Sartorialist Book Giveaway Winner
I know I said I’d draw the winner yesterday, but I have a bad cold, wah wah wah, and it’s affected my name-drawing hand. So here we go now. Drum roll, please………….. (Mike draws the name without his contact lenses in)…and the winner of the Sartorialist book is Londontheatre! Please contact me with your mailing address and I’ll send it off forthwith.
What else… I have a newfound obsession with high modern furnishings, particularly teak ones, and since I can’t justify spending much money on furniture at this stage of my life I have decided to temporarily feed the obsession with cheap copies, which are old and must be fixed up. The first pieces I purchased are a pair of armchairs. They’re from Eatons, a venerable Canadian company. In the small web ad that I looked at when I decided to buy them, they looked pretty swank. They are just frames. When I saw them in person I realized the wood was actually not teak but some kind of ash or maple, with a teakish stain. They also have a hokey woven panel on the sides! But I got them anyways. So I will re-web them, refinish the wood on the arms, and make seat and back cushions from scratch. This is a weekend (or a few weekends) project. I paid 60 bucks for the pair of chairs, and will spend probably another 100-150 dollars for fabric, webbing, and foam. Still, at a total of 105 dollars each (not including my labor) they will be much less expensive than the 600 dollars that a single authentic modern teak chair in a similar style does. It would still have to have new reupholstered cushions too.
Eatons fake teak chairs project
I have been an upholsterer in the past–worked in a shop in Vancouver, and one on Salt spring before opening my own shop briefly there. I have been ignoring the realm of furniture for the last decade or so but it’s creeping back into my life. Check out this cute bean-shaped stool! It’s the next project in line.
beanstool
I’m thinking I’ll reupholster it in leather. Are you interested in seeing my progress with the chairs? Post here and let me know please.
Cheerio (cough, snuffle)–ellen
7 Responses to “Sartorialist Book Giveaway Winner”
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Bonspiel Randomizer
January 30th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Oooh.. I like them. I love restoring old furniture. I think you have found some perfect, sturdy, frames too. Looks like It’s not going to require *too* much work.
I am, very intrested in seeing in progress posts!
I’m marking this page :)
January 30th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
I am definately interested in seeing your progress! I told you that I just bought my first house! Well in my living room are two chairs, that I inherited from my grandmother, who inherited them from her mother! They are gorgeous wooden frames, and were imported from Finland, when they immigrated here years ago! I just this week called a dude in the yellow pages about getting the cushions reupholstered!!
I am going to make an appointment with him in the next couple weeks, when I can spare the money. I am soooooo excited to get them done. It’s going to be such a worthwhile expense. I feel they are not only totally rad, but a peice of my history I am helping to preserve. I wish I was as talented as you, and could save myself a few hundred in the process though…lol
Hense why I would love, love, love, third times a charm, to see what you do with yours!
Rock on chica!
:)
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:45 am
hmmm will it work now
February 2nd, 2010 at 12:47 am
hey works now ……… so what I was going to say was that it would be great to see a blow by blow so to speak…….. is it really fake teak? ……….. cool side panels
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:53 pm
I’d love to see your progress !!!
i so want to learn upholstery :)
nice chairs,can’t wait to see the finished result !!
February 24th, 2010 at 5:44 pm
omg everybody, thanks so much for posting! I’m sorry I haven’t been involved–my emails alerting me to new posts mysteriously stopped working so I had no idea there was interest….and I was soo busy for a while there doing olympics orders that I didn’t even think about the chairs or blog. It’s so nice that you give a poop–thank you.
February 24th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
questions/comments:
Madeleine: Yes, they have been surprisingly easy to work on. The hardest part was realizing I couldn’t get the rubber webbing here in Victoria and had to order it from an American company–a whole huge roll! Now I have mega leftovers so if anyone wants to reweb a teak project I have the goods.
Roxy! That sounds amazing! I’d love to see pictures when they’re done. I figure I’ll work my way towards that kind of authenticity. In a way I’m kind of glad these pieces are knockoffs so I can practise on them without worrying about screwing anything significant up :P
Rik: Yep it’s genuine fake teak (some sort of very pale mahogany would be my best bet–it has open pores and is the color of alder. I’m actually ripping out the rattan bits in the middle of the side panels and replacing them with ???? pictures or leather or something. More pictures to come.
Libby (darling) Thanks for your enthusiasm and patience! I’m going to write an update today.