Based in New York, The Divine Chair is owned by Kitty McBride who is the also the designer of fabulous chairs that are the result of pairing the old with the new.
Vintage and antique chairs are turned into works of art when she puts stunning new fabrics on old frames. It is not just about re-upholstering, because the chair frames are also transformed into appropriate frames for these works of art. Then to top it all, the chair acquires a name, turning it into a one-of-a-kind, individual piece in its own right.
This is not so much re-upholstering to restore, but to transform a tired furniture piece into something new, contemporary and funky. The Divine Chair also takes custom orders from people who would like to give a family heirloom a new life.
By transforming vintage and antique chairs into unique, one-of-a-kind pieces, McBride is also doing a very green thing for the planet by rescuing furniture that may have ended up in the landfills. "Re-cycling, re-using and re-styling" is what she calls it. Here are some other things she talked about:
How did you become interested in doing this?
When I moved here from England, I was so surprised, especially in New York that they had a kind of a gap in the market for interesting and unusual pieces of furniture. I was trying to find furniture pieces to furnish my apartment, and while you have your high-end stores like ABC and your more generic stores like Restoration Hardware, it was difficult to find one-of-a-kind pieces that weren't going to break the bank.
So I thought why not do it yourself, and bought these two great French Louis XVI style frames on e-Bay, and I painted them and covered them with great fabric and that's how I got started. I'm completely obsessed with chairs now!
