Do you own a piece of furniture from an older era that fights your mid mod mad aesthetic? If you’re willing to embrace the eclectic: Upholster it is an outrageous fabric or one that contradicts its original era. That’s what Christine did — and now, she says, she has a chair that “makes me smile every time I walk into my living room.” How outrageous did she go? Pretty darned outrageous >>
Christine writes:
Hi Pam. Referring to your post about new old stock fabrics from GilFabrics (Etsy), I ended up buying the blue/green wave fabric and reupholstered a chair in it. The chair is a Victorian/Eastlake type of chair (wrong century – ha ha). It looks fantastic.
I looked for fabric for two years for this chair, so thanks to you and your write up on (the fabrics in) that shop, I now have a chair that makes me smile every time I walk into my living room. The chair looks great with my “Cone” Chairs too. I’m just a mish mash of eras!
Nicely done, Christine! My “dream house” would be a mish mash of eras, too. P.S. Writing this post led me to look at GilFabrics again. I ended up buying some vintage vinyl — the gold scrolled — for use in my Mahalo Lounge — some of the vintage vinyls on the site are pretty awesome!
Inexpensive upholstery for midcentury and Danish Modern furniture 
A store full of New Old Stock upholstery fabric — but what’s the most marketable? 
Frieze upholstery fabric 
Frieze style upholstery fabrics from Knoll — Totem and Mariner 
Get our retrolicious free newsletter.
LOVE THIS PROJECT! Great fabric, it’s perfect. When I pore over some of my 60s and 70s decor books, I saw that redoing Victorian in wild and cheerful mod colors was A THING, so if you care about that, it’s appropriate for a mid century interior. The clash of styles gives it some edge and cheekiness, something decor folks know about. Hip
young working folks in their first apartments would hit the local Goodwill for Victorian antiques. I remember having creative friends
who did that.
Oh totes I remember this so well when I was kid! Often the wood was painted white.
I have a couple of vinyl mid century chairs that need re-upholstering. I guess I should look at that fabric website.
I do think it is fun to update furniture from an older Era with mod fabric. I remember that was especially popular in 1970’s magazines.
This is a wonderful idea! I am hesitant to paint my antique furniture, fearing I would regret it one day, but the upholstery option is a win-win! Great job, Christine. 🙂
Good call MCM, preserve what matters & color the rest!
That fabric reminds me of the old Sonny and Cher Show (special guest – John Byner!) Looks just fab!
Love this! I repainted a family piece made by my great-grandfather maybe 70-80 years ago. It’s a secretary desk, was disgusting with layers and layers of cigarette smoke from all the years my uncle smoked while it was in their home. So bad I couldn’t scrub it off! I had no patience to strip it (wasn’t good wood, my great-grandfather was a furniture carving designer, they still use his designs today, but always used crappy scraps for home items), so I painted over it – fuschia with Tiffany blue interior, in my red dining room no less! I gave it some rubbed on silver to the carved feet and top detail, also painted the hardware silver (so hard to find hardware that fits vintage/ antique furniture 😟). Everyone thought it was sacrilege, then saw it and were blown away! I figured he was an artist, he would appreciate giving it my artists vision. Also have a French provincial love seat in the family sine the 50s, reupholsered at least six times, then I reupholstered it twice more. Went more modern, plain black duck cloth but want something with panache! I found a matching chair on the street, would like to upholster and paint them in contrasting colours for interest. Damn these are heavy pieces! I was a flea mkt vendor, had a brick and mortar shop and am so glad I kept the family pieces along with some other things that thankfully didn’t sell! (What was going on in my brain when I put EIGHT pinch pleat panels of Picasso poster printed drapes for sale? I think someone slipped me something! They are now proudly hanging in my living room, updated with big rings on clips & everyone comments on how crazy/ fab they are!) Soon as we can afford it, kitchen update with the original Geneva 1930s metal cabinets found for a song! (Sadly languishing in the garage since we can’t yet afford to gut the kitchen, but it’ll look so fab when it’s done! Oddly, came out of a house with the exact setup, built in 1030 like ours, so hoping all pieces will fit!) ⚡️Jet PS sorry so long, I’m a professional published author/ writer and we tend to babble!
I hereby christen that chair “The Barbara Eden”.
Did she reupholster herself or have it done by a professional? I have a piece I want to reupholster but know nothing of how to do that. But also, the re-upholsterer’s prices seem so outrageously expensive. You guys have any advice? Especially when it comes to tufting…
Kate reupholstered furniture once, and as I recall, she said “never again”.
I think that it’s likely you can learn to upholster… but there’s likely a serious learning curve and need for the proper $$$ tools… and, then, how perfectionistic are you? Tufting = even more difficult.
I save my money and pay professionals…
My local “adult-school” or “continuing education” providers often have upholstery classes to offer. You bring a simple project (at least one of them says “no couches for your first time taking the class.” I suspect that the instructors are either retired from upholstering, or are looking for customers or employees, or maybe just enjoy it. But it’s usually a once a week class for some number of weeks, and I’m sure you get help with measuring for fabric and so forth.
I haven’t taken one, yet, because though the class is inexpensive, the cost of materials is unknown, and it is a big commitment. However, if you made friends in class, you could probably have fun teaming up on projects, if you have the time
I’m sure classes could help avoid expensive errors.
If the strapping and padding are in good shape underneath it’s not too hard a project. If the furniture is in poor shape however it takes it to a whole new level of difficulty.
I think it also depends on the specific style of furniture piece. The one in the picture would be fairly easy, but something padded all over would be a lot more of a hassle in most cases.
Yes I had it professionally reupholstered. It cost me $300 Canadian (excluding material). I don’t have the skill to do that kind of quality work myself…which I realized after taking an upholstery course (never again!)
The transformation is just astonishing!! Great job picking the fabric.
Considering I actually like Victorian just as much as mid-century, I was prepared to cringe after reading the headline. But I need not have worried. Honestly, it seems to me the upholstery that was on it before didn’t reflect the original period any better than the update—the shape of the print pattern is different, but Victorians had plenty of bright, strong colors in their decor, from all I have read on the subject, and at least to me I notice color most. In any case, while it’s not my highest decorating priority right now, I do have an 1910 Art Nouveau settee with what I know someone thought was period fabric that actually looks gratingly 1990s to me, and this would be better for sure! I may just file this idea away mentally while I wait for the right fabric, whatever it may be, to come along.
Oddly enough, the original fabric is quite close to the fabric that’s on my great-grandmother’s chairs, except for the cross bars. And I know my chairs’ fabric is original – we have photos from about 1912 of the same chairs.
I clicked this with bated breath, afraid that I was going to see that beautiful wood painted over. SO happy to see this solution to the “how can I update this old chair?” dilemma. Blues and greens are my favorite mid-mod color combination, and this fabric is, as we would’ve said circa 1967, “just groovy” against the dark wood.
I have two of those type of chairs (officially, they are Eastlake design from about 1910 or so) that I’ve always wanted to do that to (as soon as I can forgive myself for covering up the lovely antique fabric my great-grandmother sat on in her first married home). My problem is that in some move, one of the front wheels fell off and disappeared. One good for sitting, but the other is either all wobblydegook or with the other wheel removed, you feel like your sliding off the front of the chair. So, I’m off on a search for the right wheel. You’d be surprised at just how many different wheels were made for Eastlake chairs – different sizes, different posts, even different wheel materials (above look like they’re porcelain; mine are wood). Great job, Christine!
Yes they are porcelain. I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have all 4 of them until you mentioned how difficult it was to find replacements
Utterly brilliant. I love this. Did you do the upholstery yourself? If so I’m even more bowled over. You really saved that chair!
That chair should certainly attract attention!
Absolutely FANTASTIC!!
I love the before shot -outside in the Fall
And the after shot -outside in the snow 😊
Nice job! Looks great!
What a nice way to breathe new life into this chair. Nice job!
With the new upholstery, you have a truly unique piece here! And by the way, Eastlake (from Charles Eastlake) is a style of furniture from the later Victorian period, related to the Arts and Crafts movement. I love it. I think it is particularly suited to mixing in with other styles and periods, especially when you have one outstanding “pop” piece like this.
Sock it to me (a-la Goldie Hawn on Laugh-In) Christine! It’s definitely a much more inviting seat IMHO now.
The one thing I have that I’d like to change the look of is a modest 1966 colonial style Ridgeway grandfather clock I inherited. If I could make a bamboo shell to fit over it and dress it up tiki style it would finally fit it’s location. Just a mask because it really is a nice clock.