Alison is in possession of a store’s worth of New Old Stock upholstery — fabrics and vinyls — but wants our help. What designs of vintage upholstery are in demand among Retro Renovators today? Read on — then help me give her advice that may save this vintage treasure.
A few years ago, my family bought out an old upholstery supply shop that started in 1946. The company had a ton of old upholstery fabric and vinyl from the 1960s and 1970s. Some is actually even older, but the records have been lost.
It wasn’t moving from the shelf at all, and the corporate company decision was to junk it. My crafty and creative self couldn’t let this gorgeous supply of fabrics go, especially if craftsmen and creators could use it to enhance their projects. To prevent all this fabric from ending up in a landfill, I have been trying to catalog and post a few samples on Etsy. Unfortunately it is labor intensive and time consuming to sort, measure, and catalog hundreds of bolts of fabric, and I am beginning to wonder if the corporate decision might have made more sense and if there is even enough demand for vintage upholstery fabric to justify the effort.
I would love to get your feedback on the products listed. If you know of any highly sought after styles or patterns from this time period I’d love to know, so I can pick them out before all this fabric gets sent to the landfill.
What’s marketable — and how should Alison proceed to sell her New Old Stock successfully and efficiently?
Super exciting, Alison — there’s almost nothing we get more excited about than New Old Stock from old stores and warehouses. To help get started, here are a few of my ideas:
- Offer samples — People doing reupholstery projects really need to be sure the fabric works. As part of each listing, or as a separate listing, I think you need to offer sample-sized pieces. I’d say at least 9″ x 9″.
- Focus on bolts with lots of yardage — Folks doing reupholstery generally need a lot of yardage. A sofa requires like 20+ yards! So, I’d focus on cataloguing and listing the fabrics with the most yardage first.
- List total yardage in the listing — Relatedly, list the total yardage available in the main listing or even in the heading. This will help people narrow down to the fabrics that might work for them. You might also categorize the listings similarly. Right now, you have Upholstery, Vinyl, and Fabric categories. I’d add Less than five yards, 5-10 yards, More than 10 yards, More than 20 yards. You could also consider other categories such as: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s … and Florals, Plush, Screen-printed.
- What’s marketable — So now to the $64,000 question. There is more than one to retro, so golly, there are niches of folks looking for everything.
- One of the first things that I did when I got my vintage dining room set was to reupholster the seats. This did not take much yardage. I used a plush, hearty velvet-like, tone-on-tone fabric.
- Florals, meh: In upholstery or fabric, our readers likely aren’t going to go for these, unless the flowers are 1960s flower power. I do see you sold some that were flocked or satin-ized — those are a different era of retro, find more!
- All your vinyls should do well, I think — folks are always wanting to reupholster bar stools and banquettes and the like, and you have some winning designs.
- 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, but not 1980s or 90s — If you’re prioritizing, go for the early years. 1950s and 1960s fabrics new old stock are hard to find; very desirable.
- Got any barkcloth? SUPER desirable!
- How about tiki/Hawaiian/Polynesian? Should sell!
- Frieze — added per Georgia Peachez comment. Here’s what frieze looks like, for those who are not familiar with the term.
- Chinoiserie — per Shann.
- Anything Knoll-like, per ineffablespace, and I’d add: Maharam.
- Also see ineffablespace’s comments re pricing and sampling.
- 1970s design is rising in popularity — I love corduroys, for example — and please, don’t fear the wacky — like the Bicentennial fabric. Wacky is good.
- Novelty patterns of any era might find buyers.
- But 1980s and 1990s — I’d shove those bolts to the back and wait a few more years.
- Last but not least: Watch what sells and go dig through your stash to find more like it to list.
- Oh and one more thing: I’m sure you were saying it would ‘go to a landfill’ kind of casually. If bolts don’t sell, I am sure that places like Goodwill could always use them. And, a ReStore Habitat for Humanity might take the vinyl, considering they often also sell furniture and appeal to Do-It-Yourselfers.
- Readers, don’t forget we already have one other source for NOS vinyls — see this story.
Thank you for writing, Alison, this is all quite exciting! Good luck!
Readers, take a good look at Alison’s etsy show here.
Then, we’d love to hear your thoughts on her questions too!
Madeline says
Anything 70’s I would be very interested in. We are building a home in 70’s style and have several pieces of furniture in need of restoration. (Any chance the seller could contact me?)
It goes without saying… do not throw anything out!!! 🙂
I personally prefer to buy vintage cloth in entire pieces, not by the yard. It’s frustrating if you’ve got a larger project (such as recovering furniture) and there isn’t enough material left to warrant purchasing after other people purchased minute amounts for craft projects. 🙁
pam kueber says
Madeline — the link to the seller’s etsy store is in the story twice, as I recall. Follow the links and on etsy, there are ways to exchange messages with her.
Madeline says
Thanks Pam – I completely missed that! Message has been sent. 🙂
pam kueber says
Not to worry! I also understand your POV.
Debbie in Portland says
Depending on the size of the city where all of this loveliness is located, maybe just a big old fabric liquidation sale might work. I am in Portland, Oregon, and a couple of years ago a fabric store in my neighborhood closed after the owner’s death. It was full of fabric, notions, clothing, thread, rick-rack—some of this stuff dated back to when she opened the store in 1970, and hadn’t moved in all that time. I was amazed at how much went out the doors over two days. If Allison lives in or near a larger city, she could probably find people who do estate sales professionally, or people who do ebay listings for others.
Retroskit says
So many great suggestions. I would agree with including offering samples,, inc yardage/weight/hand (ie, the feel) and pics showing how it drapes, to indicate how flowy or stiff it is.
Like if you want to use these for curtains, for example. Also, don’t forget to add search tags that apply to any style/era the fabric could fit into. I can totally see some of those Damasks on a Ducan Phyfe couch, or any couch that fits into a “Victorian” style. Lots of cool fabrics and the “floral burlap” reminds me of a couch my friend’s mom has, still pristine. It also would make a cute boho purse.
And, prioritize and if possible, get help to catalogue it all!
Sandra says
Don’t forget “Hollywood” — You might contact people in the industry who might even be interested in buying the lot or part of it. While they tend to treat the props as disposable, they do preserve them on digits or sometimes film! There are shops that specialize in the film and TV industry.
I worry about the age of fabric — even cotton rots, eventually. But it could totally be used on film if it were the right pattern.
Yes, and interesting vinyl for kitchen chairs would be a good category and make use of smaller yardage.
Mark says
I swear my grandmother recovered her couch (or as she would have said, “davenport”) with that floral burlap fabric.
ineffablespace says
I am probably coming from a different place here because I live in an urban area that has a street of several blocks of wholesale to the consumer fabric stores for both clothing and upholstery, some of which have been in business for 75 years or more.
Most of these stores have bolts of new old stock available in addition to their more current offerings.
With some notable exceptions, there is usually a reason why some fabric becomes new old stock, and some of that has to do with the patterns and color-ways not selling well at the time when the fabric was new. Without getting into the specifics of taste and pattern, I think a lot of your fabrics are going to appeal on the level of novelty more than full scale reupholstery projects.
For my area (and this is because of local availability) the per yard prices you have listed would be too high to sell well, regardless of the quality of the fabric. Much new old stock ends up selling in the few dollars a yard range. –Unless it is a particularly spectacular vintage upholstery fabric like a mohair, or quilted/matelassé that is both in pristine condition and a color-way that someone wants to work with.
I agree with the suggestion for large samples, or possibly even a by-the yard sampling option where you offer some sort of rebate off a larger subsequent purchase. Particularly for a large project that involves professional upholstery, people will need to verify with the shop that the fabric is workable.
My (now deceased ) upholsterer would use vintage fabric, but the problem with upholsterers facing a COM project is what happens if something happens to the vintage fabric? If they somehow damage new fabric, they can get more if it’s new. I had a situation where I bought vintage fabric, it had been folded and shipped folded and when the upholsterer saw it, he said it couldn’t be used because the folds would not come out. So one of the things with vintage fabric, if it is pretty run-of-the-mill, is that it has to be priced well enough to be an acceptable risk.
With regard to vinyls, (and other vintage-look textiles) that people look at Knoll Textiles.
While Knoll has fabrics available to the trade in the hundreds of dollars a yard category, they also offer fabrics direct to the consumer at prices starting at something like $15 a yard. Since Knoll was one of the companies that essentially introduced America to mid century furniture, even their new offerings have a modernist leaning.
pam kueber says
Great points, ineffable. I may turn your entire comment into its own story!
Shann says
First of all – don’t forget anything that reflects chinoiserie styling – also a popular retro fashion for the more traditional setting. I’d simply die if I could find the Chinese coin pattern similar to the one on my arm chairs that are badly in need of reupholstering. But I simply refuse to recover until I find just the right fabric ????.
That being said – our local habitat for humanity ReStore inherited a large quantity of upholstery fabric from an interior decorating shop in our town & they were inundated with shoppers & all went to good homes – so yay for that as an option!!
pam kueber says
I’m adding Chinoiserie to my list above, props to you! Thanks, Shann!
Kelly Wittenauer says
I think Pam’s ideas are right on target. And Nancy shared some interesting thoughts on unique markets for this stash.
That red floral burlap looks just like slipcovers my mom bought in the late ’70s. They went onto a pair of chairs she’d bought in the mid ’60s. I much preferred the more modern blue & green floral original upholstery, but it wore out.
Maria says
As far as using them for something, one thing that is missing on the market: couch / chair cushion covers. I’ve got two Danish Mid-Century lounge chairs that need four replacement covers. You’d think you could just go online and buy them, huh? Nope–not vintage, and not modern covers. Nobody’s making and selling these items (there are plenty of pillow covers, but not couch / chair cushion covers), including older, used ones. The wood of the chairs have far outlasted the material on these furniture items.
The “Gilded Gold and Winter White” upholstery brings back memories. My grandmother had two low arm chairs with that material on them! I think they had small matching pillows, too. And I just ran into the Burnt Orange Corduroy when I found a Sears 1970s twin comforter that someone had kept to use for a sewing project.
Though some things are better off gone, like the green-and-blue floral burlap upholstery that once covered my Broyhill chair… although speaking of older materials, the Impact Tamale that I chose to reupholster the chair in, a mere two years ago, is now out of stock. So much for getting a matching ottoman made some day. 🙁
Mag says
Thank you, Alison. Looks like Pam and others are giving you good suggestions. Gonna go fav your shop now!