"Upholstery is an art that allows us to interpret the potential in every day life. We love the challenge of looking at any unwanted furniture and thinking of something amazing to make with it!"
Working in Traditional Style
Developed over centuries, traditional upholstery involves a range of complex techniques rooted in different periods. Using elements such as springs, natural fibre (horsehair, wool, hessian, vegetable and cotton felt), this technique involves craftsmanship, precision and a good eye for a perfect and enduring finish.
Developed over centuries, traditional upholstery involves a range of complex techniques rooted in different periods. Using elements such as springs, natural fibre (horsehair, wool, hessian, vegetable and cotton felt), this technique involves craftsmanship, precision and a good eye for a perfect and enduring finish.
Chesterfield sofa upholstered with traditional technique and wool. Removable upholstery parts.
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UU-ELLA_0065 Como Chair
Designer Ella Doran has collaborated with Urban Upholstery for over 10 years, promoting and celebrating the circular economy and material re-use and re-design. Together, they have run many workshops and installations, demonstrating the intertwining of design, materiality and sustainability and breathing new life into reclaimed chairs in front of live audiences from Clerkenwell Design Festival, the City of London Fab-Lab and the V&A. Their latest project is Inspired by #MakePlasticGuiltless, featuring an abandoned chair from the streets of Hackney, it was deconstructed back to its frame and then rebuilt, on show during London Design Festival 2018 in The Old Bank Vault art gallery along-side a group of school children from Shoreditch Park School. The back of the chair was deliberately left open to reveal and to expose the intricate craft and work involved in making the piece. The chair plays with a traditional Chesterfield buttoned-back feature, though each button is actually hand-made from plastic bags found in the streets. Plastic netting, found in tips was used as bottom layer, plastic tack roll from the old upholstery, has become a visible feature of the chair, and recycled wool was used to stuff some of the inner layers for extra comfort. |
Working in Modern Style
Modern upholstery can involve cutting edge techniques and an expansive range of elements, including rubber foam, elastic webs and sysnthetic dacron. The elements come in layers allowing for a faster application and flexible shapes.
Modern upholstery can involve cutting edge techniques and an expansive range of elements, including rubber foam, elastic webs and sysnthetic dacron. The elements come in layers allowing for a faster application and flexible shapes.
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GRIDLOCK_chair from Urban Upholstery Ltd on Vimeo. |
UU0063 Gridlock chair Tons of plastic chairs are dumped every year due to decline in their physical performance, but lots of them present only minor faults like worn surfaces, making them undesirable and unusable. We started in 2007 recycling old furniture that we found in the street and 'Pop UP' children chairs was our fist approach to plastic stackable chairs Since then it has been an on going process of recycling and upholstering them. They are simple, fun and adaptable and easy to change look! Whilst Pop UP chairs were made with remanence of fabrics from our collection of fabrics, our latest collaboration at LDF 18 “Gridlock” with Ella Doran Design Studio, has brought a fantastic selection of design fabrics from which buyers can choose their favourite combinations of pattern and colours. |