Custom Vintage G Plan 6250 Swivel Chair + Ottoman in Red Leather

Over the last few weeks I have been working on another vintage G Plan 6250 swivel chair and footstool. The enquiry came to me via my Etsy store. The customer had seen the black chair we did earlier in the year and requested the same chair in a deep red leather.

At the time I didn’t have a G Plan chair in stock, but luckily I was able to source one in good condition within a week. I prepared some red leather samples in varying shades and sent these out to the customer. Upon receiving the samples, the customer decided to use a mid-tone red leather, called Bordeaux.

When I received the G Plan chair into stock it was covered in the original brown dralon and also had the original G Plan label attached to the seat platform. The chair was in average condition for its age with the base in good condition, but the castors, although functional, were showing slight signs of wear.

Once the frame was stripped, it went off to the workshop to begin its transformation. When the chosen leather was delivered, there was a problem with the quality of one of the hides. There were a couple of holes in one of the pieces (which isn’t unusual as natural scars are cut out of the hides) but as we were cutting such large pieces, this hide was not suitable. I had to return this hide and a new one was promptly sent back out. This delayed the project a little but couldn’t be helped.

The chair frame required new webbing, wadding, and a new foam seat cushion. Once the chair was reupholstered in the soft red leather, it looked out of this world! The colour suited the style of the chair and complimented the dark show wood perfectly.

A few weeks into the initial order I had the opportunity to buy another of the matching 6251 footstools. I contacted my customer to see if she would also like to purchase this and have it covered in the same red leather. She decided she would love to have the matching stool, so this was secured and delivered to me.

When I took delivery of the footstool I realised that the wooden base was a lighter colour than the base of the chair. So, off it went to Neil my local french polisher to darken it down! Neil came to the conclusion that the base had originally been lightened in the past. When he took the chrome support off, there were remnants of old masking tape, and the original dark colour varnish was underneath!

I was really pleased with this project and my customer was a real pleasure to deal with from start to finish.

My customer was also delighted with the result once it was delivered and unpacked. She sent me this kind message:

”We are OVERJOYED with our beautiful new chair and footstool. It is absolutely wonderful to sit in something that is so very comfortable and it fits into its new home absolutely perfectly”. – C.W + family, Surrey

If you think this project is pretty cool and want your own G Plan swivel chair to relax in, then I’ve recently had another 6250 swivel chair and footstool come into stock which is now available to pre-order. Please contact me to discuss further!

Busy behind the scenes… and another vintage G Plan Footstool!

Apologies for the lack of blog updates over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been super busy working on custom chair orders, which is great, but as most of them are ‘secrets’ until they are actually finished I can’t update you with progress as I go along. Booooo!

I can, however, now show you something that was collected last week. Last month I had the opportunity to restore another (yes, another) vintage G Plan 6251 footstool to match a 6250 swivel chair I did at the end of last year. A nice man purchased this chair for his wife as a present for her 40th birthday (how lovely!). He loved the chair so much he then decided to order a matching footstool to compliment her chair.

I sourced a suitable vintage G Plan footstool and recovered it in a vintage effect grey leather and the Tamasyn Gambell ‘Textured Stripe’ geometric linen to match the chair. It looked amazing when finished. I am hoping to get a photo of the two together! I heard they also ordered the matching Tamasyn Gambell lampshade too!

What’s in the box….?

Restored Vintage G Plan 6251 Footstool Ottoman

The lovely family who gave a home to the two black vintage G Plan 6250 swivel chairs last month, really wanted a matching vintage 6251 footstool / ottoman to compliment their chairs. After numerous phone calls and internet searches I managed to track one down. They appear to be quite hard to get hold of in good condition.

I was really excited about this project as this was the first time I had actually managed to (physically) get my hands on one. I wasn’t disappointed – they are every bit as beautiful as they are in the pictures.

The original foam foot cushion was covered in a beige dralon so this was removed and recovered in a matching black leather. These cushions are attached to the curved wooden base using press fasteners. One part is screwed into the wood, and the other is fixed into the fabric strap underneath the cushion. Slight panic set in when I realised I would have to replace the fastener on the straps, but, thankfully they are a standard size fit (15mm dia.) and the efficient ladies at J A Milton Upholstery Supplies were able to advise and supply the kit I needed! Phew!

There were some slight wear marks to the wood at the edges of the curved support. I decided to get these recoloured by Neil, my local french polisher and the finshed result looked fantastic.

The customer was really pleased with this footstool and sent me this lovely comment:

“The footstool is GORGEOUS – a HUGE thanks!” S.H & family, London

I’ve just managed to secure another two of these footstools. They will be custom covered to match some of the G Plan chairs we are currently working on. I’ll update you with the progress on those over the next few weeks.

If you already have a vintage G Plan 6250 swivel chair and would like a matching custom vintage footstool, please contact me to be put on the waiting list.

The Vintage 6251 Footstool Before Restoration

The Press Fastener Tools + Kit from J A Milton

Custom Order for a Pair of Vintage G Plan 6250 Swivel Chairs

The G Plan 6250: This iconic model is believed to have been designed by Paul Conti for G Plan in the early 1960’s, and quickly rose to fame as it was featured in the James Bond movie of 1967, ‘You Only Live Twice’. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘Blofeld Chair’ (see Ernst Stavro Blofeld if you are not a James Bond fan!). Last year, G Plan re-launched this model, now called the ‘Sixty Two’ – as part of their Vintage range.

Last month, we received a custom order request over on our Etsy Store, for an original retro G Plan 6250 swivel chair to be recovered in black leather.

Luckily we already had one newly recovered in black leather waiting and ready to go! So we couriered this to our excited customer in London. When they received this chair, they decided that just the one chair looked a little lost in the space they had, so we were immediately given the go ahead to restore another one to match.

We already had a chair in stock waiting to be stripped down, and just a few weeks later (after a bit of hard graft), chair number two was completed and sent on down to London to form the iconic pair.

“Dear Amy. Just a quick note to say what a delight it has been dealing with you. Fast, efficient and fabulous. Great result. We love our chairs. Many thanks!” – S.H & family, London

I’m sure you will agree that they look rather stunning together in their new home. They have been teamed with a charcoal grey corner group sofa, set within a basement living space.

The customer was so pleased with the order that they asked us to source a matching vintage G Plan 6251 ottoman footstool. After many phone calls and internet searches, the seemingly rare item was finally tracked down. It will be delivered to me this week and we’ll be working on it over the next few weeks. This will also be recovered in the black leather to match the chairs.

I am currently completing another custom G Plan 6250 chair order, this time in a beautiful deep red leather. If you have been inspired by this post, and would like to place a custom order for one of these chairs (or a pair!), please do get in touch to be added to the waiting list. I will source the perfect original G Plan 6250 for you, and also help with the choice of custom leather or fabrics. For inspiration view our previous projects here.