In my upholstery class, I am known for that having quite a stock of old chairs in the family heritage, that are in need of renovation. I am one of the few students who never has to worry about a lack of projects. In our garage and on the loft, there have been sleeping a number of sofa chairs who got a new life during the past years.

Actually, this was how I got started with upholstery. I saw the potential of the chairs – they are built of a quality you no longer find these days.

The current project are two similar chairs of the Jugendstil epoche. They got an entirely new inner construction, as well as a new outer fabric. The pattern is a design by William Morris, a famous English textile designer and artist of the same epoche (follow the link to read more about him). Morris’ many designs and patterns for wall papers, fabrics are much loved even these days.

The pattern of my fabric is a variation of his design “Willow Bough”, dated from 1887.

Today I will hopefully be able to finish one of the two chairs, and then we can take it to our house in Grythyttan. I hope that both chairs at some point will find their place in our railway station in Grythyttan. They might fit well into the old station master’s flat, or in the first class waiting room.

Here are more pictures of the restauration progress on Flickr.