I strangely received two identical chairs from two separate clients in the space of a couple of weeks. It transpired both clients wished to have their chairs re-upholstered with one of my swallow designs.

This was where the similarities ended and as a designer it was nice to create two very different looking final pieces.

The chair above was to fit into a room scheme which was accented in the red colour. The Bute wool used was suggested by the client who liked the fabric. I decided to match the wool with a purple toned tweed and accent the elements of the bird with wool felt to match the sample fabric (above.) The piping for the chair was made using the same tweed in the bird and It tied the whole design together, and kept characteristics of the original cover.

With the above chair we decided on a colour scheme much softer to that of any of my other designs previously and we eventually settled on a turquoise and pink theme.

When striping the original cover we decided to remove the quilting in the back of the seat (which we replaced in the chair above) and replace it with contrasting buttons. This immediately modernised the chair and added a playful detail. The fabric used to upholster the chair was a beautiful wool felt. The swallow was made using hand dyed cotton satin, the subltle sheen in the fabric added a nice contrast to the wool felt. The piping finished off the chair and we resolved the idea of having a contrasting colour and decided to use piping made from the wool felt. It gave the finished chair a clean soft look and allowed the buttons to become a major feature.

These next commissions were for two identical chairs for two separate clients, the final designs show how small changes can create two very different pieces.

Scroll down to see the images.