Eames chairs need seatlift
December 19, 2010 6:02 PM Subscribe
I have two Eames Aluminum Group chairs. I'd say they were made in the 80s. The seating has become dingy and stained (they are a velvety material).
I've been trying to find replacemet parts and have looked on HermanMiller.com and ebay. Searches don't seem to bring anything relevant up. I'd really like them to look better than they do now. If it helps, I'm in Albuquerque.
I've been trying to find replacemet parts and have looked on HermanMiller.com and ebay. Searches don't seem to bring anything relevant up. I'd really like them to look better than they do now. If it helps, I'm in Albuquerque.
I think you could get good results with either a rental power vacuum upholstery cleaning system like Rug Doctor, or even with simpler homemade cleaning fluids carefully applied, agitated and thoroughly removed via simple, but powerful, capillary action.
If you rent a Rug Doctor machine, you'll also need the upholstery attachment/hand tool, and the Rug Doctor Upholstery Cleaner fluid. The Rug Doctor system substitutes air flow/vacuum for lower tech capillary action, to extract the cleaning solution that it uses, and can leave furniture essentially "dry," although, generally, they recommend an additional 4 hours or more drying time, before normal use.
One of the keys to cleaning any kind of pile fabric manually is to have a basic understanding of the powerful nature capillary action. You can use distilled water or other polarizing fluids (alcohol, etc.) as a solvent, with a bit of basic detergent and perhaps a small amounts of oxygen bleach, as your cleaning fluid, and a soft brush to apply and agitate small amount of the fluid, in overlapping circular areas. Don't overapply fluid! It is much better to go back and retreat stubborn areas a few times, than to soak underlying padding. Then, pull off the resultant fluid now dissolving the dirt with repeated applications of clean paper/pseudo-fabric towels, (like Viva or Bounty), held firmly against the upholstery, until the fabric pile seems quite dry. The detergent you add helps emulsify grease into your solvent fluid, and the oxygen bleach turns most soil particles white or light gray, making any that remain unnoticeable.
posted by paulsc at 6:44 PM on December 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
If you rent a Rug Doctor machine, you'll also need the upholstery attachment/hand tool, and the Rug Doctor Upholstery Cleaner fluid. The Rug Doctor system substitutes air flow/vacuum for lower tech capillary action, to extract the cleaning solution that it uses, and can leave furniture essentially "dry," although, generally, they recommend an additional 4 hours or more drying time, before normal use.
One of the keys to cleaning any kind of pile fabric manually is to have a basic understanding of the powerful nature capillary action. You can use distilled water or other polarizing fluids (alcohol, etc.) as a solvent, with a bit of basic detergent and perhaps a small amounts of oxygen bleach, as your cleaning fluid, and a soft brush to apply and agitate small amount of the fluid, in overlapping circular areas. Don't overapply fluid! It is much better to go back and retreat stubborn areas a few times, than to soak underlying padding. Then, pull off the resultant fluid now dissolving the dirt with repeated applications of clean paper/pseudo-fabric towels, (like Viva or Bounty), held firmly against the upholstery, until the fabric pile seems quite dry. The detergent you add helps emulsify grease into your solvent fluid, and the oxygen bleach turns most soil particles white or light gray, making any that remain unnoticeable.
posted by paulsc at 6:44 PM on December 19, 2010 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for the helpful responses. While deep cleaning them would help a bit, I would prefer to actually replace the seats and get them looking as spiffy as possible. The seat pad looks like just a single piece and I would think it would be simple enough to purchase a couple of them.
posted by nikitabot at 12:08 AM on December 21, 2010
posted by nikitabot at 12:08 AM on December 21, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by annie o at 6:18 PM on December 19, 2010