In Memory of Brian

This past Saturday the Wellington paper featured a lovely article on the life story of our dear friend Brian Wallis who passed away at the end of August after a long battle with cancer.

Brian has owned Form Furniture on the Old Hutt Road in Thorndon for many years, and it was he who took the esdesign girls under his wing when we first set up ten years ago - leasing us a small studio at the front of the Form Furniture workshop, among the dust and the wood shavings and the treasure trove of antique furniture that streamed in and out of the premises. He taught us a host of invaluable furniture restoration skills, (as well as an endless supply of questionable jokes) - and the knowledge he has given us adds to the wealth of advice we too can now give to our clients. 

Brian's son Reuben has taken over the Form Furniture reigns and continues to do a brilliant job for both their own clients and many of ours. Brian will be sorely missed, however Form Furniture remains as strong as ever, and we look forward to seeing where Reuben takes the company in the future!

Nightwood

This morning I'm being inspired by the ladies behind Brooklyn based furniture and textile design company Nightwood.

'...Our products are hand crafted by us so they are one of a kind due to the nature of production and materials used.  We locally source salvaged, antique, reclaimed and scrap woods when possible as well as some new for all our wood furniture.  We use organic and sustainable fabrics when possible as well as woven scraps in our textile-based products. In addition we use vintage refurbished frames for many of our signature reincarnated dressers, chairs and couches...'

I absolutely love that Ry Scruggs and Nadia Yaron are making a successful business out of re-using and reincarnating old things to make quirky, new ones! This is the art of sustainability in interior design at it's best, and at esdesign we're very familiar with the great sense of satisfaction this brings, as this company started it's life doing just that - upcycling old chairs... very inspiring!

All images via

Bill - The French Polisher

When esdesign first began - we had a teeny tiny wee workshop down on the Old Hutt Road in Thorndon, in front of the furniture restoration company, Form Furniture. There, we worked alongside some very talented old souls and wonderful characters - one of whom was Bill.
He has the thickest Scottish accent, a brilliant sense of humor and an extremely talented pair of hands for the dying art of French polishing - the wood finishing technique that involves painstakingly applying thin layer upon thin layer of shellac to the timber surface that results in a very high gloss surface and deep, rich colour.

Back then, we used to do most of the timber restoration ourselves on our client's chairs, so he taught us many tips and tricks for making the old pieces look like new again!

We've been having a clean out of our photos recently - (a lot of photo documenting has gone on over the last 8 years of business!) and came across this lovely one of the man himself. Ahh memories!

Mahogany Chair Frame Upholstery - Complete!

Here are the newly upholstered mahogany framed chairs currently in our workshop - they are just getting a few finishing touches and they'll be heading to their new home this weekend! The fabric is a great two toned weave by Textilia called 'Grange'.

A Pair of Mahogany Chair Frames

This chair is one of a pair of lovely frames that have come out of our storage unit, now ready for upholstery after being completely stripped and re-polished back to their former glory. We have a new owner lined up for them already, so once they've chosen new fabric we'll share the finished product with you!

Grandfather, Grandmother

Check out this pair of chairs we've just had restored and reupholstered for the shop floor - a sweet Grandfather and Grandmother chair that originally were in a worn gold velour, are now in this fabulous fabric from Warwick called 'Hollydale'.

DIY Refurbished Singer Sewing Table

If you're looking for a little something new to read, head over to Nikki's new blog Bravo Henry to see what she gets up to after hours!
Over Easter she turned an old Singer sewing machine into an awesome entry table using recycled rimu timber joists, a few cans of spray paint and a lot of elbow grease. Go check it out!

Don Don Don

We've just had a beautiful Don sofa and two chairs restored to their former glory, and they're nearly ready to make an appearance in our store... more later in the week!

Underground Market - Retro, Recycled & Restored

If you're in Wellington this weekend, go and check out the Underground Market at Frank Kitts Park - this weeks theme is all things retro, recycled and restored, so should be a good one!

Cintique Progress

Remember the three Cintique chairs from last week? Here they are, on the home stretch and nearly complete!

Cintique Chair Restoration

So often we show you great images of our restored furniture pieces once they're all finished, but we thought we'd show you a little of the hard work that goes into making the finished product so fantastic.

Chelsea spent her afternoon trying to make heads or tails of a bucket full of springs that need to go back onto these three fabulous Cintique chair frames which have just had their timber work carefully restored.
So far; Chairs = 1, Chelsea = 0. Better luck tomorrow!

Chair Restoration - Some Oldies & Goodies

Just a bit of reflection on some of the fun projects we've worked on over the last year or two... you may have seen these before, you may not, but always good to reminisce. We're hoping for some more great chair makeovers this year!