Bill in his shop

Breathing life into furniture: Talented local upholsterer last of a vanishing breed

By Heather McWilliams, for the Daily Camera
Sunday, May 6, 2007

LYONS - The old sofa seems wrecked. Padding gone, unruly springs pop in every direction, and the dark wood is worn and scarred. Most people see it as garbage. Bill Adams sees it finished.

Upholstering and restoring furniture for 40 years, Adams learned the craft from others, starting at age 12 in his father's shop, he said. Adams estimates he's worked on thousands of pieces over the years, including a set of Gothic, heavily carved, dining-room chairs for the Colorado governor's mansion.

Restoring pieces to their original quality gives Adams a thrill, he said - and the older the better. "You can take something and restore it and bring back the beauty of the time when it existed and was new," Adams said.

Adams has earned a reputation for excellence. "He's the fastest, best upholsterer in the state," said Tim Combs, owner of Left Hand Trading Company in Lyons, the antiques store where Adams currently does his upholstery work.

The heart that Adams puts into his work makes each piece a work of art, instead of just a job, Combs said, and Adams restores pieces to as close to the original as possible. Adams works on about eight pieces a month for people across the Front Range.

"I know to really find outstanding people, that's hard," said Annemarie Chenoweth, who comes from Fort Collins to have Adams upholster pieces for her. Adams takes pride in his work, Chenoweth said. She describes his creative ability to combine antique fabric and other material as a special talent.

Most modern furniture isn't of the weight or quality of pieces made before the 1930s, he said. Adams calls the new stuff "throw away" furniture and attributes the decline in quality to an increase in population.

"We don't have time to really focus on the craft and the quality. We need things faster. There's more of us," Adams said. While there's no shortage of work for good upholsterers, there are fewer around to do the work. "It's starting to get rare," he said. "There's nobody that's learning the trade, and that's a shame."