One of Our Favorite Chairs: Rebuilding an Eames Time-Life Executive Chair for a New Orleans Design Firm
The Total Leather Care team rebuilt a classic Eames Time-Life executive chair for a renowned New Orleans design firm. Learn how we restore, repair, and reupholster these mid-century icons.
The Herman Miller Eames Time-Life Executive Chair a true jewel of midcentury design.
Every upholstery shop has a few pieces that everyone gets a little excited about when they come through the door. For our team at Total Leather Care, the Eames Time-Life executive chair is at the top of that list.
It's easy to see why. The design is simple yet elegant, with no wasted lines. And once you sit in one, you understand why people keep these chairs for decades. It's genuinely comfortable to sit in and work from every day, which isn't something you can say about every design classic.
So when a world-renowned design firm in New Orleans asked us to build one for them, we were thrilled.
Built from parts with a history
This chair didn't start with a box of new components. It started with our own history.
Back in the 1980s, we serviced these chairs for a local Herman Miller dealer here in Houston. Over the years, as chairs came through our shop for repairs, we accumulated original parts along the way. We held on to them, because pieces like these don't come around often, and you never know when they'll find their purpose.
This project was that purpose. We pulled from that collection to put together a complete chair, and it's pretty special to see parts we handled decades ago come together into something new.
The details that make it ours
We wanted this chair to honor the original design while giving it a look all its own.
The biggest change is one you might not notice right away, but you'd feel it: we profiled the seat cushion about an inch smaller than standard. That gives the chair a lower, sleeker profile that shows off more of the sculpted aluminum frame and gives the whole piece a cleaner, more modern stance.
The leather deserves its own mention. The designer made an excellent choice, and working with it was a pleasure. It's the kind of hide that seems to change with the room it's in. In natural light, like in the photo above, it glows a warm rust orange. Under low light or fluorescent office lighting, it settles into a richer, more subdued tone that's almost cherry. It's a leather with real depth, and it gives the chair a different personality from morning to evening. We upholstered the cushions button-tufted with welted edges, with matching padded armrests.
We polished the aluminum frame, arms, and base to a bright finish that plays beautifully against the warm leather.
And we didn't want to cut corners on the part that touches the floor. We tracked down a set of hard-to-find deluxe casters for the wheels, because on a chair like this, the details should be right all the way down.
Your chair doesn't always need new leather
Building a chair like this one is a joy, but most of the chairs that come through our doors already have a story of their own. Maybe it was your father's office chair, or a piece you found at an estate sale, or a set that's been in your company's boardroom for thirty years. Whatever the history, we don't assume every chair needs to be stripped and started over. We start by taking a close look at the leather you already have, and we recommend the approach that's right for your chair.
If the leather's pH is still in good shape and the hide is salvageable, we can often restore and rejuvenate it. Our team knows how to deep clean, recondition, and refinish aged leather so it looks and feels healthy again, while keeping the original character and patina that make a vintage chair special.
If some areas are too far gone but the rest is worth saving, we can do a partial reupholstery. We replace only the panels that truly need it, using a suitable leather that we custom color match so the new sections blend in and look original.
And when the leather has simply reached the end of its life, we can reupholster the entire chair, just like we did here, in the leather and color of your choice.
Whichever path your chair needs, you'll get the same care and craftsmanship we put into every one of these classics.
We'd love to see your chair
We've been working on Eames chairs for decades, and they're still some of our favorites. If you have one that's worn, faded, cracked, or sitting in storage waiting for its second life, reach out at 713-775-2550 or jdnidever@gmail.com. Send us a few photos. We'll take a look, talk you through your options honestly, and help you decide what's best for your chair.
Total Leather Care is an independent restoration and upholstery shop and is not affiliated with Herman Miller or Vitra.