How can I Reupholster Furniture?

Furniture owners reupholster furniture for many reasons. The fabric may be worn, stained or ripped on older furniture or those bought at flea markets. The piece may no longer fit in with the style or color of a newly painted or decorated room. Sometimes, just a simple change is desired and rather than spend a lot of money on all new furniture, some people prefer to reupholster their old furniture. You can learn to reupholster furniture through information available in books and/or online. All you need, besides new upholstery fabric and sewing materials, are a few simple tools such as a staple gun, a small hammer for upholstery tacks and pliers.

It is a good idea to start to reupholster furniture by reupholstering a dining chair or bar stool before moving on to more difficult items such as an armchair or sofa. A dining chair back can be reupholstered by making a fabric "envelope" to slip over the chair back. It is usually very easy to reupholster furniture such as dining chair seat cushions and bar or foot stool seat cushions. Just remove the old fabric and replace it with new fabric and stretch and staple your new fabric over the foam cushion. You may want to add new foam when you reupholster furniture if it appears yellow or worn.

To reupholster furniture such as an armchair, remove the tacks and fabric from the chair. Use the old upholstery fabric as a template for your new upholstery fabric. Be sure to use only upholstery weight fabric when you reupholster furniture because it is more durable than regular fabric and usually more wrinkle resistant. Replace any stuffing or foam that is worn out with new materials. Finally replace the tacks by hammering them back in.

Reupholstering a sofa is more challenging than reupholstering chairs, but it can be done. Again, use the old fabric as a template when you reupholster a sofa. You can also use a paper template. Be sure to add adequate seam allowances. Sofa cushions that require zippers may be tricky for those not used to hand sewing. When you reupholster sofa cushions you must be sure to use proper tension and sizing so that all of the cushions look the same, the fabric does not bag or pucker and there are no gaps between the cushions when they are placed on the sofa.