REFASHIONING WITH A FLOURISH : TREASURE HUNTER HOLLI THOMAS OF ORANGE PRACTICES REINCARNATION, GIVING OLD FURNITURE NEW LIFE. HER VISION--AND FRESH UPHOLSTERY--TURN JUNK INTO ONE-OF-A-KIND JEWELS.
By day Holli Thomas designs cakes at a Lucky supermarket in Anaheim. But at night and on her days off, she pursues her real love: reinventing old furniture.
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“I started because I had an apartment with no furniture in it and not much money to buy furniture. I went to estate sales and yard sales and found some used cheap furniture, as cheap as $5. After taking an upholstery class and learning how to redo my own furniture, I decided I really liked upholstering, and now it’s taken me over, and I love doing it,” said Thomas, 28.
Working from her small home in a duplex in Orange, Thomas has found furniture treasures everywhere for the past three years and then taken them home like stray animals and given them new lives.
“I went to my first estate sale when I was about 11 years old, with my mother, who collects old radios. I’ve always loved vintage furniture and old things. I just never thought I’d be involved with them like this.
“I thought upholstering was going to be easy the first time I tried it, but it’s hard. I started by doing ottomans and then gradually built myself up to larger pieces.
“A lot of the creative things I’ve done in the past are because of mistakes I’ve made. For example, sometimes I cut the fabric too much, and I have to figure out how to make it work since I’ve spent $200 and I don’t want to buy new material. That’s also why I have a lot of pillows.”
Thomas studied art history and set design at Cal State Fullerton, so her love of art and art background help her evaluate the potential of a piece. Add to that two years of upholstery classes and hands-on experience.
“When I see a used chair, for example, I first look at the structure and make sure it’s good by shaking it to find any cracks. I then look at the shape and think about what I can do with it,” she said.
No two of her furniture designs are alike because they are each refashioned versions of something else.
A case in point is a reborn, 13-foot-long couch with scrolled arms that was once a sagging sofa upholstered in cheap gold velvet.
She picked it up at a thrift shop for $20.
“I saw it, and I liked the shape and knew I could knock the back off of it and have something interesting. I was pretty much the only one who saw the potential. And it was fun to knock the back off; it came off pretty easily.”
After knocking the back off, she went to an auto upholstery store in Santa Ana and found some eggplant-colored ‘50s fabric that is almost indestructible. “The couch is so long I can use it as a bed if someone spends the night. The old fabric is wonderful.”
The couch, with its scrolled arms and many pillows, could take over Thomas’ small living room, but it doesn’t. It fits well with her eclectic mix of furniture, lamps, figurines, pictures and tables. On the wall opposite the sofa are two Naugahyde chairs, one of which is scheduled to be redone; the other is fine as is. Each cost $5.
“I always liked the shapes of things in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” she said. “I like the big chairs, the curved lines, the fact that everything was very sturdy. But I do like a mixture of periods. I don’t want everything the same. You need a cushy, comfortable chair in a room, but it’s also nice to have a funky little chair that you only sit on once in a while but it’s fun and something good to look at.”
Thomas has redone chairs, sofas, “kooky” lampshades, headboards, pillows and, her latest subject, toy boxes.
“These old toy boxes are made out of wood, and I just rip off the old vinyl and re-cover them with really nice fabric. You could use them as coffee tables and put magazines inside them or as storage benches for the end of beds.”
In her designs she uses both vintage and new fabrics, and nothing goes to waste. If she gets a good price on the fabric or furniture, she passes it on to her client. Pillows are typically priced at $40 to $60; chairs $150 to $400, sofas $500 to $700.
Sometimes the non-fabric elements get refinished, sometimes not. “I do like to keep the original finish, though, even if it is a little banged up, because it gives it character. I don’t want everything looking plastic.”
Some pieces are relatively simple to make over, but those in bad condition require a complete overhaul.
“You have to tear everything off the chair or sofa and then build your way back up with all new foam, cotton, retie the springs and really redo the structure. I like resurrecting things from the dead.”
Thomas works two ways. Sometimes a client will ask her to find a particular kind of furniture, dictating the colors and the type of fabric.
Other times, Thomas finds things at flea markets, estate sales or garage sales and then redesigns them and sells them at open houses that she hosts twice a year. Her plans include having a retail space where she can show her furniture.
“I think people right now are more interested in finding unusual things. A lot of these things have a story behind them, and you can’t buy that.”
Does any of this outlook spill over into her “day job” of cake decorating? Sometimes, yes, she says. She encourages people to go beyond the designs suggested in the cake books.
One of her creations was a wedding cake with little green gummy frogs and gold ribbon. The bride loves reptiles and wanted them on her cake. The cake was put on a gold mirror.
“It was actually very pretty and classic looking,” Thomas said. “Everyone thought it would be horrible, but it wasn’t.”
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For information about seeing Holli Thomas’ furniture, call (714) 570-1849.
