Upholstery in
Eltham

More of our public enquiries come from Eltham than any other suburb, and there is a clear reason for it. Eltham people tend to ask what a repair or a reupholstery job actually involves before they ask what it costs. They want the frame sound, the springs right and the finish to last, and they are prepared to wait for that rather than take the fastest quote going.

It is a suburb with a strong thread of craft and design running through it, from the pottery and art around Montsalvat to the timber-and-brick houses tucked into the bush. Furniture here tends to have been chosen with some care in the first place, so when it wears out the instinct is to have it restored rather than swapped for something off a showroom floor. That is the work we like best.

Because the workshop is a short drive away in Eltham North, an Eltham job rarely needs a courier. We collect it, work on it under one roof, and bring it home again.

Eltham work covers the full range rather than one type of job. A dining set that has been in the family for twenty years comes in for new drop-in seats. A hallway armchair with a good hardwood frame gets stripped back and recovered. A grandparent's wing chair, bought decades ago and never quite replaced, comes in for a proper restoration rather than a patch job.

What ties it together is the attitude behind the enquiry. Eltham customers generally know, or want to know, what is wrong with the piece before they ring: the foam has collapsed, the springs have gone, the cover is worn through at the arms. That makes for a straightforward quote, because we are usually confirming what they already suspect rather than delivering surprise news.

We also see a fair number of pieces that were bought well the first time, sometimes locally made, and simply need bringing back rather than replacing. A sound frame is a sound frame whether it is forty years old or four, and that is the case we make to most Eltham customers.

The furniture we see from Eltham is often older and better made than what turns up in newer suburbs, and that changes what it needs. A hardwood frame from a proper maker rarely needs replacing, just re-gluing at the joints and, where it has flexed over the years, reinforcing. The upholstery on top of it is a different story: foam compresses, webbing sags and springs lose their tension long before the timber gives out.

We rebuild seats with Dunlop HR35 high-resilience foam, 200 density where the household wants a firm seat and 165 where softer suits better, and Dunlop backs that foam with a ten-year warranty. Where a frame is built for it we hand-tie the springs nine ways; where the piece suits webbing instead, we re-web it properly rather than patching over what is there.

A lot of Eltham furniture also has some age and character to it, timber that has never been refinished, joinery that was done by hand. That is where our French polishing comes in, matched to the original finish rather than sanded back to something generic. The goal on every Eltham job is the same: keep what is good about the piece and put right what has worn out.

Upholstery, machining and French polishing all happen under the one roof in Eltham North, so an Eltham piece that needs its frame repaired, new springs fitted and its timber polished does not sit waiting on three different tradespeople. Between the three of us there is around a hundred years in the trade: a restorer and French polisher with fifty years behind him, a machinist with thirty, and an upholsterer with twenty-two.

We are fully insured, and any hardwood frame we build carries a thirty-year guarantee. Being local, Eltham customers are welcome to drop by and see the workshop and look through fabric in person. It is a residential address, so call ahead and we will have the kettle on.

A proper quote covers stripping the piece back to its frame, repairing any joints that have worked loose, fitting new webbing and springs where needed, new Dunlop foam, and a cover cut and sewn to the actual shape of the piece. Because we price the work in front of us rather than a fixed package, sometimes our quote lands below a competitor's and sometimes above it. Quality materials have a real cost at wholesale, and a quote well under that cost has usually left something out of the job.