1890's Chesterfield settee

In late 2021 I had the pleasure of renovating a chesterfield settee which dated back to the 1890s. Though it was over-relaxed through years of use, it had a gorgeous mahogany frame and original castors as well as traditional style deep diamond buttoning, I wanted to maintain these signature features whilst bringing the settee into the 21st century and though it was a challenge it was also a joy to bring this settee back to life.
The specification my client delivered was he wished it to be a “statement piece”, it was to take pride of place in the foyer of their traditional country cottage. Upon removing the surface layers of fabric and stuffing, it was apparent that the settee was in need of a complete refit and would benefit greatly from being taken back to the bare frame before being rebuilt with the care and attention it was similarly produced with originally. I firstly set about securing the structural integrity of the frame by filling any holes with my own tried and tested home-made filler, this would ensure maximum integrity which would be essential when applying the many layers to come.
Once the frame was sound I selected a high quality British made black and white herringbone webbing to establish a strong, stable base for my deck. I placed these in an interwoven hatched layout to provide a suitable foundation for the springs.

This magnificent piece of furniture, required a magnificent number of springs, one hundred and three in total! Each spring had to be tied to the webbing three times to ensure there is no room for movement.
Next each spring had to be lashed to one another, this prevents any individual spring misaligning and thus they act collectively. This method is known as an eight-way spring tie or star lashing, with this technique you prevent the spring chattering.
I then added the following layers; hessian, spring insulator, stuffing, calico and finally fabric. On this occasion my client had selected a modern velvet with a bold vibrant pattern. Whilst I had rebuilt the structure of the settee using traditional techniques the velvet fabric was going to look its best being placed over a modern foam stuffing.
Tufting or deep diamond buttoning is a stunning traditional aesthetic technique used on antique and modern upholstery alike. It is a uniform pattern with three dimensions, produced by creating a hole in the stuffing in which you place a button to draw back the fabric and foam. The fabric falls in small pleats which need to be individually manipulated toe create the signature diamond look.

I chose to embellish the arm fronts and outside back with a delightful turquoise colour velvet which highlighted the exquisite lines. The finial touches were added to the piece by carefully closing the back with invisible hand stitching. Piped box cushions and bolsters were created to compliment the settee, adding to both the style and comfort of the piece.

I’m happy to say that my client was over the moon (as were I) with the final product, commenting that it was “A real show stopper”.