Ms. P. Mytthili has been heading the Interior Design Department at the Institute of Design, Chennai for close to a decade. A postgraduate in Hindi Literature, she holds several diplomas in Interior Design aswell as Interior Decoration. She is also certified in Corel Draw and Auto Cad.

She has many interior designing projects to her credit. Offices, Show rooms, Residences, Exhibitionstall designing and Landscape projects too. Carnatic music, Gardening, Handicrafts and painting are some of her other interests.

Mr. N. Nadeem is the executive director of Institute of Design.

Class Schedule - Monthly

UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE

At the time of buying upholstered furniture, you should check certain features first.

First of all it should be comfortable to sit on, and of right height from the ground. Then you should check the construction of the upholstered furniture. The cost of such furniture depends on its inner construction. Two identical pieces of upholstered furniture are sometimes entirely different in quality and cost.

Upholstered furniture consists of five parts- frame, seat, springs, fillings and fabric.

Frames of such furniture should be made of good wood. We can test the quality of finish by rubbing a spot warm with a finger. If the surface turns sticky or powdery, it is an indication it is teakwood. Other good quality woods for furniture making are sheesham and rosewood. Rosewood is very expensive, so usually it is used for limited spaces only.

The base of springs may be of burlap webbing, steel webbing or wooden slate. They should be closely woven and crossed under each spring and should be tightly stretched.

Springs should be of a very good quality and rustproof. They should be tied in eight directions for comfort and durability. An expensive chair should have 16 coils of springs but even 9 or 12 will do.

A layer of canvas or burlap is placed over the springs. Then filling is placed on this surface. This filling consists of coconut fibers and cotton. Foam rubber cushioning is done on top of this only.

Some manufacturers have been accused of using rugs and very inferior cotton for fillings. As we cannot check the fillings and quality of springs at the time of buying, the manufacturer should mention these things on a label.

All foam rubber, upholstered chairs should not be dry cleaned but shampooed, otherwise the rubber will become sticky with dry-cleaning fluids.

For cushioning furniture, usually synthetic materials like foam rubber are used because of its comfort and durability.

Upholstery fabrics are discussed in a separate chapter. At the time of selecting mirrors for dressing tables, we should check that images are not distorted at acute angles.

If there is carving in furniture, it should not be shallow in any good piece of furniture. At the time of buying mattresses, quality should come before cost. We spend nearly one-third of our life in bed. A good mattress with good quality foam rubber lasts a lifetime.

Mattresses should be checked for firmness, which means equalized support, so that it does not sag at any one spot. Different brands hold different degrees of firmness.

Mattresses can be purchased in various sizes according to our needs. There are mainly two types of mattresses- form rubber or cotton mattresses.

Tufting in cotton mattresses helps the contents of mattresses form slipping or shifting. Tufting should be done from top to bottom.

Foam rubber mattresses should be at least 4" thick and with covering. Cotton does not stay firm for a long time.

Bibliography
1. Book of Colour Sketching by Carolyn Warrender's
2. The Complete Decorating & Home Improvement Book by Mike Lawrence

Class Schedule:
Living Room

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mail us at customersupport@sitagita.com

Courtesy: Institue of Design, No.134, Rosewood Offices, Nungambakkam High Road,
 Chennai - 600 034. Tel. 824 0588

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