upholstery

NYSID: Jack Lenor Larsen

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Last month New York School of Interior Design had an exhibition on Jack Lenor Larsen who was a prolific textile designer who started his career in the 50's. Here are just a few shots of the panels they had on display. Unfortunately my photos don't do them justice. This a gorgeous batik that references waves:

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jack-2
jack-3
jack-3

I could stare at this one for hours and I'm not entirely sure why:

I love the diagonal lines formed on this one. It got me wondering how I could create something like that on my own loom:

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jack-1

And this last one features a hand painted warp. Lovely!

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jack-5

Upholstery 101: Know when to fold

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I know I mentioned that the upholstery was slow going. Well, it proved to be a snails pace when I started to actually cover things. When upholstering, the goal is to first tack everything down so that it looks how you want, then staple to finalize. The tacks are super easy to get out and reposition. Except in my case, of course.

Turns out I bought super high density foam and that, paired with the fact that the plywood on the underside is treated with some sort o strange tar material (maybe it's a fireproofing material?), makes for impossible tacking. The hammer bounces all over the place because of the foam, and they don't stick when hammered in. If I did get some to stick, they just popped out the second I placed my staple gun down to seal the deal. 

Oh, how slow going it was! In the end I got so frustrated, I put down my hammer and just started to staple. That's a pretty huge no-no, but in the end I was surprised with how even I got each one. Definitely won't do that with future upholstery projects, but what's that phrase? Know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. Yep, got it.

Upholster 101: Memory Lane

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The upholstery project I set out to complete has been a little slow going. Mostly it's because I can't figure out what material to reupholster the stackable foot rests with. But more on that another day. I figure it's better to take one thing at a time, so I set out to disassemble them to see what I was up against.

 Thankfully the staples used were super easy to get out, so taking them apart was the easy part. First the white pleather one, then the red one, then the brown one...

Oh, that dark brown cushion was an emotional one. It took me on a trip down memory lane. There were two holes in the plywood underneath each cushion and upon further notice...

What's this I see? A little treasure from the past! I recognized it immediately as a scratch and sniff sticker I had when I was super little. It was probably even a hand-me-down sticker from my sister dating it from.... well, let's just say a long time ago. 

I removed the cover and found the scratch-n-sniff mostly in-tacked along with a penny from 1964. Sweet!

The best part? IT STILL SMELLS LIKE CHOCOLATE WHEN IT'S SCRATCHED! Ah, memories. Although makes you wonder what they used on that sticker for it to smell 30 years later...

Upholstery 101

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When I was little, these stackable foot stools provided endless entertainment and hosted many a tea party. As you can see, they are circa 1970 when pleather was it. My parents bought them from Ethan Allen and they have held up quite well to all kinds of beatings over the years, although it's time for an update. I'm taking them to an upholstery class at the 3rd Ward to redo. More updates as the project progresses!