learn to reupholster furniture

I have been fascinated with fabrics, textures, design and furniture for as long as I can remember and now that I see an opportunity to learn more about it, I want to learn how to upholster furniture. I live in New England, New Hampshire to be specific, along the coast. 22 months ago

And it looks really great. Took us forever, but it was worth doing. 3 years ago

Next month I’m starting a course to learn how to reupholster furniture. I’ve done it before with two chairs, but I’m not completely happy with the results and want to get better at it. Besides: I really like learning an old craft like this. My grandfather was a windowdresser and interior decorator (among other things…). He died when I was very young. Doing this makes me feel closer to him and my family’s history. 4 years ago

i should really learn to reupholster furniture because then i could get one of those neat old wooden armed chairs and make it totally customized and vintage-meets-modern. 4 years ago

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! 4 years ago

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. 4 years ago

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. 4 years ago

Maybe next year. 4 years ago

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. 5 years ago

Here’s a picture of the arm and back with uphostery and much of the padding torn off. 5 years ago

Here’s just the sofa. It didn’t have a seat when we found it at the curb. 5 years ago

Here’s the sofa and love seat before we stripped them. 5 years ago

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? 5 years ago