In a quiet Swindon workshop, an armchair that has not been comfortable for a decade is being taken apart down to its frame, joint by joint.
This is the daily work of Next Generation Upholstery, a family-run studio that has built a steady following among homes across the Cotswolds for its careful, traditional approach to bespoke furniture and restoration.
The studio is run by Andras Barna, a craftsman with more than 25 years in the trade who began his upholstery training in 1994 and earned his full certification three years later.
His grounding is in the older techniques: traditional hand stitching, deep-buttoning and the precise trimming work once associated with classic car interiors.
After running his first upholstery business from 2003, he moved to England in 2016 to learn British methods, and went on to set up Next Generation Upholstery shortly afterwards.
The guiding principle, picked up from one of his early mentors, is that every material has a vibration of its own and the maker needs to feel it. It sounds romantic on the page, but it shows up in the work as patience: hours spent matching grain, tension and fill before a single tack goes in.
Reupholstery is a large part of what the studio does, and it goes well beyond a change of fabric.
Pieces are stripped back to the frame, loose joints are glued and screwed for stability, worn padding is replaced, and tired wood surfaces are restored before any new covering is fitted.
Customers can choose between foam or feather fillings, and the studio generally recommends replacing seat and back cushion foam every ten years to keep an older sofa or chair sitting as it should.
The appeal is partly practical and partly sentimental. A 30-year-old sofa that has held up to family life can be brought back to something that lasts another few decades, rather than being sent to landfill.
One recent customer, Susan Morrell, had a long-serving Multiyork sofa reupholstered at the studio and described ending up with a piece that has been admired by friends and should now last her decades.
Alongside the restoration work, the studio designs and builds bespoke furniture to fit specific rooms and tastes.
Sofas, armchairs, chaise lounges, footstools and headboards are made to measure, with frames handcrafted in Britain from solid wood and finished with the customer's choice of modern or traditional fillings.
It is the kind of small, skilled operation that is becoming harder to find on the high street, and a welcome presence for anyone in the Cotswolds with a piece of furniture worth saving or a room that needs something built precisely for it.
More information about the studio's bespoke and reupholstery services is available on the Next Generation Upholstery website.
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