Twenty-six years at the bench.
I am Brian Hartnett. I re-cover and restore furniture out of a small workshop at Tullaha, near Broadford in west County Limerick.
The trade, the long way round.
I came to upholstery the way most people did back then, through someone who already knew it. I started in 2000 in a shop in Limerick city, sweeping floors and pulling old tacks before I was let near a frame. You learn the trade in that order whether you like it or not.
I went out on my own when I had enough work coming to me directly, and I have kept it small on purpose ever since. There is no front desk and no sales patter. It is me, a busy bench, and a few pieces on the go at any one time.
Most of my work still comes by word of mouth, a chair a neighbour saw finished, a suite somebody talked their mother out of skipping. That suits me. It means people come already knowing roughly what I do and how I do it.
Properly, not quickly.
A few things I hold to, that you are entitled to expect from anyone you hand good furniture to.
An honest word first
If a piece is not worth doing, I will tell you. I would rather lose the job than take your money on something that was never going to be right.
The right method for the piece
Traditional work where it belongs, horsehair and hand-tied springs on an old frame, and modern foam and fixings where they do the job better.
One pair of hands
The person who quotes your piece is the person who does it. Nothing gets sent out or rushed through to clear a backlog.
Good cloth, sound fillings.
You are welcome to bring your own fabric, or I will bring out the swatch books and we will find the right weight and wear for the piece and the room it lives in. I work in wool, linen, cotton, velvet and leather, from Irish and British mills as well as the usual trade houses.
Underneath, I use what lasts: proper webbing, springs and foam densities to suit, calico under your top cover so the shape holds. The part you do not see is the part that decides how long the piece stays right.
Limerick, and a fair bit beyond it.
I collect and deliver across Limerick and the counties around it as part of the job. Further afield, into Clare, Kerry or Cork, is no bother either, it is just worth a word first so we can sort collection sensibly.
The workshop is at Tullaha, just outside Broadford. It is a working space rather than a showroom, so if you want to call in with a piece, give me a ring first and we will set a time.