We started off September by visiting the annual Decorex show up at Syon Park, just outside London.

Over the years, we have seen the amount of fabric suppliers, exhibit less and less, mainly due to the majority of them having showrooms at Chelsea Harbour Design Centre. However, it’s always a great opportunity to see the new season designs and say hello to old faces.

Our new favourite from the show was from Art of the Loom and the “Harewood Collection”. Luckily our clients think the same and this week we’re using it on a rather gorgeous Victorian small bedroom tub chair.

In October, one of our fellow Dorset upholsterers brought another trade show to our attention. This one was much smaller and held in Cheltenham – Road Trip! Off we went and although we saw the same faces, we did come across new fabric suppliers which made the trip worthwhile. We can also recommend the M5 services at Gloucester.

As part of our training we had to learn not only the practical aspect of upholstery but also provide a couple of dissertations. One being the history of 20th century design but also the historical use of upholstery fabrics. Now some fellow students absolutely hated this part of the course but we found it to be a fundamental part of the training and more so in the real world when it comes to providing advice. Not only can we offer this knowledge it also helps when trying to date an antique item.

We would like offer the following insights which may or may not be found in any guides:

• Martindale test – measures abrasion resistance, the higher the figure the better. For a high usage item such as a lounge chair we would advise of 40,000 plus.
• Wool is brilliant, especially patterned.
• Thread count – the higher the thread count the stronger the fabric.
• A herringbone weave will be stronger than a plain weave.
• A felted type wool in a dark colour is not great if you own a Golden Retriever.
• Buttons on a check or striped piece of furniture can be a bad idea (wonky lines).
• Linen clothes go baggy after a few outings…just think of the same effect on a piece of furniture. Whilst one may like the idea of using a 100% linen, sometimes a man-made fibre added to the mix is not a bad idea.
• The majority of fabric comes in a standard width, if it is patterned and going on a large item make sure the pattern matching costs are factored in.
• Cats have no idea how expensive the material is.
• Teenagers will not realise that chairs with castors should NOT be pulled across an oak floor.
• Decent fabric costs more than £20 per metre (at least).
• Regardless of how tough a material is, it will not be protected by wine spills, sticky chocolate fingers or items in pockets…not even leather or vinyl will survive a sharp metal clothing adornment.

Now the nearest one to the upholstery workshop is very interesting with lots of areas selling at the same time and on our initial scout around we noted a couple of “egg” type chairs and some large wooden set squares perfect for cutting material. However, the chairs were not going to be under the hammer for a few hours which meant more time to look round and the trouble with that is the more you look, the more you find items that you really, really need. So a few hours in, we had purchased a sad looking stool, an original Parker Knoll chair, the set squares, a sled(!!?) and a cabinet.

Now the cabinet had been early on in the auction but had not been sold and was situated near the egg chairs and it seemed to be crying out to us. It wasn’t a particularly amazing item but it was glazed and would be perfect for our fabrics so after having a word with the auctioneer we negotiated the price of £20.

After getting it back to the workshop we discovered it was probably from a museum or school as a display cabinet for fossils but not only that, it had a stamp marking on the side – A crown over V.R. Any marking on an item is exciting, we often see them on chairs so to get a royal crest was great and we’re looking forward to researching more. Not a bad quality piece of furniture for £20.