Home design trends come and go, just like any other styles do. But if you’ve got a piece that’s looking a little out-of-date, you don’t have to replace it to get a more modern, updated look. At Top of the Line Upholstery in Stamford, Jehad Badr and her team of reinvention craftspeople breathe new life into old pieces for clients in Westport and all over Fairfield County, by upcycling them into creative new versions of themselves. Whether it’s a family heirloom piece that you can’t bear to part with (but can’t make work in your home), or a fabulous antique find that needs a refresh, Top of the Line can make furniture magic happen. “It really just has to have good bones,” says Jehad. “There's so much good furniture out there that just gets ignored because it has ugly fabric!” Vintage furniture, especially, was extremely well-made, and reinventing an old piece can net you a much sturdier, long-lasting item than ordering a new one from one of the low-cost home sites would. For example, one client brought Jehad and her frequent collaborator, Weston-based interior designer Kendal Gaillard, a set of living room sofas from the mid-1990s in a dated pale-yellow fabric and dressmaker skirt. The team at Top of the Line recovered them in a gray-blue mohair, removed the skirt, and took out a little of the curve in the arms. “It was a subtle change, but it just looked lightyears different,” says Kendal. “You can go out and buy a new sofa [that looks like that] for $500. But it probably cost $1,500 to reupholster, and what she got was the equivalent of a sofa that would cost $20,000 today.” Kendal herself had Jehad and her team redo a pair of 1930s chairs she inherited from her grandmother! The duo shared with Westport Lifestyle some of their favorite reinventions from past clients here.
If you’ve got a piece that you’d be interested in giving a second life to, the first step is to have it assessed by someone like Jehad. “Get an expert to see if it's a salvageable piece—a lot of times when you investigate, it might be plywood construction,” says Kendal. If it’s a good piece, you can start working on the vision. “Any width can change, any arm can change, any foot can change. You just have to have the right imagination to make it happen,” says Jehad. “We're here to make what you want. It's custom to the inch. Whatever vision that you have in your mind, or a decorator has in their mind, we're here to bring it to life.”
Top of the Line is located at 90 Lincoln Avenue, Stamford, CT. You can reach them at 203-348-0000 or topoftheline90@gmail.com.
