Finally some pics of some Pearsall and a couple of unusual pieces just yearning for some rehab!

 

I've been more than a bit behind keeping up with my posts but you may remember my past posts on the extensive Adrian Pearsll pieces I acquired a while ago. This particular piece came to me either painted black or in the original ebony finish. Bit hard to tell, but it was not getting any love here in the store so I decided to refinish the frame and recover. Here's how we looked originally. Not too inspiring for potential customers:

 

 

Although beautifully lined, the black and the somewhat worn goldish fabric wasn't bringing the love. The rehab looks great and it likely won't be hanging around long! Top pics!

 

I've had my hands full here at A Modern Line trying to keep new merchandise on the floor as business has been brisk in the last couple of months. Trying to balance acquiring new stuff with some fun refinish projects for others. More about these in another post!

 

My latest rehab/refinish are a couple of pieces I'd never crossed paths with until now. Two small chests manufactured by the Grand Rapids Furniture company under the name Sligh furniture and the suite name is presumably "Cross Country". These are very well made cabinets with, fortunately, nice thick veneers as they weren't in the best of condition.

 

 

Obviously I had some work to do to bring these up to speed!

 

 

I opted to only sand the faces of the drawers and doors as getting into the balance would prove to be too labor intensive and the two-tone look worked for me. They looked pretty good after the staining.

The doored unit has 4 drawers behind the doors but there was a couple of cross supports below the second drawer that made a nice frame to insert a masonite board shelf below and still have the drawer close smoothly. A nice clean inch and a quarter hole in the back panel and voila, a place for your video components with the drawer removed!

 

 

 

It's always nice to be able to offer options to my customers and this modification should certainly help sell the pieces!

 

 

Looking pretty on the floor with the new clothes!

 

I'm finally finding a little time to get caught up on some post ideas and next up will be a rehab of an Eames vintage DCM chair that had some serious issues. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Finally finished the Thonet chairs but with some changes and another Pearsall redo or two!

If anyone has had the fun of trying to take a flat piece of plywood conform to a shape they'd like, you may appreciate this post. Leave a piece of plywood out in the weather and it will bow out of shape no problem. Attempting to make a piece of thin plywood conform to your desired shape, not so simple!

 

 

I needed the plywood inside the backs to reupholster these chair backs as they didn't come with the chairs. No problem! I would just cut some new pieces and flex them into shape...Well maybe not so easy...

After wetting just one side of the thin plywood and trying to pin down to the backs with some short screws and the original fasteners it turned out to be less than successful. The plywood was somewhat compliant, but no matter how many attempts I made I couldn't get the fabric around the inside curve around the hand hole. Status: Fail!

Back to the big box and found some ply underlayment that was just a bit thinner. Recut and soaked the entire pieces for a few hour sans the cutout for the hand hold. Same regiment for pinning it down but let it dry for 3 days before releasing these from their bondage. Much better results! And although not original to the pieces, they turned out pretty well!

 

 

Rehabbing vintage MCM furniture is always a constant learning curve and the frustration is just part of the fun! I would have preferred to put these back into original condition with the hand holes and upholstery just as originally intended but with my chosen fabric, this was just not going to happen! Here's how the set looks in the store and ready for a new owner! I think they can probably live with it in it's current condition!

 

 

I recently refinished the left over pieces of Pearsall I had come in and they turned out great. Much better in the original walnut frames than the black they had come to me in.

I will post some before and after soon, but the cocktail table found a new home the day after I refinished and I just put the 916-CC captains chair on the floor today and it may not be around too long either!

Thanks for taking the time to take a look! You are more than welcome to follow along on a regular basis and feel free to like us on our Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/A-Modern-Line/148433368524352 page for new arrivals into our store. Yes, you can friend us as well!

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Some love and rehab for some Thonet chairs (very Eames DCW inspired) and the finished product on the Pearsall chair and ottoman!

Just a quick update on the Adrian Pearsall chair and ottoman that's now available in the store. Yup, it turned out pretty swell even in the somewhat neutral oatmeal fabric I chose!

 

 

I had someone approach me about a set of 4 Thonet chairs and a table that they had already spent a bunch of time attempting to rehab. The laminate top table was manufactured here locally and although the top was a laminate was high quality and in pretty great shape.

The Thonet chairs originally had a padded back and seat and I think the sellers intention was to just refinish the bent plywood and try to redo sans the upholstery. Here is how this "project" came to me!

 

 

I loved the DCW lines of the chairs and the quality of the constuction even though they weren't Eames. We agreed on a price for the set and I was determined to take these all the way down to the "bones". Total rehab was in order. The seller had already spent a bunch of time with some citrus stripper to get the old finish off as well as who knows how much time sanding and they still needed lots of attention!

 

 

Here's the table and chairs before stain. Table has not been prepped as yet but chairs are ready for stain. And here we are ready for a nice satin lacquer as soon as they dry down.

 

 

Now that the frames are pretty much ready to go it's time to fugure out how to replicate the padded backs. I've seen some examples of how these should look on some of the auction sites. With the holes in the backs they definetely need the padded backs replaced.

More to come soon on my solution to this challenge!

 

 



Tired of hearing about the Pearsall dining set I just finished? Wait, don't answer yet, here's more Pearsall!

The new Pearsall dining set is catching lots of looks at the store and I doubt it's going to be hanging around too long, but the next project on the bench is almost as sweet and is turning out to be a lot less work in our rehab department!

 

 

These two pieces came to me from the same consignor as the previous dining set with the same stipulation, recovery costs were coming off the top of the sale price. Again, solid walnut original Pearsall 1209-C chair and 1211-O ottoman. These were both sans their original cushions and the original Pirelli webbing was either missing on the ottoman or in such poor condition on the chair it would need to be replaced.

On the bright side both pieces are very structurally sound. The downside was the wear on the arms of the chairs were totally through the finish and no amount of Howards was going to bring them back to life. The balance of the pieces looked great with a bit of cleaning up and I decided to just refinish the tops of the arms and keep my fingers crossed for a match!

 

 

As these were slightly lighter shades of walnut in this chair, I used a Minwax golden oak over the sanded arm tops and it looked pretty good before lacquering. It still popped the walnut without being too dark and seemed to match the original finish really well. This chair was a bit higher gloss than the normal satin I would use on refinished pieces, so I started with a semi-gloss lacquer for the first couple of coats and topped in off with a satin just to knock down the gloss just a bit. Bingo!

 

 

Here's our "patient" under the sheets to avoid contanimation of the balance of the piece!

 

When I stopped by my upholstery wholesale place Harris and Stearns (they've been in business longer than I've been here in Tampa and maybe longer than I've been alive) here in town to look into replacing the original Pirelli rubber webbing, they advised that someone had bought them out of the last they had in stock and due to cost, they hadn't planned on replacing at $200 a roll. Ouch!

They advised they could order this for me if needed so I decided to take a look online. At $3 dollars a linear foot, I decided the newer nylon black webbing would work just as well and last a lot longer.  It's not like you can actually see this in action! I try and be a purist as best as possible, however!

 

 

Here's how we stand presently! Frames look pretty stunning and have been dropped off at my upholstery professionals along with foam and fabric to complete this rehab. If I could only brush up on my upholtery skills it would save me a bunch of money but this isn't a trade you learn overnight and Mike and Anne always do a really nice job on every piece I've given them for a fair price.

Hope to get some finished pics up in the next week or so.

 

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