Upholstery in
Kew East

Kew East does not get talked about the way Kew itself does, but the furniture inside its homes tells much the same story. Solid, well made pieces bought once and kept: an armchair passed down, a dining suite that has hosted every family gathering for thirty years, a sofa that just needs its frame and springs put right rather than replacing.

The suburb sits close to Bulleen, and we are already out that way several times a week collecting and delivering other jobs, so picking up a piece in Kew East is rarely a special trip. It usually just means an earlier stop on a run we are already making that week.

What arrives from Kew East is nearly always older furniture that has been well looked after rather than neglected: an armchair with a sound hardwood frame and tired upholstery, a set of dining chairs where the joints have started to work loose, a lounge that has simply been sat in for a very long time. The frames are rarely the issue. It is the springs, webbing and stuffing underneath that have given up first.

We strip each piece back before quoting so we know exactly what is involved, then rebuild it properly: springs retied or replaced as the piece requires, webbing renewed, and stuffing rebuilt or, where the original horsehair is still sound, kept and re-carded rather than thrown out.

The furniture we see from Kew East is old enough that its problems are usually inside rather than on the surface. Webbing that has perished quietly under a cover that still looks fine, springs that have dropped just enough to be felt but not seen, stuffing that has gone hard with age. A quick recover over the top of any of that fixes nothing for long.

We fix the cause, not just the cover: hand tied springs retied where the piece calls for it, webbing replaced properly, and Dunlop HR35 foam used where a piece has moved on from horsehair, 200 density for a firmer seat or 165 for something softer.

Three of us cover the whole job without handing any part of it elsewhere: upholstery, machining and French polishing, roughly a hundred years of combined hands-on work between a restorer of fifty years, a machinist of thirty and an upholsterer of twenty two. Hardwood frames we build carry a thirty year guarantee, and we are fully insured. You are welcome to visit and see fabric in person, just call ahead since it is a residential workshop.

A proper quote accounts for the frame, springs, webbing and stuffing, not just the fabric on top. We price the actual work with quality materials, aiming for a high-end finish at a mid-tier price, so sometimes we are the cheaper quote and sometimes we are not. If a quote is well below what proper materials and springs cost at wholesale, something in that list has likely been left out.