Five francs, one chair and a changed life

Made It is our series on how people got into the trade, told in their own words. Valérie Hayes runs Atelier Valérie Hayes Upholstery in London.

My story begins in Saint-Nazaire, France, with my great-uncle Joseph Legoff, who worked as an engineer at the shipyard where some of the world's most magnificent ocean liners were built.

Launched in 1926, the SS Île de France was a magnificent Art Deco ocean liner, carrying glamorous passengers across the Atlantic before serving as a troopship during the Second World War. In April 1947 she returned to Saint-Nazaire for a two-year refurbishment. Joseph bought himself a recliner for the princely sum of five French francs.

He kept that chair for the rest of his life, and when he died in 1990 I inherited it and treasured it for 26 years. Eventually some family friends kindly offered to arrange for it to be reupholstered. They took the chair away and passed it on to an upholsterer.

And that is where things started to unravel.

Several months went by and I could not get a straight answer from anyone. Had it been stripped? Had the fabric been ordered? What was happening to my chair?

What should have been an exciting restoration of a much-loved family heirloom had become a rather joyless business transaction. The history, the sentiment, the significance of the chair seemed to have been completely lost.

Eventually, after more than six months apart, I asked for my chair back. It had not even been touched.

I explained that I had decided I wanted to change careers, learn upholstery and restore the chair myself. Unfortunately our friends took offence, and a lifelong friendship came to an end. It was a sad and unexpected price to pay, but that decision changed my life.

I enrolled in professional upholstery training, spent thousands of pounds and several years studying for my AMUSF qualifications, and used Joseph's chair as my second-year traditional upholstery project. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the craft.

“I only wanted to restore my great-uncle's chair. I ended up becoming an upholsterer.”

— Valérie Hayes

Today I run my own bespoke upholstery studio in London, Atelier Valérie Hayes Upholstery, and I have written The Upholsterer's Pricing Guide. The importance of clear communication, managing expectations and respecting both the client and their furniture is something I have never forgotten.

When I think about Joseph buying that chair for five francs, I wonder what he would make of everything that followed. A chair that had crossed the Atlantic, survived generations and travelled with me for 26 years had somehow become the reason I found an entirely new profession.

And I think Joseph would have been rather pleased.

Valérie Hayes on The Upholsterer's Pricing Guide

Atelier Valérie Hayes Upholstery on Instagram

How did you get into the trade? Tell us at editor@thefurnituremagazine.com and your story could be the next Made It.