learn to reupholster furniture

And it looks really great. Took us forever, but it was worth doing.

But we’re getting much closer to completion. Had a breakthrough this weekend figuring out how to cover the front of the love seat below the cushion. The goal is to be done by Christmas!

So this weekend I took all the fabric and foam padding off the love seat so I could put a different sealer on the wood frame. The first sealer bothered my wife’s allergies, so that had to be covered with a new sealer – AFM Safe Seal. It’s not a pretty finish like varnish or shellac, but it works.
So far I’ve stapled all the foam back on, but still have to do the fabric. It’s going much faster now, partly because I’m not having to measure and fit each piece of fabric.
This project was supposed to be done by mid-September. Hopefully we’ll get it done by mid-November so we can move on to other more important projects.

It’s been a hell of a job, but in early September we started working on the long-delayed love seat.

So far the springs are in and tied, the base padding is on, and we’re starting to fit the fabric on the back.

My wife and I have different ideas about how to do things. And since we don’t have any formal training in upholstery, it leads to some disagreements. But we’re working through things, and I hope we’ll have a piece of furniture we can be comfortable on and proud of.

I’ll try to post pictures tomorrow.

Maybe next year.

We pretty much tore both apart, but it’s going to be a while before we can reupholster them. They’re wrapped in plastic in the basement for now.

Here’s a picture of the arm and back with uphostery and much of the padding torn off.

Here’s just the sofa. It didn’t have a seat when we found it at the curb.

Here’s the sofa and love seat before we stripped them.

Sunday night my wife and I rescued/salvaged a great sofa and love seat from the curb. We live in a university town, and this time of year the curbs are full of old sofas the students throw out as they leave for the summer.

These two are from a quality furniture manufacturer in North Carolina, and they’ve got a great, curved shape.

We spent Monday morning ripping all the old upholstery off the sofa, and plan to reupholster them both—hopefully next week when I’m on vacation. We’re planning to use organic cotton and low-VOC foam instead of the usually toxic stuff in most commercial furniture.

Anybody know of good books on the subjet?