Meet Clara
I fell in love with Clara immediately because of her name, given to her by her owner, not me. Clara is a main character in the children’s novel “Heidi”. Clara teaches Heidi about friendship, courage, and persistence. Clara’s strength and vision truly changes Heidi’s world. So yes, I welcomed Clara with open arms!
People reupholster furniture for lots of reasons. The reason I like best is that the piece carries emotional content, family ties, memories. If you know me, you’ve heard me say, “Not everything gets to be an heirloom.” That’s true. True heirlooms are more than old. They are pieces that are so deeply permeated with memories, and so evocative of people and place that they must be preserved. Clara is one of those.
Clara’s owner inherited this chair in the 1980s when her parents redecorated. This chair represents the owner’s earliest memories, and she was grateful to have it. Clara was purchased shortly after the owner’s parents married and built a home. If you look at the photos you can see the owner as an infant, with her dad sitting on the chair in a time when photos came only in black and white.
Clara’s owner remembers: “That was my favorite chair, and the one I recall all through my childhood, from my earliest memories. It sat in the corner of our living room flanked on one side by the fireplace and on the other with our front picture window. Annually it would move to accommodate the Christmas tree. This chair was where I read (and I was a voracious reader) and where I would curl up for a nap. I inherited it in the 80s when my Mom redecorated.”
Originally, Clara was upholstered in dark green velvet, then bright green velvet, covered in a pink chintz slipcover, then in a denim slipcover, then upholstered in yellow and navy toile, then the wide denim stripe she was wearing when I got her. I found remnants of all the upholstery inside when I stripped her down. This is a beautiful hard wood frame, but it had been upholstered 4 times previously, so it was chewed up in some areas from previous tacks, and the frame required some repair before re-springing and reupholstery.
The owner chose a Stout Fabric in Iris 1 Denim. This is a heavy duty fabric with two stripe patterns. There is a subtle stripe shading, and white stripes just less than 1” apart. Tufting on anything with stripes is tricky, but we made it work!
Clara has gone home to her corner in the kitchen where her owner and her dog love to hang out with a cuppa and a book in the mornings. She’s back where she belongs supporting a lifetime of reading.
