WILLIAMSBURG — With its seat refurbished this week at a Haydenville upholstering workshop, an older snowmobile can return to traversing the region’s trails.
Finding that its foam remained in good shape, protected from moisture even as the outdoor-use vinyl covering deteriorated, Lea Archbald was able to get the snowmobile seat back into perfect condition.
While fixing a snowmobile seat may not be conventional for an upholsterer, Archbald was willing to do the job.
“I’m always ready to do things no one else wants to do,” Archbald said.
For nearly 20 years, Archbald has run Lea’s ReCovery from her home studio in Haydenville, where she specializes mostly in restoring antique furniture for residential customers.
But her upholstering work has also included getting new furniture ready for about 20 restaurants in the region, including a current project for a restaurant opening in Amherst this year, and previous jobs such as fabric wall tiles for an upscale Northampton home and a leather door for a mansion on the Maine coast.
Archbald, 68, is not lacking for customers, even as she contemplates either retirement, or stepping back from the business she has run since around 2004.
Lea’s ReCovery remains a 6½ day a week job for her, even with help from apprentice Julie Martyn, who works part time five days a week.
“I want to semi-retire,” Archbald said. “The work is crazy.”
Much of the work is brought to her by homeowners, such as one who wanted a foot stool to match the fabric on the sofa, or who needed two dining room chairs recovered, which she was able to complete in a morning.
A more complicated residential project she is undertaking is a love seat that will take three days to finish. That includes stripping it down to its base and determining what needs to be done, including whether its springs need to be fixed.
A significant amount of time will also be spent on the 174 feet of benches that will go into the new restaurant called Protocol in Amherst. Those seats have odd shapes, some in semi circles and others with right angles.
“It’s a big project,” Archbald said.
The contractor has dropped off what needs to be upholstered.
“They bring everything here,” Archbald said. “I provide the foam, they provide the fabric.”
About 20 or so restaurants have sought her service over the years, and then come back on occasion, such as one that has asked her to refurbish three to four booths at a time as they wear out.
Archbald was 46 when she pursued a new career path, after working at a paper mill in Holyoke and at the same time getting a divorce from her husband.
“You say to yourself, ‘what could I do,” Archbald said. “I knew how to sew, so took classes at the Holyoke Creative Arts Center.”
That led to an apprenticeship with the Upholstery Shop in Greenfield for two years, before setting off on her own. The first two years were a challenge to make a living through the business, a problem that no longer exists.
“Now there’s so much work that I’m turning projects down every day,” Archbald said. In fact, her schedule for reupholstering sofas extends all the way to May.
Besides residents and restaurants, she also works with interior designers, like the Workroom Design Studio in Florence.
For all customers, a picture and measurements are submitted. While she carries a line of fabric, most people provide their own materials, and she refers people to Osgood Textile Co. in West Springfield.
In all the years, she has been short of fabric just two times, and about the same time has had too much fabric to work with. “I don’t like to make people spend more than they have to,” Archbald said.
Most people drop off and then pick up their furniture when she is finished. She occasionally offers to go out to get pieces, but that can depend on whether her sons are available to help her out.
Archbald said she feels bad when she has to turn away anyone, that she has been able to do sound boards for the University of Massachusetts and elements of a home theater for a local resident. But the person who drove a Jeep to her and wondered if she could fix its soft top was out of luck.
“There was no way I could sew it,” Archbald said.
A sign in her studio states that, “Saying no is a human right.” That is advice Archbald admittedly doesn’t always heed.
“I don’t often pay attention to my own theory,” Archbald said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
