A piece you already own, taken back to the frame and recovered in fabric edited in Paris. Assessed before it is quoted, metered before it is promised.
Send photographs of your pieceMost people arrive with the fabric already chosen and the chair as an afterthought. We work the other way round. A reference like BOHEME F3978002 in QUARTZ will outlive the piece it is stretched over, so the first honest question is whether the frame underneath deserves it. Some do. Some have been stapled so many times the rails no longer hold a tack, and we will tell you so before anything is ordered.
Saint Objets reupholsters existing furniture in Pierre Frey fabric in Dubai. The frame is assessed first, the old cover is unpicked to serve as the pattern, then the fabric is metered against its repeat and quoted. Production runs ten to thirty days once the fabric reaches the atelier. Price on request; the fabric is metered piece by piece.
A fabric this good deserves a frame that will still be square in twenty years.
Sarah Koben, Founder and Creative Director
Four photographs tell us most of it: the piece straight on, one arm from the side, the back, and the underside with the dust cover visible. Add the width across the arms and the depth front to back. From that we can say whether the frame is worth recovering, roughly how many panels it carries, and whether a 43 cm repeat suits its proportions. Then we meter the fabric and quote the price.
WhatsApp the studioA reupholstery quote that begins with the fabric is written backwards. Before a metre of Pierre Frey is discussed, the piece itself is assessed, because the fabric will outlast whatever sits underneath it and it is the frame that decides whether that is a good thing. We look at how the piece was built, how the rails were fixed, how many times it has already been recovered, and what condition the seat platform is in. A chair that has been stapled through the same rail four times has timber that no longer grips a tack. That is a conversation to have before fabric is ordered from Paris, not after it arrives in the atelier.
A frame is worth recovering when the structure is solid wood, when the joints are doweled or mortised rather than merely screwed, and when nothing moves under firm hand pressure on the diagonal. Age is not the problem. A chair from the seventies with dry glue can be knocked apart, re-glued and cramped, and it will come back stiffer than it left. Sentiment counts too, and we say that plainly: a piece inherited, or carried through three moves and two countries, earns a level of work that no new purchase can shortcut. Those are the pieces this service exists for.
The honest refusals matter more than the acceptances. We will not put a 1242 gram per linear metre fabric onto a frame whose rails are engineered board, because the tack line has nothing to bite and the finish will pull within a season. We will not rebuild a reclining or folding mechanism that has already been repaired, and we will not guarantee a piece whose joints move once the cover is off, even after re-gluing, if the timber itself is split. When the frame fails the assessment you are told before any fabric is ordered, and nothing has been spent.
Measuring an existing piece for a patterned fabric is not a tape measure exercise. The current cover is unpicked, each panel numbered, and laid flat, so the real cutting plan appears: inside back, outside back, inside arms, outside arms, seat, front border, cushion faces, gussets, boxing strips. Only then can fabric be counted. A deep club chair with a boxed seat and separate arm facings can carry half as many panels again as a chair that looks identical from three metres away. This is also the moment we see what a previous workshop hid inside the arms, and whether the seat interior can be reused.
BOHEME F3978002 QUARTZ is woven 138 cm wide with a straight repeat, 43 cm vertical and 34 cm horizontal. On a plain fabric a panel is cut to its finished size plus turnings. On this one, every panel is squared to the repeat so the wave sits centred on the inside back and runs continuously down onto the seat, which means most cut lengths round up to the next full 43 cm. Offcuts are kept and used for smaller panels where the pattern allows. Two armchairs of the same dimensions can need different quantities, which is precisely why the edition is priced on request and why the metreage appears on your quote.
Ciselé means the pattern is cut into the pile rather than printed on the surface, so the design exists as relief, cut pile against uncut pile, and it changes as you move around the piece. That has a practical consequence for recovering. The nap of a cut pile runs in one direction, and every panel on the piece has to run the same way, usually with the pile falling down the back and forward over the seat, or the same colourway reads as two different shades across a single arm. Panels are therefore cut in one direction only, which uses more fabric than a fabric that can be turned.
What the manufacturer documents for this reference, and nothing beyond it: composition 73 percent cotton and 27 percent viscose with a 100 percent cotton pile, width 138 cm, weight 1242 g per linear metre, Martindale 85,000 cycles, rated for intensive upholstery, and the BS 5852 cigarette and match test. It is an indoor fabric with a dense cut pile and it belongs out of direct sun, as any cut pile does in this climate. We do not print a fade rating, a stain claim or a certification for it, because none is documented.
The sequence is fixed and there are no stages hidden inside it. You send photographs and rough measurements. The piece is seen in person, either brought to Decoroom at Art of Living Mall, where you can walk in for a complimentary design consultation, or to the studio at Dubai Design District by appointment, or collected from you. The frame is assessed, panels counted, fabric metered, and a quote issued with the metreage stated. Fabric is ordered from the house. Production runs ten to thirty days once it is in the atelier, and delivery and assembly within Dubai are complimentary on orders above AED 4,000.
Sometimes the answer is that recovering is the wrong spend. If the frame needs rebuilding, the seat needs remaking, and the fabric runs to a high metreage, you are paying new furniture money for an old shape you were never quite in love with. We say so. In that case the same fabric goes onto a frame built for it: L'Écrin, a club armchair on a solid wood plinth with a spring seat fitted as standard, offered in BOHEME QUARTZ, also woven in Fluorite 003 and Agate 004. The same chair exists in Aubergine mohair and Ivoire chenille at price on request.
Written by the Saint Objets studio. Message the studio on WhatsApp or see the Pierre Frey collection.
Yes. The piece is assessed first, either at Decoroom at Art of Living Mall, at the Dubai Design District studio by appointment, or collected from you. We check the frame, unpick and count the panels, meter the fabric against its repeat, then quote. The fabric is ordered from the house, the workshop and the frames we build are our own.
Yes, that is customer's own material, or COM. We ask to see the reference number, the width and the repeat before you buy, because on a patterned fabric the quantity depends on the panel plan of your specific piece, not on a general rule. If you have already bought it, bring the roll with the selvedge label intact so the reference and dye lot are readable.
By unpicking the existing cover. Each panel is removed, numbered and laid flat, and those become the cutting plan. On BOHEME the 43 cm vertical repeat means each panel is squared up to the next whole repeat so the pattern lands correctly, and offcuts are reused where they can be. The metreage is then stated on your quote rather than estimated over the phone.
Because two pieces that look alike can carry very different panel counts, and a 43 cm repeat changes how much fabric each panel consumes. The frame may also need re-gluing or a new seat platform. Price on request means we count your panels, meter your fabric, add the frame work actually needed, and show you the metreage beside the figure.
A frame built on engineered board, where the tack line has nothing to bite. A frame whose joints still move after re-gluing because the timber itself is split. Rails that have been stapled so many times they no longer hold. Reclining or folding mechanisms already repaired once. If your piece falls into any of these, you are told at assessment, before fabric is ordered and before you have spent anything.
Ten to thirty days of production once the fabric is in the atelier, and the fabric is ordered from Paris after your quote is approved, so allow for that separately. Frame repairs, a new seat platform or a rebuilt spring seat sit inside that production window. Delivery and assembly within Dubai are complimentary on orders above AED 4,000.
BOHEME is an indoor fabric with a dense cut pile. The manufacturer publishes 85,000 Martindale cycles, rated for intensive upholstery, and the BS 5852 cigarette and match test. Place it out of direct sun, as any cut pile deserves. We do not print a fade rating or a stain claim for it, because none is documented.
Yes. A sample is held in the studio and can be seen against your own piece, which matters here more than usual: a photograph flattens a ciselé, and the whole point of this fabric is the relief cut into the pile. Walk in at Decoroom at Art of Living Mall for a complimentary design consultation, or book the Dubai Design District studio.