Upholstery Restoration & Select Fabrics

Description of Work: My sweet but somewhat feral dog peed on my velour sofa, and after having the exterior professionally cleaned by another company, I brought the seat covers to Upholstery Restoration to be re-stuffed. I am thrilled with the results - the quality is as high as the original sofa, and at my request they were able to make the cushions even firmer than they had been originally. I was shown several options and allowed to choose what I wanted, which I really appreciated, because this sofa has sentimental value (as does all furniture worth restoring, I guess), and so I was keenly engaged in returning the sofa to its original state. They were also done in only a couple of days. I loved the experience and they will always be my first choice for future projects!

Description of Work: Reupholstered my dining chairs. Excellent job.

Description of Work: We wanted a vintage mid-century foot stool recovered, and visited their shop- thousands of swatches to choose from! They were very professional, even for such a small job. Our little foot stool never looked better! They do work for many of the high-end hotels in the city.

Description of Work: Upolstered leather sofa

Description of Work: They recaned three chairs and did an outstanding job.

Description of Work: I was left to browse on my own with no attention at all. I had already dropped off my cushions and was choosing new fabric for recovering. After 45 minutes of unattended looking thru books, I asked the only person I could find if she could retrieve one of the cushions so that I could compare new choices. She said yes, and 20 min later when I asked if she had gotten the cushion, she said she forgot, and "let's go down together to the workshop". At that point I was so appalled by her lack of concern, attention, initiative, and any words that would indicate a willingness to help, I insisted on taking all my cushions back. At that point she suddenly became apologetic and continually asking me to give her another chance to help me. I was past the point of no return and left with my cushions. It was the worst customer care I've ever experienced. Perhaps this was a one-time incident that I was unlucky enough to bump into- but I will never go back.

Description of Work: they checked the brakes and told us they did not need to be serviced

Description of Work: Repainted antique wicker rocking chair. On time and on budget.

Description of Work: I had a skirted sofa and asked them to remove the skirt and staple down the fabric to make the sofa look more modern. The technician did an amazing job. It looks like completely new sofa. The man I spoke with on the phone was also very helpful in taking the time to help me think through the project. The price was was reasonable.

Description of Work: Reupholstered 4 dining room chairs (including new padding & fabric), repaired a broken arm on one of the arm chairs, put new gliders on bottom of each chair leg, Scotchguarded the fabric, and cleaned wood frames. They brought fabric samples to my condo so that I could select fabric to match my rugs. They accurately priced the job based on photos I emailed them. They were very professional and easy to do business with.

Description of Work: Picked up, reupholstered and returned sofa. Everything went smoothly. I supplied the fabric although the selection they had was very good.

Description of Work: Very knowledgeable staff. Beverly was most helpful in selecting fabrics. I would recommend them to anyone doing re-upholstery or just looking for fabrics.

Description of Work: Fixed the edge of a table a while ago; not sure of date.

Description of Work: .

Description of Work: upholstery restoration--

Description of Work: Repair chair, repair table.

Description of Work: The entire experience was miserable from beginning to end. There is no coordination between the numerous family members who work for the company. I chose the company because they were on Howard Ave. in the Kensington, Maryland Antique Row where my husband and I shopped for decades since the 1960s. Three people arrived at my house with no samples despite the fact that I had 18 chairs to re-upholster and or repair. They rushed through the house and Mr. Mendelsohn wrote a list with estimates though he only had time to look at the chair and write down his own description without checking its condition. My house is 4 stories and the furniture was all over the house. I visited the shop around March 3 having found it the phone book and the first appointment was quickly made in early March—too anxious I seem to think now but they came highly recommended on Angie’s list.. Their first visit to my house was around March 13, 2013 when Mr. Mendelsohn and two helpers came as noted above. Now we are at April 29, 2013 and there is no resolution to this totally wasted effort to resolve the issue. Mr. Mendelsohn asked for a deposit immediately though he hadn't submitted a proposal, just vague costs for furniture he had not examined. He assumed I would be doing all the work even though I told him some of the furniture would probably not be re-upholstered. I quickly got a total cost for the work without an idea of what the fabrics would cost which was much higher than I was willing to spend. I diligently went to the shop many times to find fabrics that would match the chairs and to look at the furniture with the samples. The warehouse where my chairs had been stored was very dark so I asked that they return the chairs so I could choose fabrics in my house which has spectacular natural light. The first estimated was for $4,180. When I requested a meeting to go over the list estimate (without fabrics) from Mr. Mendelsohn and to explain that I would not be fixing or re-upholstering some of the chairs, the next estimate came in at $3,690 without the expensive Victorians. He tried to tell me that my budget was being maintained but in fact failed to remember that I had already given them a good faith estimate of $1000 which he had credited on that invoice so there was essentially no change to the cost which I pointed out to him. I asked if they could clean some of the chairs in lieu of re-upholstering and they said they didn't do that. I asked for a recommendation for that part of the work which never came. Mr. Mendelsohn didn't remember where 4 of the chairs had come from or what they were and I reminded him they were the basement office chairs. He obviously was not happy that I wanted to stay within budget. He also couldn't remember the rocking chair in the guest bedroom on the top floor and it was his assistant who remembered it because he unscrewed the seat before picking it up. I had never intended to fix that chair as it was pedestrian and in good enough shape for that room. By the time Mr. Mendelsohn returned the chairs so I could choose the fabrics, I had gone to the basement to pick up 2 matching chairs that were covered by piles and piles of papers in bags and the chairs were barely visible as we had had water in the area in every major storm. I was delighted to find that the chairs were there and in good condition except for the seats which were dented from bearing the weight of the bags of papers. My helper and I went through the basement discarding a large number of huge trash bags of papers to be picked up at recycling time and a lot of items that needed to be trashed since the office was no longer being used. This included two computers, some desks, office chairs and a mess of construction materials since we were doing remodeling in the basement and most contractors are not very tidy or careful and they used this room as a depot. When all of this was gone, I took the two chairs that had been hidden into the living room. We had a full matching set of table, mirror, and six chairs. I had asked to see my chairs early on in a visit to the shop as mentioned above and was shown into a workroom where I found one chair and an armchair amidst a huge number of chairs packed in the back wall and asked the attendant to pull out a chair so I could photograph it. These two chairs were kept separate from the four on the original list. There were two locations for the various warehouses. When I asked to see these two chairs again I was told they belonged to a lady who had put a note on the chair. When I insisted I wanted to go back to the same warehouse where the two chairs were located I was told there was no such room. I persevered and eventually found the room totally devoid of furniture. When I asked to speak to Mrs. O’Brien, the owner of the business, she referred me again to Mr. Mendelsohn. Mr. Mendelsohn rarely returned calls promptly if at all and always to argue and accuse instead of trying to solve the problem and I was eventually shunted to one Dave after another since so many of the nephews and grandchildren have the same name. The calls were never returned promptly from others as well except Mr. Dave Collier. In the end, OB called and tried to reach an agreement which seemed might work but in the end that petered out too with just trying to bully me. All of this is too much coincidence to think that someone else would have the identical 1930s set of furniture that I had and only had two chairs and put her own note on the two chairs?! The last straw was when I told them to return all the furniture as I was going to use another company is that they returned the chairs with dark ink markings of my name on the following three chairs: The lovely, old floral inlay chair that I had told them I saw no reason to re-upholster since the silk covered slip seat was in excellent condition and had never been sat on because it was too delicate. I’d always had a ribbon across the arms to discourage anyone from sitting on it; it is such a delight.The rocking chair in the living room where the upholstery could have been tacked back into place just on the rear where it was needed had the chair not been written on it with black ink. My husband and I have always believed in buying good quality and keeping it.One of the old Victorians that only needed changing the old, faded fabric cover as it was in excellent shape otherwise and didn’t need re-building at all with springs, original horsehair and other necessities firm and in great shape seat and back. I shudder now to think that should someone spill anything, even water on that chair, the black ink will bleed. This defacing of my chairs was a scary act of spite which makes me nervous every time I think of it. In addition, they insisted they would re-upholstere it but how could I trust them. Then they insisted on cleaning which I thought wouldn’t work given the fabric and the color. They were sure they could remove the large ink marks of my full name. I said it wouldn’t clean, they insisted and ended up by blowing cleaner with strong jets of water and I presume chemicals all over the seat. So I ended up with a material, which they claimed only had a small black spot but one marred all over with grey patches, the sheen of the silk destroyed, the muslin and the pad a mess of black marks and shredded pad. They are now in my custody. I really couldn’t trust them to fix this after the disfigurements they had caused which they offered to do. The cushion had to be rebuilt and recovered as there is no doubt had I tried to rescue the slip seat the black would have bled through the new silk. Now I have a foam pad instead of a solid cotton pad. I have been a successful business woman myself, with 39 years of real estate experience. I have a sterling reputation for professionalism, integrity and fairness among my bosses and a host of agents. Furthermore, a well known appraiser just sent an e-mail to another agent mentioning that I had a mind like a trap which was extremely helpful to him and other appraisers as I had such a vast store of information earned over decades about properties and their characteristics. After all these years I continue to get many referrals from clients from way back and recent clients. It is the life blood of my business.

Description of Work: I have never used this service. There must be a mistake. Jocelyn Parker

Description of Work: I had an Empire era cherry and birds-eye maple carved dresser repaired and waxed. They replaced veneer that had been damaged, gave the piece an overall waxing, and also waxed the runners.

Description of Work: Re-web and retied springs, reupholstered seat and back including double corded edge, new filling, and re-glued frame of an Empire mahogany rocking chair.

Description of Work: Regluing a 40 year-old, wobbly cane desk chair.