The Odd Chair Company, located at 45 Pimlico Road, Belgravia, has been designing and making bespoke furniture for over 50 years now, from simple dining chair designs to the most complex custom-built corner sofas. Their creations take time, patience and lots of ideas but that’s all part of the fun – with a strong preference for hand drawn designs for their customers so they can get a more visual idea of what they will be creating from scratch. The Odd Chair Company talk us through the fascinating making process.
The Design Process
We have been designing and making bespoke furniture for over 50 years now, from simple dining chair designs to the most complex custom-built corner sofas. We can offer a personal design service for both interior designers and private clients, creating personalised drawings unique to their ideas or discussions we have
had.
We are still rather old school with a strong preference to hand draw/sketch designs for our customers so they can get a more visual idea, easy to change with a quick eraser!
We will then either take these drawings to CAD for approval or simply take the client’s wishes to proceed with their piece on the back of our hand drawn design. Whichever method is chosen, as bespoke designers and furniture makers, we can always create a unique design personal to them. It takes time, patience, sometimes a lot of revisions, but that’s all part of the fun!
The Construction
Both our talented cabinet makers and upholsterers use traditional methods passed down through the generations alongside the best of modern techniques.
The cabinet maker will begin with sourcing his relevant chair templates and chosen hardwood to build the custom-made frame.
Each element is cut to size, hand-jointed, glued and secured into place. Once the frame is erected, the wood will be hand stained in the chosen finish, ranging from dark ebony on beech to light fumed oak.
The Upholstery
Next, the chair frame moves through to the upholstery workshop where the build-up begins. Heavy steel coiled springs are tied into wide bands of interwoven jute webbing to provide a balance of weight distribution for maximum comfort.
We use horsehair mixed with coconut hair as the primary stuffing material, enveloping and cushioning the coil springs, followed by a layer of cotton felt to provide thick padding and comfort.
The last detail is a final cover in fabric or, leather cut to the correct pattern and hand-stitched into position. As we build each piece from the frame up, we can offer a great amount of customisation and special detailing.
The Final Piece
It is still such a wonderful experience to see the final piece come to life! We pride ourselves on creating furniture built to last a lifetime, and that is why we offer a 40 Year Guarantee on all handmade pieces.
By creating a chair built to last a lifetime, we can build a sustainable piece of furniture simply needing a re-cover in years to come.
Re-upholstery
A chair shouldn’t have a ‘life expectancy’ it should be able to outlive us all! A traditionally built chair will stay structurally sound for years to come, requiring re-upholstery only.
We offer a tailor-made re-upholstery service for our existing and new customers, and love seeing customer’s pieces arrive back to us after over 30 years to simply be recovered.
If you’d like to enquire about any of the information above, please contact us on;
Website: The Odd Chair Company
Social: @theoddchairco
Email: london@theoddchaircompany.com
Tel: 020 730 6442.
