Your antique settee is the one piece you can’t replace. It might have come from your grandparents’ front room, or from a second-hand shop where you spotted the carving under the stains. The wood is usually the good part. The fabric, the stuffing and the springs are what give up.
Drag the slider above. That settee went home in a floral print on its original wooden frame.
3 antique pieces from our workshop
Each one kept its frame and got a new look:
- A stained carved settee, re-covered in silver-grey. Gilded carving along the top rail and arms, a new plain cover that lets the wood show.
- A torn antique settee, buttoned in turquoise velvet. The photo at the top of this page. Deep buttoning across the back, a colour that turns an old piece into the loudest thing in the room.
- An antique settee, re-covered in a floral print. The slider above. A period-style fabric on a period-style frame.
What restoration involves
- You send photos. WhatsApp your whole piece, a close-up of the carving, and the worst of the damage to 074 019 9297.
- We quote from your photos. Kwanele sends you the material options and a quote, with no visit needed first.
- We bring samples and collect it. On collection day you choose from our fabric and leather samples at home, and we take the piece with us. You don’t carry a thing.
- We strip the old upholstery at our workshop on Vundla Street in Jabavu, Soweto. Old fabric, stuffing and tacks come out, so we can see your frame properly.
- We repair what’s underneath. Loose joints are fixed before anything is covered.
- We re-cover. New padding, new fabric, and buttoning or piping where the piece calls for it.
- We deliver it to your door and put it back where it stands.
Keeping the character
You bought an antique because it looks like one, so the carved frame stays and we work around it. The new fabric has to stop cleanly where the wood starts, along every curve of the top rail and arms. Your choice of fabric decides how the piece reads. A plain velvet, like the silver-grey on the gilded settee, lets your carving lead. A floral print, like the one in the slider, leans into the period look. A bright turquoise, like the settee at the top of this page, makes it the loudest thing in your lounge. None of them is wrong. Bring your ideas, and a photo of the room it’ll stand in, to the sample visit.
Heirloom dining chairs and armchairs
The same care goes into older dining chairs and armchairs. Nicole’s dining chairs had been “with me for over a decade”, and the review describes them as retaining “sentimental value”. See dining chair reupholstery and chairs, headboards and furniture repair.
Heirlooms from Florida and Roodepoort
Florida, Roodepoort, is where most of our work comes from. We collect the settee from your house, restore it in the workshop on its original frame and bring it home. Collection starts at R250. Here’s how a job in Florida works.
Getting a price
Antique pieces are quoted one by one, from your photos. Read what goes into a reupholstery price, then send us the photos.
Questions we get asked
Will you keep the original carved frame?
Yes. On all 3 antique settees in our before-and-afters, the original wooden frame stayed and only the upholstery was redone.
Can you refinish the wood as well?
Ask when you send the photo. We refinish wooden pieces too, like the sideboard on our furniture repair page.
Can I choose a period-style fabric?
Yes. The settee in the slider above went into a floral print. Tell us the look you're after and we'll bring samples that suit it.
