Bute Wool Vintage Cocktail Chairs

Earlier in the year we launched our first signature collection of Bute Wool Cocktail Chairs in seven bold block colours.

Bute Fabrics are based on the Isle of Bute off the west coast of Scotland and are manufacturers of wool and wool-rich upholstery fabrics. The Bute Wool mono-colour collection was introduced for those who prefer simpler styling, choosing to add pattern through soft furnishings. Soft summery shades of Menthol Mint, Quince Yellow and Squash Orange sit alongside a darker base palette of Carbon Charcoal, Thunder Sky Grey, Iris Purple and Monsoon Teal for a range suited to any colour scheme.

All our vintage cocktail chairs are fully stripped of all old fillings, and are fully restored using a mix of traditional and modern methods by our Long Eaton based team.

Priced at £625 each you can view the whole range available online here.

Restored Vintage Harp Arm Danish Armchairs

A pair of vintage Harp Arm chairs, possibly Danish, circa 1950’s which have recently been transformed by Florrie+Bill for a London Interior Design client, using a bespoke choice of fabric.

These chairs looked, (I will say it), slightly unattractive in their original condition. However, I knew once the old fabric was removed and replaced, they would look incredible. These gorgeous vintage chairs, feature beautiful harp arm detailing, and have stunning classic tapered legs with compact proportions.

The woodwork was in a bad way, so the arms and legs were professionally stripped back, and re-polished by Neil of Melbourne Hall Furniture Restorers. The wood was re-finished to a medium oak colour as per the request from the client.

The original fabric consisted of orange, brown and beige stripes, and had holes in places. All of the original worn interior fillings were removed and replaced with new, and re-built on the original sprung cage base unit.

The chairs were then reupholstered in Kirkby Designs ‘Apex‘ in Natural which features a large-scale chevron pattern. These chairs really suit the light and airy fabric choice which allows the show wood arms to really shine. For similar bespoke projects please contact me.

 

The New Flocktail for SS15 – Introducing ‘Flint’

Meet the new addition to the ‘Flocktail‘ Vintage Cocktail Chair Collection for SS15 – ‘Flint’.

With a bold, angular monochrome pattern it certainly makes a statement! The fabric is from the new collection by Flock, and is by designer Gyeongmi Shin. The chairs are all original vintage cocktail chairs, which have been fully restored by our expert upholsterers in Long Eaton, UK. The legs on this model have been completely stripped, and french polished to an ebony colour, to complete the look.

Yellow Bute Wool Chair available here

If you love the monochrome look, Flint is now available to purchase on the website here. You can also view the ‘Lookbook’ to see how to style it here.

Photography: Holly Booth

Our Latest Vintage G Plan 6250 Chair Reupholstery Projects

It’s been a busy few months here at Florrie+Bill restoring vintage G Plan 6250 swivel chairs. All these chairs have been restored to client’s own bespoke requirements, with Florrie+Bill recommending and suggesting the final fabrics. We even exported a matching pair of ivory and brown leather G Plan chairs to Dubai, UEA! Florrie+Bill goes international! If you have been inspired by these reinvented design classics, please get in touch if you would like to discuss a bespoke project of your own.

Navy Velvet Danish Armchair

Navy is a hot interior trend right now, so what better way to add it to your home with this deep inky blue velvet chair?

Image below shows the ‘before’ look

Restored by Florrie+Bill, this vintage Danish cocktail armchair has been newly recovered in Designers Guild Cassia velvet in colour ‘Ink’. Cassia is a luxurious, richly coloured matt velvet, and in this deep blue looks simply beautiful paired with the light colour show wood arms and classic tapered legs. All the woodwork was professionally restored by Neil at Melbourne Hall French Polishers.

The chair has been fully restored, and has a solid hardwood frame. It also has a full coil sprung seat cage, topped with new horsehair stuffing for superior comfort.

This is a stunning accent chair, which would look great in any mid-century inspired interior. It measures H: 76cm x W: 66cm x D: 72cm Seat Height: 43cm, and is for sale at £725 over at Florrie+Bill.

Restored 1980’s Benchair Carver Dining Chair in Bute Wool

How refreshing is it to see a bold, bright pop of colour on this Benchair carver chair? This super little retro chair has been restored specially for Quirk Lighting to use in their product photo shoots. Quirk design and hand make a range of seriously cool lampshades, and this chair – with its two colours, echoes their ‘pick & mix’ lampshade range perfectly. It has been recovered using Bute Fabric’s Pentland wool in a dark grey to the back of the chair, and a bright turquoise blue to the front.

Pick & Mix Lampshades available from Quirk Lighting

 

The chair was originally covered in an old and dirty yellow vinyl. The chair is stamped underneath with the date 7th May 1989. I have now also added the Florrie+Bill stamp to say the chair was restored in 2014, along with a small swatch of the original vinyl. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing this chair grace the pages of Quirk’s lighting website alongside their range of bespoke lighting products. I will be getting more of these chairs in stock soon. Please contact me if you are interested in creating your own pick & mix retro Benchair!

Vintage Cocktail Chair Collaboration with Flock Fabrics

I’m thrilled to announce that my restored vintage cocktail chairs which I have launched in collaboration with Flock are now available to purchase online.

A collection of vintage 1950’s Danish cocktail chairs have been recovered in fabrics from the Flock range. Flock work with recent graduate surface designers to create beautiful textiles for interiors, and the designers get to keep their name to their designs – receiving a royalty for every metre of fabric sold. Their collections are carefully curated, with a focus on geometry and colour, printing all of the designs digitally in the UK on 100% linens or sumptuous velvets.

Each vintage chair has been fully stripped back to the hardwood frame and coil sprung seat and completely restored. They have been professionally reupholstered by my Long Eaton based upholsterer – using a mix of traditional and modern techniques. They include horsehair stuffed seats with new webbing and foams to the curved backs to provide superior comfort and support.

There are a few chairs available in stock to purchase now with an immediate delivery. Once out of stock they can be pre-ordered, and will be restored and delivered within a 4 – 6 week lead-time.

Below are images of the range available. Thanks to Holly Booth for the photography.

A collection of scatter cushions will be launching on the Florrie+Bill website soon.

 

 

 

Restored Retro Danish Armchair

Earlier this month we restored this fabulous retro Danish armchair. I fell in love with the simple, clean design of this chair, and the slightly curved arms are so stylish. This chair was covered in a bespoke choice of fabric by the client, and will be going into a home design studio.

It was fully stripped and the wood frame removed from the seat and back. The woodwork had a lovely patina, and was requested to be left looking ‘vintage’ – so we just brightened it up a little using Danish oil. New webbing and foam was added to provide superior comfort as the original webbing and foams had disintegrated. A lovely new dome shape was created on the seat. The chair was newly upholstered in Villa Nova’s Geneva Vintage cotton-linen in the Caraway colour. Its laid back, washed effect texture suits the simple style of this armchair.

Such a transformation – here is a picture of the chair before our restoration. As you can see the original fabric, although quite lovely, was unfortunately dirty and worn.

Now its fully restored its looking perfect… And it makes such a great chair to use for taking photographs of cushions!

Cushions shown are from a selection of Flock fabrics cushions coming soon at Florrie+Bill.

Bespoke Reupholstery Service for our Vintage and Retro Chairs

I always have a variety of vintage and retro mid-century chairs in stock waiting to be restored.

While they are waiting to be restored, did you know that they are available to purchase, but upholstered in a fabric of your choice? This is called our Bespoke Reupholstery service. How exciting would it be to design your own vintage or retro chair to perfectly suit your own decor!

On our website you will see a section labelled ‘Chairs Available for Bespoke Reupholstery‘. You can choose any of these chairs and have them reupholstered in your own choice of fabric or leather! All you need to do is hit the ‘Enquire’ or ‘Pre-Order’ button shown on the chair information page and complete your details via the online form. I will then get in touch with you and provide some example prices for the chair fully restored and recovered in a few fabric choices (linens, cottons, velvets). We can then discuss your requirements further and arrange for you to receive fabrics samples. From there I can then tailor the cost and fabric to suit your budget.

I also sell Gift Cards suitable for these chairs if you wanted to purchase a chair for someone as a surprise present – but then let them have the fun and involvement of choosing their own fabric.

I can also source chairs for you if you are looking for something in particular – Ercol Windsor Chairs are popular and also the G Plan 6250 Swivel Chairs. I also work with Interior Designers and businesses to help create chairs for both domestic and commercial interior projects. For more information please get in touch.

18 Vintage Esavian Stacking Chairs Restored for a Cafe

Earlier this year, a client in Aberdeen contacted me about the 18 vintage Esavian stacking chairs I had available for bespoke recover. The client was opening a new cafe and wanted something with a vintage feel to them.

These chairs were originally designed for Esavian (the Educational Supply Association) by British designer James W Leonard, and they were produced around 1949. ESA produced low cost, quality furniture for schools. These particular chairs have a cast aluminium frame, with upholstered chair seats and back rests. These chairs are adult size, and were still covered in the original tatty yellow and orange vinyl when I purchased them.

The client wanted the chairs to be covered in a leather similar to the original yellow vinyl. I sourced the yellow leather, and posted out the swatches to the client. I then got asked to source and send a couple of other complementary colours too. So I sent a blue and a green colour which was available in the same leather range. The client decided that in fact he loved all three colours I had sent, so he choose to have each colour on six chairs!

This project was a lengthy one! As there were 18 chairs in total, it seemed to take forever to get them finished! But it was a project I immensely enjoyed as the transformation was beautiful. The chairs had originally come from another cafe, and were very dirty and greasy. After removing each seat and backrest, every aluminium chair frame was thoroughly and gently cleaned with a detergent degreaser, and buffed back up. Each seat pad and back rest was stripped of the old vinyl (rusty staples galore!!!) and finally recovered in the new leather, with the addition of new foam.

The original protector feet, which were inserted into the leg frames were certainly showing signs of wear – as you’d expect from something nearly 65 years old! The original feet appeared to be made from a nylon type material, so I contacted a local plastics moulding company, Markfield Plastics in Bagworth, Leicestershire about getting some replacements made. The manager, Gary, was a star and painstakingly hand-machined all 18 sets of feet – and the end results were excellent. We were then able to add the new feet to ensure there were no wobbles or nasty scrapes to the floor when used in the cafe.

The old nylon feet above

The new nylon feet above

I was so pleased to see all the chairs finally come together before they were packaged up ready for transport. What a beautiful set of bespoke cafe chairs! They look so proud, and its hard to believe these are the same dirty, worn out chairs I first started with! I can’t wait to see a picture of them in situ when the cafe opens.

Origami Garland from Origami-Est

If you are interested in vintage or retro chairs for your cafe, bar or restaurant – please contact me and I will be happy to help source and restore chairs to your own requirements.