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

Flocktail Chairs – January Sale

If you have had your eye on one of our beautiful Flocktail chairs, now is your chance to get £100 off. Simply use the code NEWYEAR100 at checkout on the website. This one off offer is only available until midnight January 15th 2015. See the whole range here.

Ink & Thread, Derby become first official stockist of Florrie+Bill ’Flock-tails’

I am delighted to announce my exclusive ‘Flock-tail’ chairs are to be stocked at Ink & Thread, Derby from August 2014. Ink & Thread will be the first official stockist of these unique chairs – a collaboration between Florrie+Bill and Flock Fabrics.

Consisting of five designs the ‘Flock-tails’ are a collection of restored vintage 1950′s Danish cocktail chairs that feature beautiful textiles from recent graduate surface designers: Cerys Ackland, Lucy Rainbow and Rachel Parker. The sale of the chairs supports new designers with the graduates maintaining their name on their designs – receiving a royalty for every metre of fabric sold/used within the chairs. An ethos that echoes Ink & Thread’s own aims to celebrate British design, support independent producers and selling something different.

The initial ‘Flock-tail’ collection has been carefully curated, with a focus on geometry and colour. All of the designs are digitally printed in the UK on either 100% linen or sumptuous velvets.

Each vintage chair has been fully stripped back to the hardwood frame and coil sprung seat and has been completely restored. Professionally reupholstered in Long Eaton – using a mix of traditional and modern techniques – they include horsehair stuffed seats with new webbing and foams to add structure to the curved backs and to provide superior comfort and support.

Ink & Thread will be showcasing the ‘Northmore Major by Rachel Parker’ and ‘Aldgate East Minor—Ink by Lucy Rainbow’ in the shop from 2nd August 2104.

All chairs are priced at £595. Each chair is made specially to order. Due to their original vintage nature chairs may vary slightly in size. Approx. dimensions: H: 74cm x W: 61cm x D: 69cm Seat Height: 46cm.

It is advisable to call the shop beforehand on 01332 383022 to ensure the chairs are still available to view before making a special journey.

Vintage Danish Cocktail Chairs now in Stock

Last week I received my delivery of vintage Danish cocktail chairs. I was really excited to finally get them as I’d been coveting these for a while! I have imported an initial selection of chairs from Europe, and I haven’t been disappointed.

These 1950’s cocktail chairs have long tapered legs, and curved, low backs which make them really comfortable – it almost feels like they are giving your back a hug! They are smaller chairs, but big on appeal – and would make a real statement piece covered in either a brightly coloured plain fabric or a pattern.

I will be fully restoring and reupholstering a small selection to sell online, and there will also be a ‘Limited Edition’ collection launched in collaboration with a fabulous UK Textile Designer (more about that soon!).

I am also offering these chairs on a bespoke basis – so a client can choose the chair and select their own fabric to go on it. What better way to add a personalised vintage accent chair into your interior. Take a look at my Pinterest board for ideas on how to style a vintage cocktail chair.

These vintage cocktail chairs would also be the perfect addition to hotel rooms, bar areas or cafes. They can be covered in a bespoke contract grade fabric, and larger volumes can be sourced. They would look equally as good in small groups as they would on their own in a hotel room.

I am also selling some of these chairs as they are for reupholstery purposes by other individuals – so they are ideal for upholstery students to use as projects on upholstery courses in the UK.

I really hope you enjoy looking at Danish cocktail chairs just as much I do! It would be great to hear what you think about them by leaving a comment below! Further information can also be found over on the website.

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

Restored Parker Knoll PK 747 Chairs

These adorable vintage Parker Knoll chairs date back to the 1950’s and have been fully restored to bring them into the 21st Century. Originally two separate purchases, they now make a matching pair.

One chair was covered in the original Parker Knoll turquiose blue vinyl, and the other was covered in an olive green fabric which was scratched to bits – by the owners cat!

The original varnish on the legs was badly worn and not a very desirable colour. I sent them to my local french polisher who hand restored and polished them back to the natural beech wood.

They were then newly upholstered in Villa Nova’s Geneva Vintage in ‘Squirrel’ grey. This is a stonewash effect cotton-linen. I decided to add two bright yellow contrasting buttons to each chair, which adds a little fun. 

This dainty duo would look delightful in your bedroom, nursery, hallway or dressing room. I think they would look rather smart in a room for twins! They are available to purchase on the website here.

Mr. Frank Fox cushion + Little Remix blanket available from Ferm Living.