Case Study: The Roadside Parker Knolls

Left out on the side of the road for the bin men to take straight to landfill, these Parker Knoll PK720's were rescued in the nick of time.

The Background

My client, Sarah, was driving home when she noticed these two chairs dumped outside the front of somebody's house. After doing a double take, she parked up and went back to investigate. It turns out the occupant of the house had recently died and the family was in the process of clearing out the house. Nobody wanted these chairs and so they were being thrown out.

Sarah knew instantly that they were far too good for the bin and managed to squeeze them both into the back of her car there and then. They sat in her garage for a while, just to check that no creepy crawlies had moved in, and then arrived at my workshop for their renovation to begin.

The Process

One of the chairs had a wing that wobbled so I knew I would need to strip the chair right back to its frame to uncover what the problem was. Fortunately, it was just a small split around one of the wooden dowels on the original joint.

So, I was able to repair the split. First by applying wood glue to set the broken piece. And then by attaching a reinforcement in the form of a bracket to the joint to strengthen and protect the joint from future damage.

One of the best parts of stripping vintage Parker Knoll chairs back to their frames is finding the job tickets from when they were originally manufactured on the top bar of the seat back.

They give you all sorts of fantastic information about the history of the chair. The date it was made, the model number, the original finish applied to the legs and the colour of fabric first put on. In the case of these two chairs, we discovered that they were in fact twins - both made on 10th December 1951.

The fact they were both originally fawn in colour also prompted my client to stick to that colour palette when choosing the new top fabric in homage to their origins.

She chose the Faroe wool chenille in Butterscotch from Linwood Fabric with a contrast piping in Amatheon wool from Warwick Fabrics.

I try to reuse as much of the inner workings of the chairs I reupholster as possible for two reasons; 1. to keep the history of the chair intact and 2. to ensure as little as possible goes into waste and therefore into landfill.

Fortunately, the original springs of both of these chairs were still in good condition so we were able to reuse those. I created a quilted spring protector to replace the one that would have been on the chairs when first brought. These spring protectors help to even the weight of the person sitting in the chair across all the springs, making them wear more evenly and last longer.

The Outcome

Two chairs discarded and bound for the back of a rubbish truck are now saved and in a new home.

With freshly oiled legs and their new clothes, these 71-year-old twins are now the stars of the show in their new living room. From has-beens to members of the family and that is a huge part of the joy of reupholstery!

Do you have a chair or other upholstery project you need help with? Drop me a line to start embracing your story - you can fill in the online contact form. You can also email me directly at gemma@embracebespoke.co.uk or call me at 07500 126 083.