Breathing new life into an Ercol rocker

Many of you will know Ercol, the furniture maker which produces iconic chairs and tables. Last week we acquired a classic rocking chair...

Over on the island of Bressay, a five minute ferry ride from Lerwick, the old school is being renovated and run by a volunteer group. We went across the water to chat to the group last week and casual mention was made of this chair, possibly Ercol, which had just come in for sale to the second-hand shop. A quick look, brief conversation, exchange of banknotes and said chair was ours! Safely back in Yell, the rocking chair has been much admired and used over the past week until it came down to the studio ready for a new look with some new tweed. 

The very first of the new incarnation of tweed from The Shetland Tweed Company has all been sold. Well, almost all of it has been sold. We kept two metres to cover a small cocktail chair but this piece was now commandeered for the rocker. Yours truly cut the pieces for the cushions out but the real hero of this particular story is Maggie, who many of you have met in the studio and who works to make our cushions and runners. Maggie unpicked the original covers and then painstakingly stitched the new tweed shapes onto the original fabric backs, which has meant that we have some of the original fabric still with the chair, but new, fresh and stylish fronts and sides to the cushions. We have fallen in love with the chair and its new look which you can see if you head on over to photos on Facebook or The Shetland Tweed Company's Instagram feed. 

Thank you Maggie, Ercol and the Bressay second-hand shop!