Upholstery shop owner learned trade at an early age and eventually brought skills to Toledo’s Main Street

By KATHLEEN O’CONNOR/Lincoln Chronicle

Upholstery is a specialized craft practiced by very few people, and those in need of quality work often find it’s hard to find a competent, experienced professional nearby. Fortunately, Lincoln County residents have just such a person in Zach Vaughan, whose The Silver Spring Upholstery shop is on Main Street in Toledo.

Vaughan’s training began far from Toledo, in his hometown of Opelika, Ala. near Auburn University. His family moved there from Georgia when he was four, and his earliest memory is of gathering cotton seeds at a lunch stop along the way, then earnestly planting them in his new front yard. He’s pretty sure they didn’t come up.

Vaughan and his brother and sister enjoyed an idyllic childhood in Opelika — Auburn offered cultural and sporting events, the buzz of Atlanta was two hours to the north, Florida beaches were two hours to the south, and Lake Martin, one of the largest man-made lakes in the country, was practically next door.

Those amenities provided plenty of entertainment, but Vaughan and his brother had a unique hobby, too. They became avid collectors of native non-venomous reptiles, including two kinds of lizards (skinks and anoles), and many kinds of snakes, primarily king snakes, corn snakes and rat snakes. They replicated the native food chain, too, catching flying cockroaches to feed the skinks and lizards, and then feeding the skinks and lizards to the snakes. At one time they had 30 reptiles in their home.

By the time Vaughan was a senior in high school he had finished almost all his required subjects, so he enrolled at a trade school near his high school, choosing to learn upholstery.

Question: Tell us a little more about how you learned your craft.

Answer: The trade school offered several different courses: auto mechanics, cabinetry, welding, nursing and upholstery. I’m not entirely sure why I chose upholstery at the time, but I’ve always been glad I did. Every piece requires skill and creativity, which keeps the work interesting. The full program lasted two years, but I left after the nine months of my senior year.

At the time I was one of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and after high school I moved to New York City where I spent 11 years volunteering at the church’s headquarters. It’s a large, complex operation that included its own upholstery shop. That’s where I completed my training and developed my skills. While attending a church conference in South America I met my wife, Katrina. She soon became a  volunteer in New York, too. We both took the church’s vow of poverty, so we had to quickly learn how to take advantage of everything that New York City offers at little or no cost — concerts in the parks, pay-what-you-wish museums, street entertainment. It was an exciting, tumultuous place to live.

During the time we lived in New York we occasionally came to Toledo on vacation to visit Katrina’s family. Everything about Oregon was new and delightful to me – nothing at all like Alabama. We decided to move here to start a family when we were done with our time in New York. If I didn’t live here I would gladly move back to New York, but not to Alabama. In Alabama you cannot say “hot” without also saying “humid”.

I got some lucky breaks when I first started my business in Toledo. A couple of the decorators in Newport gave me some business right away, and one of the established upholsterers in the area retired and moved away within months of my arrival. My second small business, The Sign Shop, is housed in the same location as the upholstery shop. I have the equipment to make all types of vinyl signs for businesses – they are basically giant stickers.

Q: What kinds of things do you reupholster?

A: I literally have a new boss every day, and many of them are fascinating people. Individuals bring in all kinds of household furniture to be redone, of course, but I’ve also done seats for boats and airplanes, and carpets, headliners and seats for classic cars. On the commercial side I’ve worked on furniture for dental and medical offices, restaurants, commercial boats, government offices, and police departments. I recently finished doing all the mattresses for the Equinox, which is a research boat owned by the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Department.

Q: What tools do you use?

A: My three industrial sewing machines are the work horses of my shop. I have a Pfaff that is about 50 years old, a 30-year-old Juki and a Consew that’s around 15 years old. All three have walking feet, and the Consew also has compound feed. Those mechanisms are essential for preventing the top layer of fabric from shifting while sewing.

I work at a large cutting table and have multiple rotary cutting wheels and pairs of scissors. I sharpen the scissors myself using a very simple sharpening tool that anyone can buy on Amazon – it works well for garden tools, too. Upholstery requires many specialized tools, all manufactured by one company — Osborne. Creating smooth corners, sharp angles and perfect pleats – and attaching and removing staples, fabric, foam and springs – all require specific tools.

Q: Why do individuals choose to have furniture reupholstered instead of buying new pieces?

A: The most common reason is sentimental: “It was Mom’s chair.” People often have fond memories attached to a specific piece of furniture, and they are so pleased when that piece is restored. I have received many hugs, and witnessed a few tears when people see their completed project. It’s not just pieces of furniture that people would like to preserve.  I’ve used vintage needlepoint pieces to finish chair seats, leather jackets to cover chair backs, favorite sweaters to make pillows.

There are practical reasons, too. Some people recognize that the frames of old furniture are generally heavier and sturdier than those in new furniture. And if it’s a built-in piece of furniture, custom cushions are often the only option.

Q: What do you see as the future of your trade/craft?

A: Although there have been many attempts, no one has successfully automated sewing, whether for upholstery or for clothing. So, upholsterers will certainly still be needed in the foreseeable future. There has never been an abundance of training programs for upholstery. The only one in the Pacific Northwest right now is in the Tacoma/Lakewood area.

Tell us a secret.

Although I grew up in the South I don’t have a Southern accent, primarily because my mother wasn’t from the South, and because we lived in a university town, with people from all over the world. However, I also speak Spanish, and I have quite an accent in that language because I learned it from Spanish-speaking people from the Caribbean and Central and South America, not people from Mexico or Spain.

• Zachary Vaughan: The Silver Spring Upholstery and The Sign Shop; 305 N. Main St., Toledo; 541-635-0085 or [email protected]