First Class Upholstery — Attraction in Fort Lee

Jeff Tezel is a master at his craft of furniture repair and upholstery!

We had an old hand-carved solid mahogany dining room set with 8 chairs, an antique set that my mother had made by an old Haitian man during the time that my stepdad was the American Ambassador to Haiti in the 1990s. My mom and stepdad used that set for 15 years to entertain official guests on behalf of the US Embassy in Haiti and then to entertain friends and relatives in a private capacity in Miami, Florida.

Then, when they left Haiti, I bought that set and my son and I have owned it for 12 years in NY and NY.

After all those years of use, the mahogany dining room chairs were showing a lot of wear and tear. The frames were becoming loose and the cane was frayed and torn on the seating part of the chairs making them unusable. In NY, I had visited Veterans' Caning where they charged me a fortune to recant the chairs. However, in a matter of a few years, the caning once more became frayed and torn on the seating part. The same was the case for a matching rocking chair that we had.

I happened to be walking around in the area when I saw the sign for First Class Upholstery so I entered that establishment. I showed Jeff Tezel photos of the damaged chairs and sought his advice. He suggested removing the damaged caning material and reinforcing the seating with additional wood, padding and upholstery.

After I chose a very nice upholstery fabric from one of the many books of sample materials stacked up on his shelves, Jeff kindly arranged to collect all 9 chairs from our apartment building. In less than a week, he had completed the detailed task of removing the damaged caning material and reinforcing the seating with additional wood, padding and upholstery as well as repairing the rickety frames on some of the chairs. Amazing! I was very impressed with how Jeff Tezel had worked at record speed to transform our dining room and rocking chairs into beautifully restored and attractive furniture that could continue to be used for many more years to come.

-- Thank you very much, Jeff Tezel! You are a remarkable craftsman and we are glad we met you! Our neighbours were very impressed with your handiwork too so we will refer anyone looking to repair or reupholster their furniture to you...

In May we were packing to relocate to Las Vegas and I needed to get our 50 year old mid century modern dining chairs reupholstered. Jeff was the third vendor I spoke with and besides having the most competitive price I simply felt secure leaving these eight valuable chairs with him during our move. Jeff calculated a $200 cost to ship the chairs to me in Vegas when finished which was added to the total. During the entire reconstruction process Jeff sent me regular progress photos. It was great seeing how detailed his work was. When the chairs were completed Jeff shipped them to me even though there was a 50% balance still due... this really touched me, and only after I received them and told him how thrilled I was with the work did he ask for the balance to be paid. On top of that I saw that the shipping actually cost him $350 but he was a professional and did not ask for a penny more. I can’t say enough about Jeff and First Class Upholstery. They are truly...

We have 4 dining room chairs that were ravaged severely by our cats and needed new fabric. We came to "First Class Upholstery" and Jeff was very helpful, showed us some fabric books for us to choose from and gave us an estimate based on what we told him. Jeff suggested that we take a couple of the books (we narrowed the search to) with us home to make our choice without time constraints. The next week we came back with the chairs and our selection. Jeff immediately checked with the supplier that these fabrics were available and once confirmed, gave us an exact estimate and told us when the job will be done. The chairs arrived a day early and we LOVE THEM! The fabrics came out better than we thought and the chairs are very comfortable.

The whole experience from the moment we walked in and until the job was done was professional and pleasant. We will surely entrust Jeff and his team with any future Upholstery work...