Ruby's Royal Red Chair

Little Ruby. the jack russell was the only living being who could sit comfortably in this grand old chair that belonged her great grandfather (on the human side of the family tree).

It's most recent refurb seemed to be from the 70's - striped poo-gold velvet. But the stuffing, oh lordy, it was like a bio-hazard ready to unleash the plague on us. Katie put her hand in that (hell) hole and pulled out spring after spring after spring...

We've found some wierd and gross stuff in the back of chairs but never found a signature before. It's  signed 'J. Wilson Oct 1913' (wonder what he died of?). Image on the right shows the start of the tedious  wood cleaning process, but its always a joy when the wood grain starts to show itself through 100 years or more of grime and dead skin cells (apparently).

16 springs no less, all sanded and oiled - the lengths we go to! 

Now would you look at that! The fabric is 100 percent wool (ecowool) from Sustainable Living Fabrics (I love and admire this company) the colour is 'Poppy'. The finished details of wood work and tacks here on your right, take note of that tacking folks, no staples and hot-glued brocade here thanks, each one hammered in. Ruby, darlin', on your bed!

The lovely Loretta's luscious sun-lounges

When Loretta called us over to see her 1950's sun-lounges, we assured her they should definitely not go to the tip. They were weather beaten and every fitting rusted but we were so pleased that Loretta recognized the beauty of bygone era craftsmanship, saved them, and gave us the opportunity to make them shine.

After hours and hours of meticulous sanding, some stylish canvass choices and some precision tacking...

  

... all that's missing is a cruise ship deck, one of those chicks in the high-waisted, long bottomed, gold bikini, holding a coconut and sipping, with scarlet lips, on a cocktail.

All sleek with there canvass pin-stripes and perfectly spaced brass tacks and golden Danish Oiled teak... ooo, fancy. We were so sad to hand these back, Loretta had to prise them out of our sweaty hands. A couple of weeks later we found two on eBay with their original umbrellas (to keep the sun off the chick in the bikini), so we'll keep you posted on their progress. 

Those beautiful wood-fired plant pots there are from Virginia Jones another of my favourite ceramic artists. Her work is currently available at artisan in Brisbane and Object gallery in Sydney.

From lumpy-bottom to love-chair

Ooo, would you look what came in our front gate!

NO, don't take it inside, bring it here, lets have a look...
Here's one way to solve a sagging spring problem, use 50 or so screws and attach a sheet of ply. Then the springs have no where to go but up which is unfortunately contraindicated to putting your bum down.

 

I call this a frustrating, dust-filled tedious task, Katie, the Stripper, calls it a meditation on layering, a scrutiny of the previous upholsterer's skill (or lack thereof), an appreciation of design and construction and a bonding/getting to know you time for caretaker and forlorn object.

On special occasions, the nanna rug comes out in the kitchen-table/final-touches workshop. Featured on the left is the miracle of a beeswax glow on some lovely grain and here, on your right, we have the almost completed tacking touches. We used that lovely fabric again, the 'Grand Hearts' in Kimono Red by Umbrella Prints. It seems to make people smile. As we pulled up outside the Salvation Army store to deliver the chair to Elissa's shop Evoke, on Carrington St, Lismore, we were offered a home to deliver the chair to and were asked if we were donating it to the Salvos. It made it to Evoke through the pedestrian obstacle course of 3 people (its a busy town) and below is a couple of pics that Elissa took and featured on her blog here. Hearts in the heart of Lismore :-)