Photography : Polly Wreford . Styling : Katie Phillips |
Are you sitting comfortably ?
Because the story of upholstery in Long Eaton began a very long time ago . In the 19th century , Long Eaton was a thriving town , producing a large proportion of famous Nottingham lace . As demand for lace fell , the demand for railway carriage seats and furniture for ocean liners grew , and the town became know for making the finest quality upholstery in the UK . And it still is .
“ It is true craftsmanship ,” says Paul Deckland , Buying Director at the Cotswold Company , of the work that takes place in its Long Eaton factory , where everything is done by hand and there is no production line .
“ Upholstery cannot be done by machine . It ’ s steeped in tradition . The people here are second or third generation upholsterers . The same one or two people make each piece from start to finish . You can see the pride they take in their work in the quality of the finished furniture .”
Making the perfect sofa is no mean feat . Take the Morris ( pictured , left ). It ‘ s an elegant piece with neat proportions . The style has longevity . It ‘ s the kind of piece that could move home with you without looking old or out of place .
Each new style starts life as a drawing . “ We take inspiration from classic timeless shapes but update them to be relevant for today ,” says Paul . ” We
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started with images of traditional chairs and then played with the proportions to make the shape more contemporary . And we squared off the corners so it ’ s neater .”
Next the factory makes a prototype . ” We will sit on it , lie on it , play on it . After that it will go through several rounds of modifications , perhaps widening the arm to make it more functional or raising the back to use as a headrest . With the Morris , we increased the thickness of the cushions and on the sofa we made the arm a little higher so you can use it as a headrest .”
Each component is thought through , from the frames to the springs to the filling . ” It ‘ s the same with all our upholstery , but we come from a position of comfort . For the Morris , we chose feather-wrapped seat cushions rather than 100 % feathers so you get the comfort of feathers without having to plump up all the time .”
A colourful landscape
Each of our eight sofa shapes comes in many sizes , and a choice of any of our 25 fabrics . “ We ’ ve tried really hard to make it as easy and simple for our customers as possible ,” says Paul . ” Which is why our range of fabrics is small . You can use any fabric on any of the shapes . Our sofas offer styles to suit all tastes , from the familiar timelessness of →
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