Name: Arthur Altman
Background: As a youth in a small town in Bavaria, Altman helped his father in his upholstery and furniture-repair business. After coming to the U.S. he worked in an upholstery factory and then in a shop. In 1962 he opened Arts and Crafts Upholstery in Evanston. He also teaches reupholstery at the Robert Crown Center in Evanston. Altman, 62, lives with his wife, Christa, in Chicago.
Years in present position: 42
When I take on an upholstery job, it usually starts out by telephone. People call up and ask questions, usually about the price. They expect me to give them an estimate on the telephone. But that`s hard because I have to see the age and condition of the furniture, and it depends on the fabric they choose. So I tell them that the best way is to come into the shop and maybe bring a picture of what they want to have done.
When they come into the shop, I ask them, for example, what kind of chair they have. Is it traditional? Is it modern? Then I know what kind of fabric is needed. For instance, you can`t put a Herculon or nylon-texture fabric on a French Provincial or Victorian chair.
After I know the fabric, then finding the right colors and the right shades that go with the rest of the furniture becomes the biggest problem. The customer picks out a few samples and takes them home to see how they look in their own environment.
The next step is to determine what kind of pattern would look good with the particular pieces of furniture. Then I go to the house and measure how much yardage is needed and give an estimate. Once I have the fabric, I pick up the furniture. The whole job takes about 30 days, depending on where the fabric is coming from.
Fabrics run from $10, $15 a yard up to $50, or even higher if there is a certain percent of silk, wool or tapestry in the material. The most expensive fabric I have worked with was a white chenille for a sofa at $80 a yard. A good fabric is just a plain woven fabric, without any rubber on the back. It`s soft; it`s pliable.
Upholstery involves making a new piece of furniture from scratch, while reupholstery is redoing an old piece of furniture. How does a person decide if a piece of furniture is worthwhile reupholstering? Well, for one thing, if you have a cheap piece of furniture, actually it does not pay to have it done over. The piece should be about 25 years old, have a hardwood frame and coil springs in the seat that are hand-tied eight ways. If you feel the bottom underneath and you feel just a black dust cover and it`s hollow inside, then what you have are those zigzag springs that are used on cheaper furniture.
Many materials go into the making of the inside of the furniture: new springs, new tacks, webbing on the bottom-that holds the springs up-twine, stuffing, foam rubber, burlap, cotton, hair and dacron. Nowadays, everything is made fast; everybody is working with staple guns. I do work the old-fashioned way, with tacks. With tacks, you can do a better job because you can adjust the fabric a little better. With a staple gun, it`s boom, boom, boom; after you get those staples in there, it`s almost impossible to take them out.
I had a customer come in-a French banker who worked downtown-looking for some fabric to reupholster four pieces of Napoleonic furniture that his great- grandfather received when he retired as caretaker of a Napoleon castle. He picked out some real nice fabric. When I went to pick up the furniture, I found it was all broken-down; somebody had just nailed it together. I had to completely restore it. One of the pieces was a loveseat. When I took it apart, I found that the arm could be pulled out from the rest of the frame. You could extend it, put an extra pillow cushion on there and lie down and rest on it. It probably was one of the first convertible hide-a-beds. And the customer didn`t even know about it.
One time a lady came in and wanted two new chairs covered with needlepoint. I told her that you cannot buy needlepoint; you can only buy the pattern, and you have to make the needlepoint yourself. So she bought the pattern, and I marked off how much needlepoint was needed. In the meantime, I upholstered the chairs and prepared them for her to bring in the needlepoint. But she didn`t come in. Finally, I called her. She said that she didn`t know it took so long to do needlepoint. In the meantime, she got pregnant. About three years later she finally finished the needlepoint.
The most unusual thing I ever found was in a chaise longue that was brought in by a lady from Hungary. When I took it apart, I found a lady`s pistol, with an ivory-covered handle. She probably had it in there hidden for a long time and forgot all about it.
People often complain about their furniture being too low. A lot of modern furniture is made real low, and after a while, the construction loosens up a bit and the foam-rubber cushion gets a little soft. Then they`ll call me: ”I can`t get out of the sofa; it`s too low. What can be done?” Well, something can be done, but it`s expensive. People don`t think about that when they are buying furniture. You don`t want a piece that you sink into like a mattress; you want to sit on top of it, especially when you get older.
When I make a piece of furniture from scratch, I shape and style it to fit the size of the person. If I have a tall customer, the furniture has to be a little higher off the floor and the seat has to have more depth than for a smaller person. If the customer is heavy, I know he needs a firmer and larger seat.
Some people bring in Victorian chairs in a bushel basket-all broken up, completely apart. And we put them all together again with glue and refinish them. When they`re completely upholstered, they look like new. That`s the most satisfying part of my job-to save old furniture that was all ready to be thrown out.
