Stool in Melin Tregwynt Wool

 A milking stool in Melin Tregwynt St. David's Cross (Ember) doublecloth. I used the B side for a change, nice eh?

I never expected to make anything cute, but this certainly is that.

Might get ruined if you actually used it for milking cows, but that's your decision.

Bus Stop Chair at Cwm Twrch, Swansea Valley.

Here's a chair I saved from landfill - now available for bus travellers on the A4068 at Cwm Twrch.

I covered the chair seat and back in some damaged sections of one of my wife, Julie Ann Sheridan's acrylic paintings. She's got a new show opening at The Last Gallery in a couple of weeks, you might want to get along to that and snap up some of her work.

As ever I added a plastic toy. A slightly scared looking spaceman.

Appearance on ITV's Alan Titchmarsh Show

Ludicrously I was asked to go on the Alan Titchmarsh Show to talk about Guerilla Upholstery. I said yes. Whatever next?

I did manage to shake Alan's hand wearing hairy gorilla hands, so it was all very worthwhile.
This is a shaky film of the programme on a TV to spare you the rest of the very highbrow programme content.

Parker Knoll Armchairs in Melin Tregwynt wool

A pair of 1960's Parker Knoll 988 'King & Queen' armchairs in Melin Tregwynt Mondo Sage wool.

I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw these in a skip in my local recycling centre. I fished them out and was delighted to find the frames were still in excellent condition.

After a full restoration, they are now covered in 100% wool by these great people.

'King and Queen' means one is smaller than the other, but in this case they're identical chairs but one has wings. I think we'll call the one with wings the Queen rather than the King if that's ok with you?

These chairs are for sale at £1200 for the pair.

1930's armchair in St. Jude's fabric

A 1930's armchair restored and reupholstered in St.Jude's Treehouse linen.

This customer has a very 1950's style home and when I showed her the St. Jude's early range, she went straight for this pattern. It goes well on the simple structure of this chair.

 Seat detail.

This was a commission.

Bus Stop Chair at Rhosaman

Here's a chair I saved from the dump - now available for bus-waiting purposes on the A4068 between Rhosaman and Cymllynfell.

I painted the chair and covered it in a scrap of damaged Welsh blanket (or carthen), so it looks quite appropriate on the southern edge of the Black Mountain.

And, what do you know? it even has a little plastic sheep tacked to the foot rail.

Ercol armchair in Melin Tregwynt Wool

An Ercol 203 armchair reupholstered in Melin Tregwynt St. David's Cross (Birchwood) doublecloth.

These chairs have now reached the status of Genuine British Classic and need no introduction from me.

The wool is an historic pattern based on early 18th Century Shaker weaves but carries the well-known motifs of centuries of Welsh blankets. Woven in Wales by these terrific people .

The seat cushion is a bespoke fit but I decided not to make a bespoke seat back this time because I wanted the back spindles to be visible for that Shaker look. This also makes the back cushion more versatile, allowing it to be used on other chairs/sofas/etc.

This chair is £500


The chair and the footstool below will be on show along with some of my other Welsh Wool chairs at the Llandovery Sheep Festival this weekend - they're mainly in the Red Giraffe Studio but there's also the Organic Wool Chair I made for Llynfi Textiles on their stall.

Give me a call if you're going and we could meet for a pint.

Long Footstool in Melin Tregwynt Wool

Long footstool traditionally reupholstered and covered in Melin Tregwynt St. David's Cross (ember).

£120 sorry, this was has now sold

Bus Stop Cushion at Llangadog (again)

In June last year I fitted a cushion to a bus stop bench on the A40 at Llangadog (details here). After a year it had become dirty and sun bleached so I thought I'd better replace it with a new one. Here it is.

I hope the people in the nearby houses look after it as well as they did the last one - I would occasionally pass by and it would be hanging down at the back or off the side, but by the time I'd return, someone would have straightened it up again.

Over the past year I've seen people stop to photograph it and seen many people sitting on it. I think this one is even more comfortable.

Armchair in Melin Tregwynt wool

A 1990's armchair re-upholstered in Melin Tregwynt Luna Autumn wool.

This customer spent ages looking for a comfortable armchair to replace their own slightly worn-out one but drew a blank. They gave me a call, I showed them my Welsh wool patterns - and now they have this.

Wool is such a great fabric for furniture because it is warm and comfortable. This pattern is very contemporary but looks traditional on this chair and will fit in to the customer's home well.

This is 100% wool doublecloth, woven in Wales by these fabulous people.
  

This was a commission - if you're cool enough to commission a chair in a fabric as wonderful as this then let me know, it's much less expensive than you think.

Lloyd Loom Armchairs in Welsh Blankets

Two different Lloyd Loom chairs re-painted and re-upholstered using different sides of a Welsh blanket or 'Carthen'.

I love Welsh wool and use it wherever possible but have a policy not to 'cut' them so I never use Welsh blankets that are in good condition, I think they're best kept as blankets. Here I found one that was very damaged and managed to salvage a few useable pieces. There are minor flaws in these too, so these chairs are available at a very reasonable price.

£95 per chair - can't be bad.

1940s Armchair

A 1940s armchair in a rather 1920s style, now covered in Sanderson Trilby Turtle (I kid you not).

I think this should have had a feather cushion but the customer wanted a sturdy foam seat. I think it worked out pretty well in the end.

 

I love the angle on this chair, best seen in this side view.

This was a commission - six metres of fabric on this, so it wasn't a cheap one, but as always with re-upholstery, well worth it.

1920s Caned Armchairs

A pair of 1920s caned armchairs re-upholstered in Sanderson tweed.

These chairs were in the house I grew up in and were originally upholstered by my dad. He was a trimmer in the car trade for Aston Martin, Vanden Plas and London Transport. His great claim to fame was that he upholstered the ejector seat in the James Bond Aston Martin. He also did re-upholstery from home and would make me stand around and pass him tools when I really wanted to be in my bedroom listening to The Smiths and generally being a whining teenager. The rest, of course, is history.

When my dad died a couple of years ago, I took these chairs and agreed to re-upholster them for my eldest sister - so here they are. The problem is that my brother always wanted them but had nowhere for them so my sister stepped in - I just hope he doesn't suddenly want them back...

I loved the fabric she chose, Sanderson Highland Weave - Skye, is 100% wool so my favourite material to work with. It really took some time getting these small checks to line up I can tell you, at times it felt more like tailoring.

This seat had to be re-caned, (not my favourite job in the world), but the other had already been re-caned by my dad in the 1980s so it was nice to have his work next to mine.

Many thanks to my sister Carmel for stumping up the cash to have these done, it's a pleasure to see them in use again. Please don't tell my brother or my other sister though - there'll be a regular Sheridan bun-fight.

Danish Chair in Melin Tregwynt Wool

1970's teak chair covered in Melin Tregwynt Mondo Sage wool. I think it's Danish but really can't be sure.

I've just secured a trade account with Melin Tregwynt and have invested in quite a bit of this pattern, so expect to see a few chairs in this in the coming months. The mill is one of very few still producing double-cloth in Wales.

This chair has been made for sale at Tregaron craft centre and is pretty expensive, but if you're fashionable enough to commission a chair in this outstanding fabric I can do one for you at a very reasonable price.