Soon Ruth had enough work and confidence in her upholstery skills to give up her day job. We couldn’t afford to rent or buy a shop, so we began offering our furniture through our website at www.oldsofas.com. We now reupholster and sell old sofas and chairs to customers all over the UK and Europe.
This book is full of step-by-step photographs, taken in real time, of Ruth upholstering 15 different pieces in our workshop. To that we’ve added advice on Getting Started – what tools and materials to buy, where to find furniture and what to look for – all the things you need to know before you embark on your first project. This is followed by a section on Basic Upholstery Techniques, in which we’ve covered areas that we haven’t been able to mention in conjunction with the projects, or ones we felt needed a little more explanation than the reference in the projects allowed. Stripping furniture, webbing, tying springs, knots, stuffing, regulating, edge roll stitching, hand stitching, buying fabric, making cutting plans, making single and double piping and cushion inners are all included in this section. For those of you on upholstery courses we’ve even included the Van Dyke join. This is the part of the book to return to if you’re unsure of the basics at any point.
We’ve divided the 15 upholstery projects into two sections: Basic Skills and Applying Basic Skills. Basic Skills comprises eight upholstery projects that introduce and teach you all the basic skills that must be mastered in order to progress to more complex projects.
The first three projects use simple, inexpensive chairs to illustrate the three most common upholstery methods; stuffed pad, pin-cushion and overstuffed. Project 4 – Overstuffed chair with springs – introduces springs to an upholstered seat, and project 5 – Deep-buttoned stool – shows you how to put deep buttons into upholstery. Project 6 – Caning – shows you how to cane; a skill that all well-rounded upholsterers should have; and project 7 – Box cushion – demonstrates the principles and practice of how to make piped, removable outer cushion covers. The last of the basic skills projects, project 8 – Re-covering upholstery – rounds things off with a detailed explanation of how to do a re-covering job.
The Applying Basic Skills section takes the skills learnt in the previous eight projects and applies them to seven more advanced projects. Culminating in a sumptuous buttoned leather chesterfield, the projects in this section all offer something to add to the basic skills, but demonstrate that any upholstery project, no matter what the piece is, breaks down into the application of one or more of the basic skills.
Project 9 – Art Deco armchair – introduces more complex seat springing and arm covering techniques and project 10 – Classic armchair – explains sprung arms and finishing scrolls. Project 11 shows how to upholster a chair with wings and project 12 is a masterclass on dealing with curves explaining how to upholster a beautiful tub chair. Project 13 takes the buttoning skills learnt in project 5 and expands and applies them to a fabulous Victorian chaise longue. Project 14 gives a detailed explanation on how to upholster a sofa with a drop arm and project 15 combines leather, deep buttons and curves with the classic Victorian chesterfield.
None of the 15 projects in this book should be looked at in terms of difficulty. Project 1 – Drop-in seat – takes a lot less time and work to complete than project 15 – Buttoned leather chesterfield – but that doesn’t mean it is easier. You will certainly need to know how to perform more upholstery operations to complete a chesterfield, but bad upholstery looks bad whether it’s on a pin-cushion seat in a junk shop window or on a Louis XV chaise in a museum.
Reupholstering old furniture combines good old-fashioned craftsmanship with modern aspirations to recycle. It takes time to build the confidence necessary to take on the more complex projects, but with practice, and a little help from this book, your results will soon be every bit as good as the professionals. Take pride in all the pieces you upholster and enjoy yourself.
Getting started
Before you can make a start on your first upholstery project there are three things you need to acquire: tools, materials and a piece of furniture.
Tools
These can be divided crudely into two categories: upholstery tools that you’ll have to buy, and general tools that you probably have already. The golden rule for any tool is that good ones will perform well and last a lifetime, so buy the best you can afford. Whenever you’re out searching second-hand shops and auctions for reupholstery bargains, search for tools as well: fine-quality tools can be bought for a fraction of their brand-new cost.
A basic upholstery tool kit comprises: wooden mallet, magnetic tack hammer, webbing stretcher, tack lifter, 13 cm (5 in) spring needle, 30 cm (12 in) double-ended needle and 25 cm (10 in) stuffing regulator.
Wooden mallet: this is used mainly when stripping, to hammer the tack lifter when removing old tacks and staples. There is no need to spend too much money – a normal carpenter’s beech mallet will do. Soak it in linseed oil for 24 hours before you use it for the first time and you’ll never need to buy another one.
Magnetic tack hammer: an essential upholstery tool. One end of the head is magnetic and acts like a third hand. If you sprinkle some tacks in a small container, you can pick them up, one at a time, with the magnetic end, then tack and hammer home while holding the material in place with your free hand. You can buy expensive bronze-headed versions, but in this case the cheaper ones work just as well.
Webbing stretcher: this is used to tension the webbing in a seat base tighter than you can using your hands alone (see here). They come in various styles, but all use some method or other to grip the webbing and lever against the seat frame to achieve the required tension.
The peg-and-slot version is the least expensive but it is a little slow to use because the webbing needs to be passed through the slot and held by the peg (see photo above). Soak it in linseed oil for 24 hours before you use it for the first time and you’ll never need to replace it.
Tack lifter: used for removing old tacks and staples during stripping, tack lifters come in various shapes, but are all designed to lever out tacks. Loose tacks can be levered out manually, but generally the tack lifter is designed to be hammered with a wooden mallet. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a tack lifter but, as with all tools, you get what you pay for. Our advice is to buy a good one because you’ll be using it over and over again.
Needles: the spring needle and double-ended needle are used for stitching with various upholstery twines. The former is for sewing springs to webbing and hessian, and for sewing stuffing ties. The latter is for stitching edge rolls, sewing through stuffing ties and for buttoning.
Upholstery skewers: small, bright metal skewers with a loop end and point. Usually 10 cm (4 in) and 7.5 cm (3 in) long, they are used in upholstery applications instead of pins to hold hessian, calico and fabric in place, usually while they are being positioned ready to hand stitch.
Stuffing regulator: this is a strong, thick needle, rather like a knitting needle, with either a flat end or plastic handle. When you cover fibre or horsehair stuffing with hessian or calico, you’ll usually find that