While writing the blog post about The Ride, back in December 2016, I realized that this was exactly the demographic I wanted to reach: people who have chairs with stories. The whole process of learning about a chair and its history, along with the reasons why it’s getting reupholstered just absolutely make my day! And so, without hardly realizing it, I began telling the stories of all my projects on Facebook. (If you haven’t checked out my Facebook page yet, I highly recommend you do so – I update there DAILY! Yes, really!)

While Facebook is certainly not a blog website per se, it has been a wonderful vehicle for which to share my ongoing projects and the learning process as I begin to transform them. It’s not always about one project in particular, but my followers seem to enjoy when I post things: the good and the bad. Occasionally, I’m less than thrilled with what’s going on, and I try to be transparent about that. This journey of mine, like most, is not always smooth-sailing. I’m still new to upholstery – I don’t always know what I’m doing. Sometimes, I want to throw someone’s chair out the window and butcher it with an axe.. Start over.

I know that I tend to be verbose. Keeping it short, sweet, and to the point has never been my forte. And apparently, since this is my business, and I can run it how I like: I use lots of words. And those words seem to be what attract many of my new clients!

I’ve had quite a number of my clients come to me with the pieces that they want to renew, and I’ll often hear something along the lines of, “And this chair has got a story to tell!” That is music to my ears!

When I first meet with a client to take a look at their chair, and we sit down to take a look at fabric, the story of their chair and the story of their lives begin to intertwine with one another. Not every upholsterer wants to get into these discussions, as they tend to take extra time, but to me, they’re the reason why I do this. I get to know my clients in a way that many never will – through their furniture, which brings up stories about family and friends that they may have never shared with anyone else. It’s special. It’s unique. And it makes me want to my absolute best work for them.

Because this isn’t just any chair. It’s a chair with a story.