We now offer chair caning!

We now offer traditional hole to hole chair caning. Individual strips are woven through a series of pre-drilled holes around the perimeter of the chair. We use the 7-step method as we have found this to be the strongest and most reliable.

Article in the Times Record

I was so honored to have had an article written about me and my business in our local newspaper, "The Times Record". Hopefully, all who read it will think more about our environment.
If we all have just one piece of furniture reupholstered, re-caned, re-finished, instead of trashing it, we can prevent some of the toxic fumes that come from getting rid of the furniture in a landfill.

If you want to read the article, here's the link:

http://www.timesrecord.com/articles/2010/06/02/features/doc4c06961af01d8929698605.txt

tip of the day

Save Those Used Tea Bags

Do not throw out your tea bags with the trash. Save them in a dish and then empty them around your garden plants and shrubs. It makes a good substitute for peat and will add plant goodness and save you cash.

This tip goes right in line with my "reuse, re-purpose, reupholster philosophy.

Tufted back chair

Hapitat for Humanity

I feel so very fortunate to be doing something I really love; reupholstering furniture. Now, I really want to give back so I'm volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. It is such a wonderful organization and I'm pretty handy with a hammer so....I'm really looking forward to helping someone else realize their dream.

The Reupholstering Class

Class went so well last night. There are 5 women in the class and each one brought a piece of furniture they want to reupholster. I started off by explaining what to look for when buying new furniture and also included a "How to" on how to choose furniture at a flea market or yard sale. The women were perfectly marvelous and were so eager to learn. We've got various stages which is great as they'll learn how to put the webbing on a chair, tie springs, re-design their ottomans, etc. I just love the group and I know we'll have a lot of fun. At the end of the course, they'll have a finished piece of furniture.

Reupholstering Class

We'll be teaching a reupholstering class through Merrymeeting Adult Education starting on Feb. 23, 2010. This is a hands-on class to teach beginners the fundamentals of reupholstering furniture. We will work with each student's footstool, ottoman or drop in seat to show the many techniques which can be carried through to larger pieces of furniture.
Upon completion of the course, the student will have a better understanding as to how upholstered furniture is put together. They will learn about repairing the frame, replacing old webbing, tightening or gluing joints and spring tying.

In addition to reupholstering their furniture, we will also discuss the things you should consider when buying new furniture.

Should be a great class and its open to everyone in the Midcoast Maine area.

The value of upholstered furniture is in the frame.

If your old sofa or chair has a good frame, it is well worth reupholstering. A frame is the essential element in the structure and if it's solid, there's no reason to go out and buy a new piece of furniture when you could have it reupholstered.

So, how do you tell if a frame is a good one? A good frame is made of hardwood: oak or maple, for example. These woods are very strong and have longevity. One way to tell if your frame is made from a hardwood is by the weight. Hardwood is heavy. Many times a furniture salesman will lift up one end of a sofa to demonstrate the frame's weight.

High prices in lumber have caused many furniture manufacturers to resort to using materials of lesser quality and cost, materials such as soft woods and inexpensive plywood. This furniture, made from low-quality materials, will not hold screws, nails, staples or glue for very long and cannot endure the everyday stresses in which most of today's furniture is subjected.

But, back to the hardwood frame....

The hardwood frame, even if substantially damaged, can be repaired and reupholstered to look new for far less than the cost of a comparable piece in today's marketplace. Every good upholsterer should know how to fortify and repair such a frame.

Building on your old frame, the Re-upholsterer re-ties the springs, puts on new webbing, all new padding and filling, and totally re-creates the piece of furniture. This is all hand-work involving a high degree of skills. What you get back is a piece of furniture in the caliber of a custom-made piece.