Polly Granville

27/08/2026

27/08/2026

Tashkent is great for textile junkies! On the first day I visited The State Museum of Applied Art and Handicrafts History which filled with astonishing traditional textiles and crafts 🥰

These beautiful suzanis (the name comes from the Persian word for needle) and ikats are hand-embroidered and woven with vibrant silk threads and traditionally made by mothers and daughters for bridal dowries and special occasions. The museum displays pieces from different schools of Uzbek embroidery, with regional motifs including floral vines, pomegranates, star medallions and large solar or astral circles symbolising life, health and fertility.

I love the bold colours, generous scale and wonderfully imperfect handwork. There is something very special about seeing a textile so deeply rooted in its place, history and craft.

25/08/2026

These chairs completely stopped us in our tracks when they arrived at the workshop, looking like they’d lived about five different lives already. Probably late Victorian or early Edwardian originally, they had been reupholstered decades ago using old carpet fragments, with layers and layers of hand stitching hidden underneath. This was the sort of upholstery job you don’t come across every day.
 
The brief was simple, the seats are really uncomfortable, so could we respring them?
 
BUT........an upholsterer's nightmare - moths got involved! As we started to strip them it became apparent that they were infested. We chatted through simply reupholstering them, buying new velvet and sewing the carpet panels (once treated) back on but they were so very beloved by Leila and Lloyd of who felt incredibly strongly about keeping them looking exactly as they were, so we knew we'd have to go full restoration project!

Keiko was methodical to the last - every pattern piece had a linen label sewn onto it so that they could go and be treated but she would know still exactly which panel went where, so off they went to the dry cleaners. We threw away all of the old inners and after fumigating the studio she started to meticulously rebuild the chairs traditionally, to exactly the same spec, so that all the top fabric would fit back perfectly! She unpicked every bit of antique rope and re-flanged it so we wouldn't have glaring new colours, lots of the carpet panels had to be restitched and some of the velvet panels have invisible mending where the moths had done their worst.

Safe to say this was one of the biggest labours of love to come through our studio. Honestly, everyone in the workshop was a bit obsessed with these by the end.

What extraordinary pieces of history these chairs are - so clearly loved, repaired and passed down through generations already, and now carefully refreshed for many more years to come.

18/08/2026

This royal-ish and cheerful fabric had all eyes on it at the workshop. The client came to me with her French Louis XVI style window bench and a great idea for giving it a fresh new personality. She chose this wonderful screen-printed fabric inspired by the Florentine Giglio - the iris flower that features on the flag of Florence and grows wild around the city 💚🤍💛

There’s something wonderfully joyful about the combination of the classic bench and this lively botanical pattern. We finished it with a double piping detail , which gives the whole piece a lovely tailored finish.

I have a feeling this one is going to get plenty of compliments from the her guests.

30/07/2026

Sometimes the smallest chairs have the biggest personalities. This lovely vintage barrel chair has such a cheerful, tulip or cupcake-like shape that it was impossible not to fall for it!  Small in size, but beautifully reupholstered.

The chair belonged to the client’s grandmother, so they really wanted to save it. It was brought to us in a very well-worn and damaged condition, luckily Richard, who is part of our community here at the studios, is a metal worker so he fixed the framing and replaced the missing metal struts. Given the heavy octagonal metal framing running along the bottom, the chair likely dates from the post-war era.

Tom restored this one using traditional materials, rebuilding it from the inside out. Underneath the cover, there's no block of foam, but a carefully built structure of webbing, coil springs, cotton wadding, cotton wool, hessian and ginger coir fibre - the sort of craftsmanship that has supported comfortable chairs for well over a century.

For the finish, the client chose Cove in Sunflower by - a wonderfully joyful linen inspired by choppy waves. The pattern nicely wraps around the curved shape, giving it movement and variation from every angle, while the warm golden tones bring a lovely sense of sunshine.

A beautiful reminder that the best upholstery isn't just about the fabric you see. It's about everything that's carefully rebuilt underneath it too.

11/06/2026

Red often gets a bad reputation for being bold, but looking back at some of our favourite little red one-offs from recent years, I've found it can be surprisingly cheerful, cosy or classic – all depending on the shade, texture and pattern.

Deep berry velvets, soft corals, rich plums, warm terracottas and everything in between. Somehow this colour keeps finding its way into our workshop and into our clients' homes.

Perhaps it's because red has a wonderful way of making a room feel alive. A little warmer, a little more welcoming and a lot more memorable.

Now I’m wondering what our next red upholstery project will be ❤️

07/04/2026

Only Fabrics & Horses :) When you think of fabrics, do you think of horses? Neither do I.

Last week, Tom and I had such a wonderful time at in Castle Cary. Founded in 1837, this remarkable factory is one of the last places in the world still weaving horsehair fabric, using original looms and techniques passed down through the generations. Sadly we couldn't photograph inside as the looms are patented, but it was just extraordinary to see looms designed in the late 1800's that had the ability to pluck a single horsehair from a tail and weave it in the fabric. The warp is made of linen and the weft is the horsehair, meaning that the fabric can only be 54cm wide as that's the length of a tail. Truly we were all agog at the precision of such old machinery that hasn't needed to be updated in all these years.

The horsehair comes from all over the world and is turned into beautiful and incredibly durable textiles, used for upholstery, wall panelling, fashion and even handbags. Proper craft, proper heritage and a joy to see it up close. Tom has worked with them for some years now, helping them set up their stands at design shows.

I’d love to work with this fabric on a future project, it has the most incredible sheen to it and will uplift any piece of antique furniture, as long as it's small enough! If you’re curious to learn more about this stunning material, DM me.

Fabrics and projects
Handbags

26/03/2026

Fancy a sofa like this?

We really love this sofa by in Josef Frank fabric and can totally see it as an inspiration for the sofa in the following images.

A friend asked us if we can salvage this gorgeous sofa. Can you share our vision for this original Victorian double drop-arm sofa, full of character and just waiting for the right home and a bit of care?

A 19th-century design of this sofa is known for its elegant symmetry and adjustable arms, created to shift between formal seating and a more relaxed lounging position. Its deep seat, scrolled arms and traditionally tufted back reflect the period’s focus on comfort, craftsmanship and grandeur.

It’s currently here in the studio and available as is  to collect for free, or we can upholster it to perfectly suit and uplift your space. Always happy to chat through fabrics and finishes to make it feel just right.

I’m sad to see it go, so if you, or someone you know, has been looking for a truly antique piece to bring a bit of presence into a room, this could be the one. Contact us.

Cover image is for reference only!

19/03/2026

A little look back at some of my favourite occasional chairs and stools we’ve had through the studio.

Playful, colourful, full of texture - each one completely different and made to suit its home and its owner. That’s always the joy of bespoke work, no two pieces ever quite the same.

So many lovely projects, wonderful clients and truly beautiful fabrics to work with along the way. I feel very lucky to be part of these little transformations, watching each chair find its place and bring a bit of character into a room.

Which one would you have at home?

05/03/2026

Behind the seam [sic] today… 8 metres of kitchen banquette coming to life!

This rather magnificent kitchen banquette has completely taken over the studio. Eight metres of it. When the client delivered the wooden structure, Tom got straight to work and the whole place quickly started looking like a very ambitious game of upholstery Tetris.

We are bringing you some atmosphere from our workshop today: fabrics being cut, foams carefully shaped, pieces sewn together, plenty of pulling and stapling, and then the final fine-tuning to get everything just right.

The banquette will come together in three sections, each one carefully built and upholstered before being transported and assembled on site.

It’s going to be wrapped in a soft dark rust-brown fabric, adding the perfect balance of warmth and depth to the space.

Projects like this are always a bit thrilling. Big scale, lots of fabric, and the satisfying moment when something enormous starts to take shape.

Stay with us for the reveal of the final banquette!