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Bernice's Handmade Armrest Organizer
Bernice's Handmade Armrest Organizer
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Bernice's Handmade Armrest Organizer
Worked on One Table in Two Rivers
Bernice Vanek, 70. She opened Vanek Yarn & Notions on Washington Street in 1988 and made the first chair cat in 1993, for her mother, who could not reach her own remote. A little over 9,000 have come off the same back-room table in the thirty-three years since. This is the final run. A developer bought the two brick buildings either side of hers for a discount store; when those party walls come down on September 26th, hers goes with them. There is no second back room.
“My mother had a stroke and sat in a recliner all day with her good hand on the wrong side. The remote went down between the cushion and the arm every single afternoon and she waited forty minutes for somebody to fetch it. So I made her a panel of pockets to hang over the arm. It slid off before teatime. I weighted the far end with a bag of dried beans and the home told me I couldn’t keep food in the room. So I crocheted a cat, stuffed it heavy, and laid it along the top on the other side. It stayed. That is the entire invention. Everything since has been colours.”
— Bernice Vanek, Marlow Market Co. · Two Rivers, Wisconsin
What You Receive
Everything That Ships With Your Chair Cat
Your Chair Cat
23.6″ × 11.8″ (60 × 30 cm). Two deep pockets, one standing cup pocket, and a densely stuffed cat body that does the actual work. Crocheted row by row, one at a time.
Whatever Is Still on the Shelf
Four: Oatmeal, Slate, Lakeside and Pine & Gold. The ones you can pick from are simply the ones that haven’t gone yet. When one runs out it is gone — there is no back room left to work more in.
A Hand-Numbered Cloth Tag
Stitched into the back seam and written in her hand, carrying your piece’s number in the final run of 880.
90-Day Returns
If it isn’t right when it arrives, send it back within 90 days for a full refund. The deadline on the building changes nothing about this.
Why This One
Six Things a Six-Dollar Caddy Cannot Do
Almost every armrest organiser on the market is built to hit a landed cost per unit, and almost every one of them fails in the same way for the same reason. This one is built around a single mechanical idea Bernice worked out in a nursing home in 1993. Every difference below follows from that.
It Uses Weight, Not Grip
An armrest organiser does not slide because it is too smooth. It tips, because the loaded pockets hang on one side of the arm and rotate the whole thing around it like a hinge. Every competitor attacks this with friction — non-slip backing, silicone dots, velcro. Bernice attacks it with mass. The cat body lies along the top of the arm on the opposite side and counterweights the pockets. That is the product.
Pick It Up Before You Hang It
This is the four-second check and almost nobody has been shown it. Lift the cat body in one hand. If it is light, it is decoration and the organiser will tip. If it has real heft — like a folded wool blanket rather than a cushion cover — the counterweight is there. Cheap copies of this shape stuff the cat hollow, because filling costs money, and then sew a pipe into the pockets to compensate.
There Is No PVC Pipe Inside It
Open up a discount armrest caddy and you find a length of white plastic pipe and a strip of grey foam, put there to stop a soft furnishing from falling off a chair. It half works, it makes the thing rattle, and it is why owners end up fixing their own with velcro, elastic, bungee cord and shelf liner. Nothing rigid goes into this one, because nothing rigid needs to.
It Sits on More Than One Kind of Chair
Because it holds by weight instead of friction, the surface underneath stops mattering. It works the same on a fabric sofa, a leather recliner, a wooden-armed reading chair and a hospital-style lift chair — the four surfaces that defeat a non-slip backing. At 60 cm it drapes well over a standard arm, and it lays flat in a drawer when you don’t want it out.
Pockets That Stay Open When Full
A thin nylon sleeve sags shut the moment there is anything in it, so you end up fishing about one-handed for the remote you just put away. These are worked in dense stitch that holds its own shape: two deep pockets that take two remotes, a phone and a pair of reading glasses between them, plus a separate standing pocket at the top that holds a full mug without it leaning.
It Doesn’t Announce Itself
The question Bernice is asked most often is whether it will make a living room look like a waiting room, and she thinks it is a fair thing to worry about. Pine & Gold is the one that reads as institutional; it is still made, because some people want exactly that. Oatmeal and Slate sit on a chair the way a folded throw does. You stop seeing it by the second day.
Occupational Therapy Note
“The thing people underestimate is how much of a day is decided by what is within reach of a seated hand. If the remote, the glasses and the phone live in a pocket at arm height, that is three fewer reasons to stand up on a bad hip, or to lean down over the side of a chair — which is where a lot of the falls I write up actually start. What matters is that the thing stays where you left it. A caddy that has to be nudged back into place ten times a day is worse than none, because the person stops trusting it and puts everything back on the floor. Weight is the sane way to solve that. I have taken apart a lot of these; the ones that hold are the ones with something heavy on the far side.”
Dana Whitcomb, OTR/L — Occupational therapist, home safety and fall prevention, 21 years · Duluth, Minnesota
Where It Ends Up
Built For the Chair You Actually Sit In
Quality Promise
Five Things You Get With Every One
90-Day Money-Back Guarantee
If it isn’t right when it arrives — the colour, the size, the way it sits on your chair, anything at all — send it back within 90 days for a full refund. No questions, no forms. One email is enough. The deadline on the building does not change this.
A Note From the Back Room
Bernice hangs every finished piece over a chair arm and loads the pockets before it ships. Small differences — a stripe sitting a quarter-inch off where she meant it, a shade that came off a slightly different dye lot, an ear that sits at its own angle — are normal in work that is made by a person rather than run off a machine. People occasionally write in to apologise for pointing this out, which she finds very funny. It isn’t a fault; it is the evidence. The count runs to 880, and then it stops.
The Details
Product Specifications
| Dimensions | 23.62″ long × 11.81″ wide (60 × 30 cm). The 60 cm is the drop over the arm; the 30 cm is the width across it. Measured flat, excluding the cat body and tail. |
| Pockets | Two deep open pockets, plus one separate standing cup pocket at the top of the arm |
| Construction | Crocheted row by row in dense stitch, shaped and stuffed by hand. Nothing rigid inside — no PVC pipe, no dowel, no foam insert, no coated backing. |
| Fits | Sofa, recliner, armchair and lift-chair arms. Works on fabric, leather and wooden arms alike, because it holds by weight rather than friction. |
| Colourways | Oatmeal — cream, sand and soft grey. Slate — charcoal and cream. Lakeside — pale blue, lilac and cream. Pine & Gold — forest green and mustard. The live selection is shown at checkout; sold-out colourways are not restocked. |
| Recommended | Oatmeal or Slate if you want it to disappear into the room. Lakeside if you want a little colour. Pine & Gold if you don’t want it to disappear at all. |
| Tag | Hand-numbered cloth tag stitched into the back seam, written by Bernice |
| Care | Spot clean with mild soap and cool water, or hand wash cool and dry flat. Do not tumble dry, do not wring, do not hang wet — the stuffed body holds water. |
| Variation | Made by hand — stripe placement, ear angle and dye lot vary slightly between pieces. No two are identical. |
| Maker | Bernice Vanek — Vanek Yarn & Notions, Washington Street, Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Shop opened 1988; first chair cat made in 1993. |
| Made To Date | A little over 9,000 since 1993, all from the same back-room table |
| Final Run | 880 remaining — no reorders; the party walls come down September 26th |
| Sold By | Marlow Market Co. — the only place these are sold. Copies on the marketplaces carry no hand-numbered cloth tag. |
| Guarantee | 90-day full refund, no questions asked |
The Final Sale
The Final Sale
Message from the Artist:
After years of making things by hand, our workshop is closing. These are the last pieces we'll ever ship. Every item on this page was made slowly, carefully, and with more love than any factory could replicate. Nothing rushed. Nothing outsourced. Just real craft from real hands.
We're proud of every single one. We hope they find good homes.
When they're gone, they're gone — and so are we.
Shipping with UPS / USPS
Shipping with UPS / USPS
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- Delivery time: 7–14 business days
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800+ Happy Customers
Excellent 4.9
What Bernice's customers are saying
Freqquently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
My wife and I personally respond to every single email — as fast as we possibly can. Whether you have a question about your order or just want to talk craft, we're here.
You can reach us:
- Mon – Fri: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (CT)
- Saturday: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM (CT)
Email: info@craftfolk.com
Can I return my order if I don't like it?
Can I return my order if I don't like it?
Of course. We stand behind everything on CraftFolk 100%. If you're not happy, neither are we. Just shoot us an email within 90 days and we'll make it right — no hassle, no headaches.
How are your products made?
How are your products made?
Every single product on CraftFolk is 100% handmade — crafted by hand, using only premium quality materials. We're proud to carry on a tradition of craftsmanship that has been passed down through generations.