Upholstery in
Hawthorn

Hawthorn is one of the suburbs we visit most, not because of any single big job but because we are constantly out that way for quotes, pickups and drop offs on other pieces. That familiarity works in your favour: a Hawthorn job rarely waits on us finding a spare morning to make the trip, because we are usually there anyway that week.

The furniture itself tracks closely with Kew across the river: antique pieces bought generations ago and kept in the family, alongside quality furniture from more recent decades that was built to last and deserves the same care. A solid hardwood frame does not care how old the style is, it just needs its insides put right.

Because so much of what comes from Hawthorn is genuinely well made, our first question is rarely whether a piece is worth restoring. It usually is. The real question is what it needs: new springs, fresh webbing, rebuilt stuffing, a French polished finish, or all four.

The tree-lined streets close to the river hold a lot of older double storey homes, and a lot of the furniture inside them has simply stayed exactly where it was placed thirty or forty years ago. That is not neglect. It usually means a piece has been cared for well enough that it has never needed to move, which is often the best sign that it is worth doing properly rather than starting again.

Because we are collecting and delivering in Hawthorn so often, the work tends to arrive in a steady stream rather than big one off projects: a wing chair here, a dining suite there, a sofa that has finally worn through after twenty good years. Most of it shares the same starting point, a hardwood frame that has never been the problem, sitting under springs, webbing or stuffing that has quietly given up.

Antique pieces get the traditional treatment: horsehair carded and kept where it is sound, hessian and webbing replaced rather than patched, springs hand tied again where the piece calls for it. Quality furniture from more recent decades gets the same honest assessment of what it actually needs, whether that is a full rebuild or simply new foam and a fresh cover.

Because we are on the road through Hawthorn regularly anyway, it is easy for us to collect a piece, take it back to Eltham North, and return it once the work is done without that back and forth adding time or cost to the job.

Dining chairs make up a fair share of this steady stream too, usually two or three from a set at a time rather than the whole table in one go, which suits how the rest of the household keeps using the others while the first batch is on the bench.

The fault in most Hawthorn pieces is underneath, not on the surface. Springs that were tied decades ago loosen with time, webbing perishes quietly, stuffing settles exactly where a person sits, and none of it shows in a photo until the cover is worn thin enough to reveal it.

We strip a piece back before quoting it so we actually know what is there. Nine-way hand tied springs are retied by hand where the frame calls for it, not swapped for something that changes how the piece feels. Loose joints are re-glued and reinforced before anything goes back over them, because upholstery over a wobbly frame does not last.

Timber gets the same attention. A French polished arm, leg or edge that has dulled or scratched with age or handling is brought back in the same workshop the upholstery happens in, so a chair or sideboard comes home matching rather than needing a second trip elsewhere.

Fifty years of French polishing, thirty of machining and twenty two of upholstery sit across the same small team, which between us adds up to close to a century of hands-on work on exactly this kind of furniture. We use Dunlop HR35 foam where a piece calls for it, 200 density for a firmer seat and 165 for something softer, backed by a ten year warranty from Dunlop.

Any hardwood frame we build carries a thirty year guarantee on the frame itself, and we are fully insured. You are welcome to visit the Eltham North workshop and look at fabric in person, just call ahead first since it is a residential address.

A proper Hawthorn quote accounts for the condition of the frame, whether springs need retying or replacing, whether horsehair or foam is the right call, and what the timber needs once it is bare. We price that work with quality materials and aim for a high-end finish at a mid-tier price, which means we are sometimes the cheaper quote and sometimes we are not. If a quote comes in well under what proper materials and hand tied springs cost at wholesale, something has almost certainly been left out.