Cowboy chair and ottoman

A New Yorker’s chair takes a ride on the Western side

Upholstery Journal | October 2008

by Kelly Frush

Her client is a “cowboy kind of guy,” says Raken Zielinski, which manifests itself in this custom designed and upholstered cowboy-style reading chair and ottoman.

Zielinski decided to saddle up with leather and large-wale corduroy for a Western-style yoke design. The material combination proved challenging for Zielinski.

“I don’t usually work with two different types of fabric at once,” she says. She also used velvet for the welt trim. “The corduroy and velvet were a challenge to work with, and getting the curves right was challenging too.”

The armchair was in good shape, so stripping it down and reupholstering it was a breeze.

“In that sense, it was your basic reupholstery job,” says Zielinski. But she soon felt that the chair was missing something. “A reading chair has to have an ottoman.”

She roped her client into the idea, and the former New Yorker and avid reader of the New York Times gave her the high sign. Zielinski designed an ottoman to hold the large-format newspaper, and her partner thought to build in a briefcase organizer for holding scissors and clippings. One side of the ottoman is concave to fit snugly into the chair. When the pieces were finished, however, Zielinski thought the bare legs looked out of place. She considered painting them, but ultimately decided that this cowboy needed some chaps, and she covered the legs in leather.

It took over 50 hours of work before the sun could set on Zielinski’s cowboy chair and ottoman. Unforeseen roadblocks made for more work and time involved, but all those challenges and hours went towards reviving her customer’s favorite reading chair.

Do you have a project you’d like us to feature in Save My Seat? Send details of your project, along with before-and-after pictures in the form of print photos or electronic images (tif, eps or jpeg of 300 dpi or greater) to Kelly Frush, Associate Editor, Upholstery Journal, 1801 County Road B West, Roseville, MN 55113, or e-mail them to krfrush@ifai.com. All images become the property of Upholstery Journal and cannot be returned.

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