If Aladdin Were a Woodworker… Old Church Pews Become New Church Pews

St. Paul’s Church – Chesterton, Indiana

Pew Retrofit

Completed: February, 2014

Features:

• All new, solid oak seats, backs and molding
• Feet and end-caps reused for cost savings
• Stain and finish matched to original wood

If you have holes in your upholstery, what are you going to do?  Buy all new pews or substitute with chairs?  Spend a $100,000 for brand new seats?

Reupholstery seems the logical choice yet St. Paul’s church in Chesterton, Indiana encountered a glitch when they sought bids to redo their 15 year old pews.  The estimates came in high and would have cost them half as much as buying replacement pews with our special parallel-action kneelers.

Why was it so costly to reupholster?  Those pews were not designed with removable cushions.  Redoing the fabric would have entailed taking the pew apart and bringing the entire back and seat assemblies to a shop, removing glued on trim before adding new fabric.

Fortunately, they called the liturgical firm Remmert Studios and obtained the recommendation to simply replace all the cushions with brand, new oak seats and backs.

We obtained the commission to build and install the new parts.