Has anyone re-upholstered furniture?

[Bernadine]

Tell me about it.

[meowmaps]

I wanted to but ended up not doing it. I bought two wingback chairs for $75 and thought it would be fun to pick a beautiful pattern and have them redone. I sent out a feeler to a highly rated place and the cost was exorbitant but my understanding is that’s the way it is. I have destructive cats so it’s definitely not worth the cost. I bought some slipcovers that cost more than the chairs! My cats are still having a field day. Oh well.

[MrsDarcy]

We had a wing chair reupholstered about 13 years ago. It’s held up well. In hindsight it probably would have made more sense just to purchase a new chair.

[mich1]

Yes. I've reupholstered my grandmother's chair twice. The second time, cats used it as a clawing post.

There is one guy locally who does them, and he is so backed up that I'm not getting in until the end of Feb. He got fantastic reviews from the local designers, so I put my name on the list. It is going to cost me $500, but this chair is do solidly made you just don't see them line this anymore.

[livinitup]

I found a furniture upholstery place. And had wonderful chairs passed-down from my grandmother. The guy did a hard pass on some cheap ottomans scratched-up by my cat ... and sang the praises of the chairs. Even offered to pay cash for them - to upholster himself.

Anyway, his company does well with upholstery jobs for dentists and restaurants... just get a quote and start picking fabrics.

[dirtyred]

In many instances it's cheaper to buy new than to reupholster.   Are you talking about doing it yourself, or paying someone?

[Bernadine]

Dec 30, 2017 7:15:52 GMT -5 dirtyred said:

In many instances it's cheaper to buy new than to reupholster.   Are you talking about doing it yourself, or paying someone?

I should have clarified - I'm considering trying to do it myself.

I know it's expensive to have done, but I'm trying to be more environmentally conscious and reuse.

[aprilsails]

I helped my friend with some mid-century modern teak chairs for her dining room. She had read a pile of how to books from the library ahead of time.

First we disassembled one chair and carefully picked out all the seams. We then used that as our template, but cut the new seat pad fabric and back about a 1/4” smaller since the older fabric would have ‘loosened’ over time, and she didn’t want to start with saggy fabric to begin with.

She bought all new foam seats and back as well, and cut and glued them to match the existing.

I sewed the seat covers for her and we put it all together on the first chair to make sure it was going to work and then we tweaked it slightly for the rest.

The easiest part was the staples for the bottom of the seat. This did take two people to pull it right though.

These were very simple and didn’t involve any piping or other decorative work. I have a heavy duty machine so the upholstery fabric wasn’t difficult for me to deal with as long as I used the right needles and thread.

She got the chairs for free but I think the fabric and foam cost her well over $400, but that was for 6 chairs and she obviously felt it was worth it.

[TheSeaward]

Dec 30, 2017 8:09:22 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

I helped my friend with some mid-century modern teak chairs for her dining room. She had read a pile of how to books from the library ahead of time.

First we disassembled one chair and carefully picked out all the seams. We then used that as our template, but cut the new seat pad fabric and back about a 1/4” smaller since the older fabric would have ‘loosened’ over time, and she didn’t want to start with saggy fabric to begin with.

She bought all new foam seats and back as well, and cut and glued them to match the existing.

I sewed the seat covers for her and we put it all together on the first chair to make sure it was going to work and then we tweaked it slightly for the rest.

The easiest part was the staples for the bottom of the seat. This did take two people to pull it right though.

These were very simple and didn’t involve any piping or other decorative work. I have a heavy duty machine so the upholstery fabric wasn’t difficult for me to deal with as long as I used the right needles and thread.

She got the chairs for free but I think the fabric and foam cost her well over $400, but that was for 6 chairs and she obviously felt it was worth it.

I have done exactly this with my old sleeper sofa and love seat, it was hard work physically, but the sewing was quite simple

[mich1]

Dec 30, 2017 7:15:52 GMT -5 dirtyred said:

In many instances it's cheaper to buy new than to reupholster.   Are you talking about doing it yourself, or paying someone?

It depends on what you buy.  Yeah......I can buy a $200 chair new that will likely be in the dumpster in 10 years.  The chair I am reupholstering has a solid hardwood frame and has held up for 70 years.  To buy a chair with a good hardwood frame is going to cost nearly $2000 (we just bought a new sofa, and just priced something like this out).

[aprilsails]

Dec 30, 2017 13:50:02 GMT -5 mich1 said:

Dec 30, 2017 7:15:52 GMT -5 dirtyred said:

In many instances it's cheaper to buy new than to reupholster.   Are you talking about doing it yourself, or paying someone?

It depends on what you buy.  Yeah......I can buy a $200 chair new that will likely be in the dumpster in 10 years.  The chair I am reupholstering has a solid hardwood frame and has held up for 70 years.  To buy a chair with a good hardwood frame is going to cost nearly $2000 (we just bought a new sofa, and just priced something like this out).

Absolutely, if you have a quality piece of furniture it is worth recovering. My in laws have Swedish style lay-z-boys from the early 80s and when MIL took one in to get a new leather cover the upholsterer offered her $2000 for the A’s-found condition. Same goes for my friends chairs from the early 70s. Things are not built the same way at all.

[ladystardust]

The only thing I reupholstered is a child rocking chair. My grandfather worked at a furniture store and made all us grandkids rocking chairs. I reupholstered it for my daughter. IIRC, I took photos for each step of the fabric removal so I remembered the correct order. While smaller, it was more difficult than I anticipated but once I got the hang of it, it was ok. I loved how it came out. I wouldn’t reupholstered again unless I really really wanted to keep it.

[mrsjuleshs]

I've done the dining room chairs myself and that was easy. Sadly my poor couch and love seat have met the wrath of one of my cats. Corners are shredded and she's onto the side of the love seat. I'm thinking with big pieces, it's cheaper just to buy new. She's about 10 so waiting it out. The other 2 don't have any interest in the couches since the scratching post is in the same room.

[LanaLang]

I've done a rocker glider sort of thing, so not as intense as a sofa or anything. I didn't mean to fully redo the whole thing, but as I removed each layer, the one below it was disgusting so I kept going until I was down to wood and springs. It was hard work, but not too complicated and I love the result. I do with I had an extra set of hands at the end to help with some of the curve up at the head. By then I was exhausted and kept it simple so the pretty curves don't show.

I did do piping, but that was actually pretty easy. I'm glad I did it because it was so much value for the effort.

[jane6672]

Yes, a wingback chair. It’s a hell of a lot of work.