Preparing an antique swedish biedermeier sofa from the late 1800s

When one of our clients purchases a swedish 1800s biedermeier sofa from us that we have for sale whether it is a 3 seat, 4 seat or 5 seat version , we go through the same process of preparation to make sure the antique swedish sofa ships in its best possible condition.

Firstly we check the veneers on the sofa front for marks or cracking. Our restorer will fill and repolish any major dents and bring the veneers back to a lovely lustre. It's important at this stage not to over polish the biedermeier couch as you will take away all its personality.

We prefer to keep the old feel of all biedermeier sofas that we have for sale as their history is written into the wear and tear they have received during their life.

Its the same as seeing those tv stars whose faces are so tight and flat from excess plastic surgery that they lose all personality and ability to make facial expressions.

Once we are happy that the veneers look great, we turn our attention to the spring bed of the seat - it may need tightening slightly or have the webbing replaced to create the perfect supportive seat. Then we will put a new cotton or hessian bottom on it to hide the springs.

Next if we are reupholstering for the client, we will add extra stuffing to the seat if it needs it to make it more comfortable and build the shape of it into a perfect dome. The seat needs to be firm but supportive and not squishy so that you can sit comfortably for long periods.

After sorting out the seat, we look at the webbing that supports the back pad and change it out for new black and white webbing if it is needed and restuff the back pad as required to give more back support.

All original biedermeier sofas have an open and plain wood back as they were made to stand against the wall, so it gives easy access to the back pad and then we cover it with a black cotton or a hessian back and if requested can stain the plain pine or birch back to match to more closely match the colour which makes sense it you want to stand it in the middle of the room where the back is on view.

Finally we check the legs to make sure they are sturdy and then wrap the biedermeier sofa or couch to protect the new fabric on its journey to the new owner.