Parker Project - Upholstery

[unthanks]

Hi all,
Great forum.
Picked up a bargain Parker dining setting (table and 6 chairs) and from reading a bunch of threads on here i am confident i can give the wood work a new lease on life. (steel wool/metho/feast & watson danish oil)
my question relates to replacing the horrible vinyl 'upholstery'. We are planning to reseat in leather and not sure how the original would have looked. The current seats are poorly covered with obvious pleats and creases.
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Anyone know how they were covered originally?

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Welcome to the forums. It is a friendly and helpful place. I am attaching some photos of the original upholstery on some similar mid-century modern chairs, though these are a set of 6 roadside rescue chairs made by CRO in Sydney. The Parker chairs may have been a cut above the CRO but, from memory, they were very similarly upholstered in a fairly thin vinyl, which limited the folds and wrinkles.

434449434450

If you are going to re-cover in leather (an excellent idea I think) you will need to be very careful which leather you use. Leather can be made and tanned in lots of different ways and only some methods produce good upholstery leather so you need a good supplier. The professional upholsterers used to thin down/shave the edges of the leather to get a wrinkle-free top surface. Some Australian upholstery leathers are quite thin and will stretch easily. As with the vinyl, you need some thin upholstery foam underneath to increase the comfort level. Be careful what you use to mark out your lines for cut-out on the underside as some markers penetrate through the leather over time and create unsightly marks on the surface (we have some items professionally upholstered where that has happened.)

[Xanthorrhoeas]

I realise these people are a long way from you, but I have found them excellent and very knowledgeable. Check them out and see if they freight. I have no financial or other connection with them. I purchased a hide of full-grain upholstery leather from them for less than half the price others had quoted for doubtful leather.

https://www.theleathershed.com.au/

You may already know this, but a lot of "leather" is not whole hide - it is reconstituted, ground up and mixed with something like vinyl - looks and smells like real leather but does not last. That is what is used on all those cheap "leather" sofas etc. They even impress a leather pattern into it to fool you. Some "leather" belts are that rubbish too.