Style Scout: In with the Old

Cy makes a case for reclaiming aged, quality furnishings.

Sharon Hannigan relaxes on Cy's reupholstered "Yeti chic" armchair.

Image credit: Tate Carlson

Recommended by the Editor

Style Scout: Design to the People

Style Scout: Uson Design Solutions

By: Cy Winship |   March 2011   |  From the print edition

We all want to be good. We try to behave responsibly, and priorities in home design are no exception. Where were my countertops quarried? Are these bamboo floors made from sustainable crops? We ask a million questions to be sure we’re respecting the earth by using eco-friendly materials.

But somehow furniture is a different case. A few months ago, someone asked me about reupholstering a couch and was shocked to learn it would cost more than a new Ikea sofa. I tried to explain about responsibly reusing well-built furniture and making it cool and modern. He replied, “Oh, I change my style every couple years, so I just get new stuff.” I’ve heard this so often my patience is worn thin. I asked, “So what do you do with a couch when you’re bored with it? Throw it in the alley?” Silence. “Do you think it just magically disappears? No, it goes in a landfill. Are you OK with that?”

He hung up. Guess I should have expected that. But really, folks, if we are going to embrace ecological virtue, we have to actually practice it. It means thinking differently—not looking at things in new ways, but old ways. We should think like our mothers and grandmothers did.

My mother, a fabulous, opinionated old German woman, has had the same couch and chairs for at least forty years. She insisted they be well made, and paid what they were worth. She has re-covered them as needed over the years in quality fabrics she loves.

Now, my tastes are wildly different from hers. But I learned from her the love of owning sturdy furniture with arms that never creak and frames made to last forever. And new (and, yes, eco- friendly) fabrics with great durability allow us to be truly adventurous design freaks with our old pieces of furniture. They add one-of-a-kind daring to our homes. And they don’t end up in landfills.

As a designer, I love when clients ask, “What can we reuse?” It tells me they have pieces that matter to them—either handed down, or bought with thought and consideration. And what a delight to take an impossibly fussy chair, lose its skirt and get rid of its buttons, then put tangerine velvet or a coffee wool satin on it. To me, this is design: working with what’s in front of you. Just going to some store and buying a cheap couch isn’t creative or witty or cool. It’s just shopping.

Disclaimer time: I started out as an upholsterer. I still do it, though my hands are giving out and I will stop very soon. But I really love the art and craft of making beautiful things. It’s just so much more fun to reinvent mom’s old wooden armchair as “Yeti chic.” Or to take that dull ’70s loveseat and transform it as an Art Deco gem in silver velvet with mad Warhol-style pillows.

So get out there to thrift stores and estate sales. If you’re buying new, buy quality. We have to stop thinking that the greatest attribute a good can have is a cheap price. Cheap things fall apart and get thrown in alleys. Find something original, cover it in mad or luxe fabric. When you’re old, give it to your children. It’s not just green; it’s smart style. It’s also the right thing to do.

Cy shares some starting points for Twin Cities furniture reupholstering:

➞Remnants Design

➞Grahn’s Upholstery

For finding sturdy vintage furniture:

➞Spring and summer garage sales

➞Birkeland estate sales

➞Savers stores

➞Salvation Army stores