Furniture Shop In Portland, Maine

Maine Sunday Telegram (Portland, ME)

January 15, 2006 

From drab to FAB 

RAY ROUTHIER Staff Writer

Ed Anaka looks like a tailor fitting a man for a new suit, but his client is actually a 50-year-old wing chair. 

With scissors in his pocket, Anaka is constantly measuring fabric, then cutting, then stapling or fastening or tacking into place. He uses special pins and hooked needles, as well as his fingers, to cajole the fabric into laying just right. 

At some points, he sews extra pieces of cord into place along the chair - a nice detail. And sometimes, mostly to remind himself of the fact that upholstery is still a skilled handcraft, something that can't really be duplicated by machines, he spits tacks. 

He takes the tacks (sterilized ones) and puts a bunch in his mouth. Then he rolls one to the front of his mouth and plops it on to a magnetic hammer. In a quick motion he sets the tack through the fabric and wood, flips the hammer over, and taps the tack into place. 

"One of the older gentlemen I started out with still did it this way. He'd be spitting tacks all day," said Anaka, 42, owner and sole workman at his Atlantic Furniture & Reupholstery  in Portland. 

"It's a trade that machines will never be able to take over. Even in the big operations, it's done by hand - it's just that you have some people who just sew, or some people who just cut." 

REASONS TO REUPHOLSTER 

Anaka is one of a handful of professional upholsterers in Greater Portland, working by hand to rejuvenate old furniture. Because there aren't a ton of upholsterers listed in the phone book (about a dozen are in the Portland book) many people don't think of reupholstering as an option when updating interiors. 

Anaka has seen the number of upholsterers dwindle since he started 22 years ago - partly because of the explosion of discount furniture outlets. 

But the craft itself, and the reasons people keep seeking it out, have remained unchanged. Those include: 

Not wanting to throw away a good, solid piece of furniture simply because the fabric faded, or it doesn't match the drapes. 

The desire to hold on to a family heirloom or historic piece. 

Wanting to keep a piece of furniture because it fits perfectly under your window, or fits the style of an older home, better than any new piece could. 

"Most people come to me because they really like the piece and they want to keep using it," said Anaka, working in his small Portland workshop. "Sometimes it's because it fits perfectly under a window. New furniture can be pretty big and overwhelming." 

Anaka said few people come to him because they want to save money. To reupholster a standard wingback chair, like the 50-year-old chair he was working on recently, Anaka said he'd probably charge $250 to $300 for labor, and the material would be at least $80 up to several hundred, depending on the fabric chosen. 

So someone should plan on spending $500 or more to reupholster such a chair. 

Because of the highly competitive discount furniture business, you can certainly buy a wingback chair for that price or less. But how long you can expect to keep it is an open question. 

SOME PIECES WORTH RESTORING 

Anaka and other upholsters often see furniture older than 50 years in good structural shape. So there is good, hard evidence that furniture from a certain time period was really made to last, and reupholstering those pieces seems to make sense. 

"It's a throw-away society today. Look at TVs - nobody gets TVs fixed, and it's getting that way with furniture, the new stuff anyway," said Glen Farrington, of Farrington's Upholstery shop of Oxford, who has been an upholsterer since 1966. "I'd say the best (furniture) I see a lot was made in the '50s." 

Farrington's description of his work style helps explain why upholsterers seem old-fashioned. He won't give estimates over the phone - he has to see the piece to give a fair estimate, he says. 

Then once he gets the piece, say the chair, he might take 24 hours or more to finish it. And depending on how much work he has, he probably won't be able to get to it right way. 

Farrington also teaches upholstery classes for Oxford Hills Adult Education at his shop. For $75, plus materials, people come to the shop 12 Mondays in a row from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The next class begins this week. 

But if you can't get to Oxford, check with your local school department's adult education program, as many have local upholsterers teaching courses. 

PLENTY OF WORK 

Farrington says most of the people who take his course want to do one specific piece and save some money. Often it's a small piece, like an ottoman or small chair. Most people won't finish a standard-size chair in the allotted time of the course, he said. 

Reupholstering a chair is time-consuming. Not only do you have to strip old fabric, then measure and cut and fasten fabric to every nook and cranny of the piece, you may also need to pad cushions, stretch or repair webbing, and tighten or replace springs. 

Plus, sewing the material to fit the furniture requires a super-heavy-duty sewing machine made for upholsterers. They usually have to be bought from a wholesaler. 

So because of these factors, both Anaka and Farrington say, they still have plenty of work. 

"Some people who take the course might do more than one piece, later on, but most won't," said Farrington. 

PRIDE IN CRAFTSMANSHIP 

The 50-year-old wingback chair Anaka worked on recently is owned by Janet Muccino. She grew up in Portland but lives most of the year in Key West, Fla. She doesn't know exactly how old the chair is. But the piece has been in her family throughout her own lifetime, so it is at least 50 years old. 

Her chair seemed sturdy and solid, but the fabric was dated - a gold and green floral print, worn and faded in spots. She picked a very bright and airy light red fabric, which she bought herself and then gave to Anaka to work with. 

"The chair has sentimental value to me, and it would be hard to find the same quality in a store today, so it just had to be reupholstered," said Muccino. 

As Anaka worked on the chair on the Tuesday after New Year's, he added layers of Dacron between the chair and the new fabric, to make worn or sagging spots look fuller and fresher. 

By the time he was done, the chair was rejuvenated. 

"I never sit in a chair after I'm done, and I'm constantly brushing it while I'm working" said Anaka. "I'm very proud of the way my work comes out." 

So proud, Anaka said, that he's been known to undo a whole row of staples so that he can remove a tiny wrinkle from fabric. Customers seeking to preserve 50- and 60-year-old furniture appreciate that pride. 

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at: 

rrouthier@pressherald.com