Victorian Bolster-Back Chair in Welsh Wool

An 1883 bolster-back nursing chair reupholstered in Melin Tregwynt Mini-Madison wool.

Really unique looking chair this one. I'm calling it a 'bolster-back' chair for the scroll-type top that looks like a bolster. I googled 'bolster-back' and a couple of similar chairs popped up, so I'm happy with that. If anyone knows what they're really called please let me know.

The Melin Tregwynt fabric seems to really suit the chair - it's contemporary but with enough tradition to somehow pull it off. And the chair is all shape and not much detail so it can carry the pattern - something to consider when choosing a fabric.

This was very rickety when I first saw it. It came to me through cabinet-maker Jonathan Garrard who knocked it flat then put it all back together again.

And then I got my hands on it.

The leg detail and castors give a strong clue that this chair is from the late 1800s, but I'm going to stick my neck out and say this chair was made in 1883. In fact I reckon it was upholstered on April 21st of that year. How could I possibly know that? OK, see below - a piece of 'The London Reader' from that date. I found this along with the rest of the sweepings from the floor of that day (rags, thread, etc) - a common practice at the time.

And in case you were wondering, yes of course I put it back. Along with a note of my own, the date and of course a plastic soldier.

And why not eh?

This was a commission.

Push Me - Pull You Chair

This is the Push Me - Pull You chair. Two cut-down late 19th Century cane chairs joined together and upholstered in a period tapestry fabric.

This is what you might call design through experimentation. Originally intended as a guerrilla upholstery piece destined for a bus stop, my wife saw it and said 'I'm having that' and walked off with it.

So it sits in our dining room and is used as an extra dining chair, mainly by kids who don't mind not having a proper chair to sit on. A friend saw it and said 'ah, the Pushmi Pullyu, Doctor Doolittle would be pleased'.

The chairs came for the local tip. One had no front legs so the saw was required.

And some screws and batens to join them together.

The tapestry fabric was given to me by one of my neighbours and might be 100 years old but could easily be from the 1950s. Who knows. Who cares, it's ace.

This chair might be for sale if you can persuade my wife.

Good luck with that.

Bedroom Chairs in Charleston House fabric

A pair of late 19th Century bedroom chairs upholstered in Charleston House Grapes fabric.

These were originally cane-seat chairs found in the attic of one of my customer's houses. They were easy enough to adapt for upholstery with some jute webbing but the rails are quite slender so we just about got away with double piping on these. But it had to be piping - you can't go sticking braid over a pattern like this now can you?

The customer picked up half a metre of the fabric herself from Charleston House and there wasn't quite enough fabric to make two matching chairs so the pattern-match had to be randomised.

The fabric was designed by Duncan Grant in 1931. Grant was a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group and a prolific painter and designer. Along with his (working) partner Vanessa Bell, and with input from the great Roger Fry, he established Charleston Farmhouse with its sort of English Country/Mediterranean cottage garden. It's my guess that this was the inspiration for this fabric, but I'm only guessing.

Here's Grant (left) with his sometime lover, economist John Maynard Keynes. Imagine how different Britain would be today if these people had really been allowed to flourish, certainly not in a floundering, unprincipled political environment that's for sure. These people had ideas. These are my kinda people.

Oh, and nice chairs too eh?


This was a commission.

#charlestonhouse #duncangrant #vanessabell #bloomsburygroup

Victorian Nursing Chair

A Victorian iron-frame chair reupholstered in Sanderson cut velvet.

A really fine specimen that I decided to shallow-button rather than deep-button because I didn't want to upset the geometry of the pattern.

Great shape on it eh?

This was a commission.

Bus Stop Chair at Meidrim, Carmarthenshire.

Chair now available to bus travellers on the B4299 at Meidrim, Carmarthenshire.

This was a collaboration with artist Julie Ann Sheridan who is involved in various guerrilla art projects often involving leaving landscape paintings in the place they depict.

I upholstered a discarded chair in canvas onto which she drew the very bus stop in which the chair now sits.

And on the seat she drew the view from the bus stop.

Watch out for more collaborations coming soon.

Victorian Chaise Longue in Eleanor Pritchard wool fabric

A late Victorian carved chaise reupholstered in Eleanor Pritchard straw ground fabric.

As 'long chairs' go, this one is pretty long eh?

Very nice.

As ever, I struggled to get the photography right in my workspace so the fabric looks somewhat brighter than it would without light streaming through the window - in other circumstances it might be nearer this colour...

Midcentury armchair in Welsh wool

A midcentury British armchair in the Danish style reupholstered in Melin Tregwynt wool fabric.

Nice eh? Only £300 to you - get in touch quick.

Milking Stools

A succession of new milking stools now being made for me from offcuts of ash by a craftsman from the village

Upholstered by hand-stitching to a tacked piped edge and in various offcuts of Welsh wool - what else?

These are roughly fifty quid each

Want one?

Well get in touch whydontcha?


(Not actually useful for milking cows or any other milkable animals).

Prince of Wales Investiture Chairs

Designed by Lord Snowdon and used by royals and other notable attendees of The Prince Wales’s 1969 investiture ceremony at Caernarfon Castle, the investiture chair was manufactured by Remploy and was made of a vermillion stained plywood and covered in Welsh wool.

Further to this blog entry and with the help of Digger and Mojo I have now finally sourced some of the original Welsh wool for these chairs. It's slightly less orange than the first batch but is exactly right in provenance in that it was woven by the same mill that did the original - the very same man in fact.

 I've done twelve of these in the last two weeks and they look superb in the new cloth.

 So if you have one or more and you live somewhere near me, bring them in. I you live nearer to Wiltshire then give Digger and Mojo a call and they'll do it for you. If you need fabric without upholstery this can be arranged through either of us.

What are you waiting for?

Bus Stop Stool at Neyland, Pembrokeshire.

A Psychedelic stool now available to bus travellers on the B4325 at Neyland, Pembs.

The stool was brought in by a customer but deemed to be 'without enough aesthetic merit to warrant the cost of reupholstery' and so was destined for landfill. I didn't do much to it, just re-used some webbing and foam from another armchair and some scraps of material to make it useful again.

Added a soldier (front leg, look carefully) and it was ready. I was thinking, I know just the place for this having passed the stop late last summer and photographed it. What I hadn't noted was that from our caravan in South Pembs I'd need to pay the 70p toll on the Cleddau Bridge to get to the bus stop and another 70p to get back again. So for the first time ever, this piece of guerrilla upholstery actually cost me money - £1.40 to be exact. That's half a pint in my local.

Who's going to buy me a half to make up for it?

Three Piece Suite in British Wool

A rare opportunity to see some of my work in situ - a lovely little three piece suite reupholstered in Camira wool fabric.

This suite was made in the 90's by Duresta in the UK and is thus very high quality. As it had fire certs and was in almost as-new condition beneath the light-damaged fabric, all I had to do was add feathers to the cushions and re-cover it.

I realise my photography is a far cry from those interiors magazines but the suite looks very smart in this graphite wool fabric doesn't it? And it's not every day I get to place my work in a grand Georgian pile such as this. I just need to remember - 'next time, close the interior doors when you're photographing.'

Look how well the curved back of the sofa would have mirrored the curve of the lamp table - particularly if  I'd closed that door...

This was a commission.

Wingback Armchair in Camira Wool

A 1960's wingback armchair reupholstered in Camira Blazer 100% wool.

Blazer is really just a very heavy duty felt so is great for getting neatly round all those curves - no weave to match and no need to cut anything on the bias.

I really love the splayed front legs on this- make it look very contemporary.

Although it doesn't have a maker's mark, I think the chair was made by Cintique because I recognise the spring unit.

But maybe these units were bought-in by various manufacturers in the UK from a central maker, a bit like in the car industry at the time (ever noticed how Lotus, Mini, Reliant, MG, British Leyland all have the same door handles?) - does anyone know if this is the case? These things are of great interest to me you know...

This was a commission.