Whether you want to prolong the life of an investment piece or give that hand-me-down from Grandma a boost, regular cleaning (once a season) can grab dirt before it becomes, well, part of the furniture. Here’s a quickie plan for freshening fabric* that’s so easy, you’ll nearly fall off your chair. Designers: Bill Stumpf and Don ChadwickIt's the most well-known ergonomic office chair ever made. As the first to replace fabric and foam with a breathable, woven suspension membrane—its innovative Pellicle seat and back—Aeron distributes your weight evenly, eliminating pressure points and heat buildup. The Kinemat tilt lets you recline fluidly, and PostureFit puts support where you need it most while seated—at the base of your spine. Configure Your Aeron Chair The revolution in ergonomics that’s become a design icon Aeron’s functionality shows through, creating a distinctive look that invites you to sit and experience the chair for yourself. From the transparency of the Pellicle suspension material to the chair’s curvilinear lines, Bill Stumpf and Don Chadwick designed Aeron around people, creating an aesthetic all their own, and starting a revolution in ergonomics.

With its aeration, inclusive sizing, support for the natural ways the human body moves when seated, and environmentally sensitive design, Aeron challenged practically every convention about office chairs. Every material, every mechanism on Aeron advances the art and science of seating. "We wanted a totally new kind of chair." Three Sizes, Easy Adjustments The Aeron Chair is available in three different sizes to fit just about anyone. Easy-to-make adjustments let you fine-tune the fit for your body. Superior Support for Your Body PostureFit properly supports the base of your spine, or sacral region, to help your pelvis maintain a natural forward tilt, thus keeping your spine fully aligned. Moves with You, Naturally Aeron’s patented Kinematic tilt mimics the body’s natural pivot points—the hips, knees, and ankles—so the chair works with, not against, your body, and you recline fluidly. Conforms to Your Shape Much more than a mesh, Aeron’s Pellicle suspension features elliptically shaped elastomeric threads woven together to create a topographically neutral surface.

It conforms to each person who sits in the chair, and distributes weight evenly, eliminating pressure points and heat buildup. Contoured for Your Comfort The high, wide, contoured back takes the pressure off your lower spine. Armrests slope slightly down in the back for the most natural and comfortable support. The "waterfall" front edge of the seat takes the pressure off your thighs, so your blood keeps circulating and you stay alert and focused. Aeron has an aesthetic all its own. It’s no wonder the chair was added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art even before the first one was sold. A selection of sophisticated materials and a choice of three Pellicle weave patterns make the chair well-suited to a variety of tastes and surroundings. "Designs of the Decade" Gold Winner in Office Furniture from the Industrial Designers Society of America & Business Week magazine1999 International Plastics Consumer Product Design Award from the Society of Plastics Engineers1998

You only get one chance at a first impression. It's bigger, it looks grown up. The texture of the chenille fabric is more obvious and beautiful than I expected.T Shirt Slave The sofa design has much more "architecture" than I remembered from the Sofa store. Purple Stripe Curtain PanelsIt looks great as piece of design.Evo T Shirts We're actually going to be sitting on those things. Gordon came over immediately and we fiddled and nudged everything into place. Now it's time to pick a wall color before we get our pillows and cushions covered. The wall color will dictate the detailing and maybe the backing of the pillows. Taupe with some gold / yellow tint? He didn't have his paint chips. As they delivered them. It's got a nice shape. You can see that the arm covers don't look too hot.

We'll have to fiddle with them if we use them. The parsons table to too short and too wide. We'll use the $35 iron table instead. So much light from the windows make it hard for me to get a good picture at this time of day. The fabric in a big swath. This isn't exactly how it will look on this chair. We bought 4 yards. The old sectional becomes clutter and junk. We hope it's just waiting for its next era, just not in our house. The irrepressible Gordon: Setting up the furniture triggers a new round of suggestions, some we've heard, some we haven't. A&R Welding enters the picture. We're going to turn one of our $35 iron tables into a sofa bench. It was a distant thought but it was on my mind during an errand run on Dekalb Avenue. I've passed it 100 times but this week it just clicked. I loaded the table in the car and drove it over there. Wow, that's my kind of place. You'll have to want to find out how it turned out.Examine the chair's shape.

Make a simple drawing, breaking down the shapes that make up back, front of back, seat area, front of seat, arms and shaped arm fronts. Then add the measurements to your drawing. Most shapes will be rectangular, and detailed shaping can be created later. If your sofa is large, you may want to split the larger sections (such as the back) into panels to make it easier to work with. For shaped arm fronts, place a newspaper over the front and trace through the shape by feeling the edges and then cut it out. Make sure you also measure the sofa pads (we have not shown sofa pads in our illustration). Using these measurements, cut templates from newspaper. Lay these on to the back of the fabric and draw around them with tailor's chalk (on our illustrations 1 and 2 we have shown this as a dotted line). Try to arrange them on the fabric so you have as little waste material as possible. Add a 2cm seam allowance to each shape (making them 2cm bigger on every edge). However, if you have curved arm panels, add 5cm extra on the length (the part that will curve over the arm) to allow for give.

Cut out the pieces from your material using fabric scissors. Next you need to pin the parts together and should use a strong upholstery thread or doubled-up thread to sew the pieces together. You should do this in sections. To join two pieces, lay them on top of each other, right sides facing, and pin all the way along the line of chalk you drew earlier. Backstitch all along the chalk line (this leaves your 2cm seam allowance). Start by joining the back shapes (if you have divided them into smaller shapes). Then join the back piece to the seat sections (as shown in illustration 3­). If you have a rectangular arm, as above, join the pieces as before (shown in illustration 4). However, if you have a curved arm, you need to think more carefully about how you sew pieces together. From the outside front bottom corner of the arm front, pin the "right" sides together, curving around the front arm panel until your fabric runs out. You should now have a 3D arm shape. Backstitch the arm, pinching and easing out any wrinkles that may form on the curve.

If your arm shape is particularly curved, carefully snip into the raw edge of the seam allowance every couple of centimetres to enable the fabric to ease around the curve. Repeat the same actions for the other arm. Before joining your three pieces (two arms and a main part) to create your sofa shape, it is worth stitching your joins with a running stitch to strengthen them. Use strong thread to sew a running stitch 1cm away from the join – make your stitches about 1cm long. Join one arm panel at a time to the main part. Pin the front corner of the front of seat panel on to the arm panel. Stitch from the bottom (ie the floor) to the corner (usually about halfway up the arm). Then pin the main panel to the width of the arm panel, checking back to the measurement on the chair/sofa. Next, pin the front of back panel to the back of arm panel and repeat previous stitching actions. Do not join the back corner of the arm piece and the back panel, as you want to be able to slip your cover on and off your chair/sofa easily.

Slip the cover over your sofa. If the back seat corners are baggy, pin any excess fabric inwards, and stitch down with a backstitch. Make sure the opening/closure area meets without a huge gap. Sit down carefully on the cover to check that your adjustments weren't too tight – a tight cover could rip if you hurl yourself down. If your chair has feet, pin the excess fabric to the bottom of the seat with upholstery tacks or safety pins. If you want the bottom of the cover to skim the floor, make a neat hem on the bottom edge. Attach ribbon ties along the underside of each side of the back edges of the cover – the opening/closure area. You need ties at the top and bottom and then about every 15cm. Alternatively, sew a line of press studs down these edges. There are a few easy tricks that will quickly rejuvenate a tired sofa. First, a thorough clean can work wonders. Start by vacuuming (and who knows, you may even find a financial reward tucked down the back). If there is pet hair, don a dampened rubber glove and run it over the furniture using large strokes in the direction of the pile.

Sticky tape or a lint roller may also help. Next, check the care label, and clean the cushion covers according to the instructions. The frame will need to be cleaned with upholstery or leather shampoo – again, follow the instructions on the pack. If the seat cushions are sagging, insert a thin piece of fireproof foam inside the cushion cover. Alternatively, get new foam cushions cut or buy a block and cut them yourself. For scratches on leather, use shoe polish or even a felt-tip pen (test in an inconspicuous area first though). If the scratch has caused the fibres to lift, trim these first. Rips in upholstery can be repaired by inserting some tough cotton fabric behind the tear and then hand-stitching across the rip using thread the same colour. In the case of a small hole, first neaten the edges using sharp scissors. You will need a patch – try looking inside the cushion covers and in the base of the sofa as there may well be some excess fabric you can use. Failing that, any fabric of similar appearance will do.