Get stuffed: London's best upholsterers

From Sam Cam’s Notting Hill favourite to the Islington stalwart with a line in VIP lounges, Lily Worcester rounds up the capital’s best upholsterers 
Lily Worcester22 January 2016

Revival

Revival is a Notting Hill institution founded 30 years ago by Shay Kelly. Since then Kelly, 62, has reupholstered pieces for everyone from Elton John to Samantha Cameron. The smart yellow sofa that currently resides in the PM’s living room was given to Revival for a revamp prior to the big move to Downing Street. More recently, Kelly reupholstered a piano stool for Jarvis Cocker and adorned an armchair with 100 peacock feathers. In true Notting Hill form, Kelly thrives on a little eccentricity.

22 All Saints Road, W11 (revivalupholstery.co.uk)

7Upholstery

Sew me what you've got: repairs in action

He’s just worked on a sofa with a wild jungle print for Paul O’Grady and created a series of 3m-high wall panels made of Turkish silk scarves for another client, so perhaps it’s not surprising that 7Upholstery’s 53-year-old owner Michael Bessell says he’s drawn to the most ‘weird and wonderful’ jobs. Previously, Bessell and his partner owned a vintage furniture shop, but they struggled to find an upholsterer with enough knowledge and appreciation for original design. So he decided to retrain and fill the gap in the market. Now 7Upholstery is regularly commissioned by the Soho House group to reupholster headboards, footstools and armchairs, and by Ralph Lauren to cover backdrops for shopping displays to dress the Ralph Lauren VIP room at Wimbledon.

1 Boundary Street, E2 (7upholstery.co.uk)

King Upholstery

A darn good time: the finished work

With a background in the recovery and upholstery of on-trend Danish furniture and antiques, 30-year-old Turkish-born owner Esen Umit has an impressive client list of interior designers and West London’s high-flying cultural crowd (including Steven Berkoff and Ivan Massow). Despite having a team of just four, Umit has pulled off some impressive feats for commercial clients, too: for Barclays they have upholstered the banquette seating in the Premier Lounge at The O2. They also upholstered the VIP seating area for the Ryder Cup earlier this year and the Coca-Cola pop-up during the London Olympics.

52A Balls Pond Road, N1(kingupholstery.co.uk)

The London Chair Collective

Needle for speed: an upholsterer sizes up the damage 

‘We are like little elves dotted around London,’ says Debbie Lowndes, 44. ‘It’s like being in the WI.’ By ‘we’ she means The London Chair Collective, a network of independent upholsterers scattered across the capital. The group’s 11 founding members met on an upholstery course at London Metropolitan University 12 years ago and set up the collective in 2009. Now they have 12 members, who range in age from twenty-something to seventy-something. Each has their own speciality, from Victorian high-backs to quirky set pieces such as footstools with 3D donkey heads stitched on to the front, though all members work by hand using traditional methods. While much of their time is spent working on individual projects, they congregate at a Hackney warehouse when commissions call for teamwork.

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