Case Study

Council Furniture

Innovation

One of our key focuses is our restoration work. Jamie and Jo are proud of their team’s ability to sensitively refurbish and restore a very broad range of items and products.

Berkshire Office Furniture are truly at the forefront of this increasingly important area of the industry.

Restoring old furniture can no longer be done using many of the techniques and materials used in the past. For example, several processes used toxic chemicals which are now banned or, at the very least, prohibited under health and safety regulations.

This complex project involved a large quantity of old furniture in storage that the council wanted to repurpose. This would require both sympathetic refurbishment to ensure old matched with new and an upgrade in the fire safety rating for all items, possibly requiring replacement of old materials.
There were two elements to this project: the lecture theatre itself, with its seating; and the council chamber’s seating.

On inspection of the furniture, much of it was found to be in a very poor state. This would require manufacture of new components, which would have to be aged to match the original items.

Old lacquers, veneers, etc. often cannot be used as they are either toxic, or breach current health and safety regulations. Significant testing of currently available products was required to achieve a match with the original materials.

Whereas most upholstery firms would simply use new materials to go over the top of existing fabric, in order to make good and ensure complete and effective refurbishment, we decided to strip back and refabricate.

The client was very happy with the results of the work!