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Hello my Diyer's! I am so excited to share our biggest project yet! It doesn't seem like it would take that much effort but let me tell you - this chair was almost tossed to the curb on more than one occasion out of frustration and exhaustion. Just a little advice to those who would like to tackle this type of project, I would start your reupholstery journey on a piece of furniture that is a tad bit simpler. A wingback is a huge under-taking, especially for those who go in blind like I did. I'm so happy with how it turned out, however, try not to look too close because you will definitely see "first-timer's flaws" everywhere. Before I get started with my how-to, I made a little "essentials list" to give you an idea of the tools you will need to get you through to the end. Yes there is an end, I promise!!! 1. Wingback Chair: These can be found used on the cheap at resale/thrift shops, garage sales or craigslist (I purchased mine for $30 off of craigslist). The cheapest wingback I've found brand new is for around $300 at Ikea. If you spot a used wingback that looks to be in bad condition, do not be afraid as it is most of time only the fabric that's in bad condition which you will be removing, so try to look beyond the fabric. It's all about the bones and build. As long as it's stable and still in tact, you are good to go! 2. Slip Joint Pliers: Any pair will do. You will use these paired with the flathead screw-driver to help when removing original fabric. (They will pull those pesky staples the flathead is unable to pop out. 3. Flathead Screwdriver: Any will do! This is your go-to tool to remove original fabric from your chair. This was my least favorite part of all and that's putting it nicely. All I have to say about this is "STAPLES!". 4. Fabric: Choose your fabric. Make sure that it is a thicker material as you will be pulling and yanking throughout this process. Light Cotton fabric may not be the best to use. (*I would also pick a few yards of burlap fabric liner to cover springs) We chose 5 yards of brown faux suede/leather as our main fabric & around 3 yards of brown lining material to cover up the springs. 5. Spray Adhesive: Any spray adhesive will do. This will be used to help adhere your batting/Dacron to your foam cushion 6. Upholstery Staple Gun & LOTS OF STAPLES!!: You will need a staple gun with power to surge threw layers of fabric and wood. I would invest or possibly rent an upholstery staple gun. This will become your best friend and save you a lot of time and headache! 7. Bonded Dacron:1 inch thick will give the extra softness to your cushion and fabric. 8. Medium Density 1 Inch Foam Sheet: We used 1"inch Thick X 24" X 72"- this will be used for the inner sides of your wings and armrests. 9. Medium Density 4 Inch Foam Sheet: We used 4"inch thick X 24" X 72" - this will be used for your seat cushion (if you are not re-using your seat cushion and backrest). 10. Curve-Ease Metal Strip: We used about 6 yards. This is used to seal the edges of your fabric around the curves of your chair to give a clean look without staples showing. You may also add piping if you are a sewer. 11. Wooden Mallet: This is to help reinforce and flatten your curve-ease around the edges to create a secure and smooth edge. Let's Get Started! +++++++++++++ So here is our chair before the beautiful madness began. I found this chair on craigslist from someone who it had been passed down to. It clearly was an older piece with lots of wear, however, it was extremely well-built and constructed to withstand generations of use. As you can see the cushion is flattened and the fabric has quite a few faded spots. You can't see it, but this chair was covered with years and years of cat hair, dust and dander. I actually moved it out to the garage and wore a face mask because of the allergens that were flying out of the fabric as we began the removing process. Suggestion: Before you begin removing your upholstery, I would give your chair a good look-over and number each section that you will be removing (with chalk or marker). This will make the process of adding your fabric back on easier, so you know which section of fabric you should start with first. I wish I would've done this. I had to go back and look at photos I took (for this post) to see which sections I removed first. As you can see here, I started with the front piece of the armrest. I simply pried my flathead in the seam and pulled it away from the chair (pretty easy). As you can see here the pieces are labeled so when you go back to add it with your new fabric on, you will immediately know which side to attach it to. Also - notice all the staples. Yes, ALOT of staple pulling ahead! I also suggest you save the fabric you remove to use as a template for your new fabric. I laid mine flat on my new fabric as I went along removing each section. I then moved on to the sides of the chair (which I should've waited on, as the back should've have been the next to come off) The back overlapped all of the the front sections of the chair so I had to switch over and remove the back section just so I could remove the side section, ugh - I know a little confusing) Like I said previously, I would look over your chair and mark the sections that should come off first. The Back should've been the first to be removed, as it is overlapping(covering up all the other sections as you can see here. Be careful as you move along. These chairs have serious teeth going on. Not all are staples, there are nails too! Proceed with caution :) Making progress with the removal. This is the point where I had to move out to the garage, as the dander and dust that was flying out of this chair actually started to effect my allergies. Template making. Place the front part of your old fabric template face down so the cut reflects the template accurately. I would also cut an inch or so outside the lines to give your a better handle on it when it comes time to yank and pull. You can always trim off extra fabric. Fast forward to my blank canvas. Removing all the upholstery was honestly the most painful part of this process. If I can be honest, i actually stepped away from removing all the staples for a few weeks. It took all I had to get back into the garage and finish removing everything. It was also in the dead of summer mind you, so the heat didn't' help :/ However, I'm proud to say that I motivated myself to get back out there and finish the job! The coil springs and ties were in great condition so I left well enough alone. Plus there is no way I have enough sense to recreate this grid, lol! I'm sure I could if I spent an hour or so researching. If you find components of your original chair that are in good condition, leave it! There is no need to replace them if your batting or cushions or lining is in good condition. It will save you much time and headache! Mine just happened to be covered in cat hair so I removed everything. Since we decided to turn our chair into a rocker for our nursery, my husband measured and cut the tips of the legs off to attach these runners we found online. We then sanded the original legs then stained them a walnut stain. Next we covered/lined the springs and coils to add a barrier and a place to lay our future batting and foam against. We used this brown lining found at hobby lobby. I'm not able to recall the name of this material, however, we found it near the burlap (which you can also use as a lining as well). Next we added our 1" foam (cut to size) to the inner portion of the wings, armrests and leg rest . It's best to start inside and work your way out ending with the back and bottom of the chair. We did not staple the foam to the back part of the chair, as we still had batting/dacron & fabric to add and planned to staple all pieces together to the back of the chair. Next I enlisted my hubs to attach the Dacron batting to the inside of the chair on top of the 1" foam for extra cushion. This is where we used the spray adhesive to stick the batting to the foam, just so their was no shifting as we tucked it through the open areas of the chair. Next we added our fabric to the inner portion of the chair. ( I did not get a photo of this, my apologies). You will want to pull your fabric very TAUGHT! You might enlist a helper to push so that you can pull as tight as you can. This will alleviate wrinkling and fabric becoming loose or buckling when you sit in the chair. We then began working on the cushion. We simply used the original cushion as our template and cut out the cushion using our 4" foam. We then added batting/Dacron cut to size to the top of our leg rest foam and top and bottom portion of our seat cushion foam (we left the front of the seat cushion without batting, as we did not want it to stick out more than it already is). Next we added more batting/Dacron to the entire cushion and leg rest. If you know how to sew, then your cushion would be separate. I'm not a sewer, so we basically just wrapped the entire seat and leg rest as one piece. We did not secure the bottom until we added fabric as to not overload the bottom of chair with staples. After Fabric was tucked and pulled, we stapled to the back and bottom of the chair. I apologize I did not document the back rest cushion. However, we basically did the same thing as the seat cushion. We ended up cutting our 4" foam in half (making it a 2"back cushion) as the 4"was a little too thick for our chair. We cut the foam to size and covered the front and back of foam with batting. We then pulled fabric taught and tucked through the side and secured with staples to the back of the chair. I actually sat in the chair while my husband pulled the fabric through the back just to make sure it was as tight as it could possibly be. Next we moved on to the outside armrest and back of chair. We adhered our 1" batting/dacron (using the spray adhesive along with just a few staples to hold in place). No foam is required in these areas,as they will not be getting a lot of use. Next comes the curve-ease metal strip. This helps to secure the fabric without the staples showing. Our staples didn't' seem to match up with the holes, so we secured our metal strip with nails. When you use your staple gun, make sure the staples are secured as seen in "essentials tools" photo above. One side of your staple should be inside the hole and the other on the outside of the metal tab securing it in place. We used nails, so our photo will not depict that instruction. I started with the outside wings, then moved onto the outside of the armrests. Once you have your metal strip secured all the way across. You will then push the tabs partially closed. Note: you can see my "first-timer flaw" as my strip is not level. I had to re-do this step to create a straighter seam. You will then lay your fabric over your section and cut to size, leaving about a half inch seam to be tucked into your metal tabs. I used chalk to mark my line, then cutting about a a half an inch to an inch outside the chalk line. Next you will use your flathead screwdriver to tuck your fabric inside the partially closed metal tabs. I used several different tools to do this, however the flathead screwdriver worked best. You will then take your wooden mallet and hammer down your tabs, securing your seam tight. I enlisted my husband to reinforce, just in case my hammering wasn't tough enough. As you can see the bottom portion is wrinkly, that's ok -it will be pulled tight as you work your way around. You will now move onto pulling your fabric down and securing with staples underneath your chair. Pulling as tight as you can. Once you have secured the bottom portion of your fabric, you will need to add your curve-ease to the side of your leg-rest as well. Repeat the same procedure. Mark your crease, cut about a half inch to an inch outside your marked line, then tuck with screwdriver and hammer secure with your wooden mallet. You will then pull your fabric taught and secure with staples to the back of your chair. Unfortunately I did not document attaching the fabric to the back of the chair. My apologies!! However, it is the same procedure. I attached my curve-ease metal strip along the top back curve portion as well as the left and right side. I cut my fabric to size with a half inch to one inch over hang all the way around. I starting with the top, I tucked my fabric into the partially closed metal tabs of my curve-ease, then secured tight by hammering the tabs with my wooden mallet. I then pulled the bottom of my fabric as tight as possible and secured with staples to the bottom of my chair. Next, I moved on to the left side, tucking my fabric into the partially closed metal tabs then hammered down the seam with my wooden mallet. I repeated the process again on the right side. Next, I finished it off by adding more of my lining to the bottom of the chair to cover all the overlapping to give it a more finished look. The last and final piece (which could be done at any time) is to remove old fabric and attach new fabric onto the pieces that are attached to the front of your armrest (the very first piece we removed). I covered mine with 1" batting, then covered that with leather fabric- securing in place with hot-glue. I then used my wooden mallet to secure the pieces (that already had nails placed) into the front piece curve. And now we are FINALLY DONE!!! Throw on a few accent pillows and your Wingback Rocker is ready to ROCK!! (pardon the pun, I couldn't help myself ;) I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and should you decide to embark on a wingback reupholster project and have questions, feel free to email me at fawnoverbaby {at} gmail.com! I would also love to hear how your project is going, feel free to share your journey in comments below!
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In my upholstering experience I have tackled a number of arm-chairs, several stools, a couple of headboards, and now most recently, a sofa. I haven't taken on a sofa in the past partly because the need just didn't arise, but also because the size of the project was a little daunting. Now that I've done it, I can say that it really isn't any more complicated than an arm-chair, but it is more work and more time, simply because it's bigger. Re-upholstering a sofa yourself has 2 great advantages: first, you can save yourself a ton of money, and second, you can customize your sofa exactly how you want it. It's also an environmentally friendly practice preventing many otherwise good pieces of furniture from ending up in a landfill - but the advantages really end there. It is a ton of tedious, exhausting work. Re-upholstering a sofa is really only going to be worth it if you really love the lines, shape and form of the sofa. Giving an old sofa new skin is going to make it look like new - but it's not going to change the shape or form of it, so if you're not totally in love with the shape of your sofa, don't bother. If you love the shape, but hate the skin - go for it! In my case, I was looking for a fairly simple, stream-lined sofa for my new living room. Square, but not chunky, mostly modern, but with just a dash of classic charm because that`s how I roll. Something in-between this Aiden sofa from Crate & Barrell that runs for around $2849.27: And the Margot, for $1423.99: One of the great advantages to living in this day in age is that everything in fashion and style has pretty much already been done (Gasp! Yes I said that). What we mostly see now is a regeneration of old ideas sometimes with a slightly new twist. This is great for re-using old furniture, because whatever style you are looking for you can look to pieces from the past and find just what you're looking for in the present. I was headed back to the 1960s. The decade of tumult and change, free-love, flower-power, and stream-lined, minimalist architecture and interior design. And so the hunt began. I scoured local thrift-shops looking for a 1960`s sofa. I didn`t care what it looked like on the outside, I was going to change that. What I was looking for was that beautifully simple, minimalist form. I finally found one and snatched it up right away for a whopping $35: It was well worn, but solid and heavy - usually an indication that you've got a good quality piece of furniture on your hands. My husband thought I was crazy when I brought it home, but I told him he just needed to relax and trust - I had a vision (that filled him with re-assurance). This is how I made it happen: TOOLS & MATERIALS: - Flat butter knife - Flat-head screw driver - Pliers - Hammer - Staple gun - Staples - Approx 6-8 yards of upholstery fabric (more for a sofa bigger than mine) - Sewing machine with heavy duty needle - Upholstery piping (if it is currently present on the sofa) - Upholstery thread - Screwdriver - Permanent marker Optional: (if needed) - Cotton batting - Fabric covered button kit & buttons - Waxed button cord - Large upholstery needle (for buttons) - Cushion zippers (if old ones can not be re-used) METHOD: (bare with me, this is a bit of a long process . . .) 1) Remove the bottom covering: Flip the sofa upside-down so you can access the bottom and take off the legs and accompanying hardware. If you are re-using the legs, put them and the hardware aside. Using in combination your butter knife, flat-head screwdriver and pliers, pull out all of the staples attaching the bottom covering to the bottom of the sofa. Remove the bottom covering and place it aside. Now is a good time to take a peak at the internal guts of your sofa and make sure everything is in good working order. In an older piece of furniture like mine, it is typical to find a mesh-work of burlap straps like this. These can fray and disintegrate over time, and may need to be patched, replaced or re-secured. It's also good to check for loose, bent, or rusted springs that may need attention. You'll also want to check on the condition of the wood frame and see how it's holding up. In my case, some of the original burlap straps had disintegrated, but I wasn't the first person to re-upholster this piece, and the last guy did a good job of repairing the damage which was still holding strong, so it didn't need much attention from me. 2) Release the fabric from around the bottom of the sofa: Pick out all the staples from the bottom of the sofa frame, releasing the existing upholstery fabric from around the bottom of the sofa: In the case of my particular sofa, I also had this pleated flange around the bottom of the sofa which had to be removed. This was purely a decorative piece that I didn't plan to add to my final product, so I just discarded it once I had it free from the rest of the sofa. If I did want a pleated flange on the final product, I would keep this piece and place it aside until all the rest of the sofa was finished. Staples hidden on the under-side of the flange. 3) Remove the back: Flip the sofa over onto it's front, placing the back face-up. Most likely, the back fabric will be held in place by 2 metal stretchers on either side of the back of the sofa, and a stapled card-board strip along the top. Slip your butter knife under the seam on one of the sides and gently lift up to release the stretcher. You will want to save and re-use these stretchers, so be careful not to bend them too much as you remove them. Once you have them removed, label them with a permanent marker and place them aside. Here is a video showing the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXceGNAAVIo&feature=youtu.be Repeat the process on the other side of the back of the sofa. Peel back the back piece of fabric over the top of the sofa, revealing the cardboard strip stapled along the top: Pull out the staples, releasing the back piece of fabric. If you can, try to keep the cardboard strip intact and in good shape so you can re-use it later on. Label it and put it aside (if it does rip apart on you, you can make a new one out of thin, cereal-box cardboard). Label the back piece of fabric with your permanent marker and put it aside. 4) Open & remove outside of sofa arm: Turn the sofa up-right, and release the fabric from the outside of the sofa arm. In my case it was just like the back, and was held in place by a metal stretcher on the front side, and a stapled cardboard strip along the top. Release and remove the metal stretcher on the side the same way you did in the back. Then remove all of the staples from the cardboard strip along the top. Label the metal stretcher and cardboard strip and place aside. Label the removed piece of fabric and place aside. Repeat on the other side of the sofa. 5) Loosen front pieces: At this point I decided it was necessary to loosen the front pieces before I could continue on with the sides. I began by snipping the button threads in order to release the buttons, and then placed the removed materials to the side for later re-use. Buttons in front Buttons in back Next, I had to go into the back of the sofa and discover where the front pieces of fabric were secured, then release them by removing the staples holding the fabric in place: You may want to keep a vaccumm handy to clean out the interior of your sofa - yuck! 6) Remove bottom front piece: Remove the bottom front section of fabric from the sofa and use a seam-ripper to split the seams and separate the different pieces: 6) Create new fabric pieces: Iron the separated pieces flat, and place them right-side up on your new fabric, which should also be right-side up. Cut out the new pieces using the old pieces as a pattern (*Tip* sometimes the old pieces of fabric will have several snips in places used to help maneuver the fabric through the structure of the sofa. I will cut the most obvious ones to begin with, but hold off on the smaller, less significant ones until I am maneuvering the fabric into position on the sofa and then only cut them if I find it necessary) Sew the new pieces together exactly the same way the old ones were. In my case, I began by sewing the front corner pockets on the bottom piece of fabric: Find the corner. Pin the edges together right-side to right-side. Sew pinned edge. Turn the corner inside out. Next, pin and then sew the bottom piece of fabric to the seat fabric right-side to right-side: Before I could place the new fabric piece on this part of the sofa, I first had to deal with a padding issue that needed to be addressed. Because the original sofa had a bottom pleated flange the padding on the front of the sofa didn't extend all the way to the bottom of the frame. I didn't want to keep the flange, so I used layers of cotton batting to add more padding to the bottom of the frame until it was equal to the top: 7) Position new fabric piece onto sofa: With the padding issue addressed, I could move on and loosely position the new front piece onto the bottom of the sofa: First, I fit the corner pockets until they were snug: Then I began to tuck in the edges: Tuck the fabric in to the side of the sofa. Then I came around to the other side of the sofa arm, found the tucked edge of the fabric, pulled it though and secured it to the sofa frame with staples: Find the fabric on the other side and pull it through. Secure the fabric to the frame of the sofa with staples. Once the side of the fabric was secured, I continued along the back edge of the sofa: Tuck the fabric into the back. Find the fabric on the back side, and pull it through. Secure the fabric to the sofa frame with staples. When the back edge was secured, I moved on to tuck and secure the other side. Once the back and sides of the new fabric piece was secured to the sofa frame, I could flip the sofa over onto it's back and secure the front edge of the fabric: Staring on the side, I pulled the fabric tight and secured the edge with staples. Once the sides were done, I got started on the bottom, pulling it tight and stapling it in place all along the bottom edge. 8) Remove the remaining arm pieces: With the new bottom piece secured in place, I flipped the sofa right-side up again, and began to remove the remaining arm pieces on each side of the sofa. Label and place each piece of fabric to the side as you remove it: On a older sofa like this that uses organic cotton padding, peel the fabric away carefully so as not to disturb the padding. Once I opened the arm fully, I felt like the arm of the sofa could use a little more padding, so I decided to wrap it in cotton batting before putting the new fabric on: Place a large piece of cotton batting loosely over the arm of the sofa. Trim away the excess. Tuck the batting edges into the sofa. Trim and tuck until the cotton batting fits the arm. 9) Sew new arm covering and secure on sofa: With the extra padding placed on my sofa arm, I could get back to the business of creating a new fabric covering for it. Take the old piece and use a seam-ripper to separate any seams: Lay the old piece of fabric out flat (it's a good idea to iron it first), right-side up on top of your new fabric (which should also be right-side up), and cut the new piece of fabric using the old piece as a pattern: Sew the seams together on the new piece of the fabric the same way they existed on the old piece of fabric (in this case it was just the corner that needed to be sewn together). Lay out the corner. Pin the edges together right-side to right-side and sew. Turn the corner inside out. One you have your new fabric piece sewn you can position it onto the arm of the sofa: First, fit it loosely on the arm. Tuck the edge into the sofa and fit the corner. Find the tucked fabric edge on the other side of the arm, pull it through, and secure it to the wood frame with staples. With the new fabric on the inside of the arm secured, I found it easier to tip the sofa back onto it's back to work on the front part of the sofa arm. Fold, pull, and secure the under-side of the fabric to the front of the sofa frame, covering the stapled edge of the bottom piece. Fold the fabric over and pull it tight around the front of the arm. Secure the fabric to the frame with staples along the edge, being sure to pull it tight all the way along the front edge of the arm. Flip the sofa back to being right-side up again, and use the same process you just used on the front edge of the arm to secure the top edge of the fabric to the top edge of the arm on the frame. Fold in the corner and secure with staples. With the inside piece of the arm now secured, we can finish off the arm by replacing the outside piece. Find the old outside piece which you labeled and put aside earlier. Lay it out flat on your new fabric (both right-side up) and cut the new piece using the old piece as a pattern: Next, I like to press the edges in by and inch or so to give me a nice straight line to work with: Hold your new piece of fabric on the sofa arm and figure out just where it needs to be when finished: Ironed edges to the top and front. Holding the top edge in place, flip the fabric up over the top of the arm and tack it in place with just a couple of staples along the top edge. Hold top edge of fabric in place. Flip fabric over the top of the arm, and tack the underside of the fabric in place with a few staples along the top edge. Fold the fabric back over to check the position and make sure you have the piece where you want it (needs to cover all the staples from the piece on the top of the arm). If it's not quite right, pull out the tack staples and try again until you get it just right. Should look something like this: If the position is right, flip the fabric back over the top of the arm, and re-use the cardboard strip you pulled off earlier from this section of the sofa, and secure it with staples along the upper edge, using your ironed crease as a guide: Now that the top edge is finished, you can move on to the front edge. Find the metal stretcher you removed from this section of the sofa earlier, and re-insert it into the front edge of the fabric, placing the edge of the stretcher along the ironed crease in the fabric. Poke the spikes of the stretcher through the back side of the fabric so that they come through to the right-side of the fabric: Turn the edge over so that the spikes of the stretcher are now facing inward toward the sofa: You may want to trim the top corner slightly and fold it in underneath the stretcher. Pull the edge of the fabric with the stretcher to the front edge of the sofa frame and bang the spikes of the stretcher into the frame of the sofa with a hammer, securing the front edge of the piece: Pull the other side of the fabric around to the back of the sofa and secure it in place with staples: Flip the sofa onto it's back exposing the bottom, and pull the bottom edge of the fabric tightly around the bottom edge of the sofa and secure in place with staples: Repeat the process on the other side of the sofa for the other arm. 10) Remove the front of the sofa: Now that the bottom, and both arms of the sofa have been replaced and secured, you can get to work on the front. Peel away the fabric off of the front of the sofa being careful not to disturb the padding underneath too much, and set it to the side: Similar to the arms, once I had the fabric removed, I decided that the front could use just a little more padding, so using the same method as the arms, I wrapped it in cotton batting before proceeding: Loosely fit the cotton batting around the front and back of the sofa. Trim away the excess. Tuck in the edges of the batting wherever you can, as deeply as possible. Trim and fold the batting to fit. Tack the batting in place using only a few staples. Leave the bottom open. 11) Sew new front piece and secure on sofa: Use a seam-ripper to separate any seams and detach the pieces that make up the front piece of the sofa (including any piping used). Iron out the pieces, and lay them right-side up on top of the fabric which should also be right-side up. Use the old pieces as a pattern to cut the new pieces: Pin the new pieces together right-side to right-side, and sew them together the same way as the old piece. *A note here about piping:* In my other tutorial on upholstery I showed a different way to sew piping that is effective with plastic piping, but not so much with more flexible piping materials such as this cotton piping I ended up using on this project. For this type of piping I like to cut a strip of fabric the length I will need (I usually like to make it just a tad longer that what I need, because I'd rather be long than short) that is about 2" wide. Fold the material in half, over the piping, holding it in place with pins like so: Then sew down the length right next to the piping using a zipper-foot: Once the piping is sewn, I like to pin it around the edge of the piece of material that it is to border starting in the middle and working towards the ends. Once it's pinned, I will sew it in place using a zipper-foot before adding the joining piece of fabric: *Tip* Making a few small snips in the edge of the piping beneath the seam will help you to get around corners with greater ease. With the piping stitched to the main piece, I can then pin on the joining piece and sew the whole works together with my zipper-foot, getting as close to the piping as possible: Pin the joining piece of fabric to the main piece of fabric with the piping already attached right-side to right-side, and then sew it all together using a zipper-foot. Loosely fit the newly sewn front piece onto the front of the sofa, making sure the corners fit snugly: Tuck the side and bottom edges of the fabric deeply into the cracks of the sofa until it all fits nicely. Find the tucked edges of the fabric from the back of the sofa, pull them through, and secure them to the sofa frame with staples: Move to the back of the sofa. Pull the top edge of the fabric over the top edge of the sofa and secure to the sofa frame with staples. Fold in the corners and secure to the frame with staples. Pull the side edges around to the back of the sofa and secure to the frame with staples: 12) Replace buttons on front of sofa: This is optional as not all sofa's will have buttons on the front, or you may not want them. First of all you'll need to buy a fabric-covered button kit in the size you wish to use and enough fabric covered buttons for what you will need (available at any fabric store). Follow the instructions on the back of the kit to cover your buttons in the same fabric as your sofa: Once your buttons are finished, thread a very large and strong upholstery needle with a fairly long length of waxed button cord (ideally - but I used high tension fishing line which worked just as well). Poke your needle through the back of the sofa where the buttons were previously placed, keeping your needle as straight as possible (this might take a little muscle): Make sure the needle comes through the front in the right spot (if not try again). Pull the needle all the way through the sofa and thread it through the back of your fabric-covered button: Push the needle back through the front of the sofa to the back: Pull the needle all the way through the sofa. Pull both sides of the cord tightly and tie the cord around a secure object as tightly as possible (I just re-used these rolled up pieces of fabric that had been used before on the sofa). Pull the remaining end of the cord as tightly as possible and secure it to the sofa frame with a couple staples: Repeat the process for all of the buttons that you will need. 13) Create a new back piece and position on sofa: The back is going to go on exactly the same way as the outer side pieces, it's just a little bigger (use the pictures from the side for a visual reference). Find the back piece which you labeled and set aside earlier. Iron it flat and lay it out on top of your new fabric with both fabrics facing right-side up. Using the old piece as a pattern, cut the new piece. Iron in the top and side edges of the cut piece of fabric by about an inch or so, creating a crease. Check the piece to see if it fits the back of the sofa the way you want it (if not make the necessary adjustments). Holding the top edge in place, flip the rest of the fabric over the top edge of the couch and tack the underside of the top edge of the fabric to the sofa frame with a couple of staples along the edge. Fold the fabric back down to make sure it is positioned correctly. If it is, flip the fabric back over the top edge of the sofa and place the cardboard strip you previously removed from this section of the sofa back along the top edge of the fabric on the underside and secure it in place with staples using the ironed crease as a guide: Flip the fabric back down and on one side of the back, re-insert the metal stretcher you previously removed from this section of the sofa on the underside of the fabric with the spikes sticking through to the right-side, placing the edge of the metal stretcher along the ironed crease: Turn the edge over so that the stretcher spikes are facing inward toward the sofa (trim and fold in the top corner). Pull the fabric edge with the stretcher to the edge of the sofa where you want it, and pound the spikes into the sofa frame with a hammer: Repeat the process on the other side of the back of the sofa. Pull the bottom edge of the fabric over the bottom edge of the back of the sofa and secure to the frame with staples: 15) Replace the bottom covering & install the legs: Flip the sofa upside down, and replace the bottom covering you removed when you first started. Secure the bottom covering to the bottom of the sofa frame with staples (if the bottom covering is not in good enough condition to re-use, create a new one). Replace leg hardware on each of the corners of the bottom of the sofa frame and screw in the legs. Flip sofa right-side up. 16) Cushions: To create new cushion covers, remove one of the old cushion covers from the cushion and use a seam-ripper to separate all the seams and detach the pieces from one another. Iron the pieces out flat and lay them right-side up on top of your new fabric (which should also be right-side up). Use the old pieces as a pattern to cut the new pieces. Sew the new pieces together the same way as the old ones were, placing the new fabric pieces right-side to right-side. When finished, turn the cushion cover inside out, and replace the cushion. Check the fit, and make any necessary adjustments. Repeat the process to recover all your cushions (*Tip*: if all the cushions are the same, you don't need to rip apart every cushion cover. Just re-use the old pieces you've already ripped apart as a pattern to cut the appropriate number of pieces for all of the cushions). In my case, I went to remove the cushion from the old cover, and was completely shocked at what I found. The foam cushion was so old that it had literally disintegrated into a crumbly mess. Clearly, I wouldn't be able to re-use these cushions, so I ordered 3 pieces of new furniture foam the same size as the cushions, wrapped the new foam pieces in cotton batting, and created 3 new custom cushion covers by tracing the foam pieces (top, bottom, & sides) onto my new fabric, leaving a 1/2" seam allowance. Then I sewed these pieces together with a zipper in the back and voila! I had new cushions and new covers! 16) Place the cushions back on the sofa and CELEBRATE FINALLY BEING FINISHED!!!!! TOTAL COST: - 2nd hand couch: $35 - 6 meters of upholstery fabric: $60 - Upholstery thread: $6 - Fabric covered buttons: $6 - 4 Sofa legs (2nd hand): $1 - 3 new foam cushions: $60 - 3 meters cotton batting: $60 - Staples: $6 + $234.00 Every part of my body ached after finishing this project, and I felt like I couldn't use my hands for 2 days - but I got exactly what I wanted and saved anywhere from $1189.99-$2615.27! Worth it? Oh heck YES!!!! Liked this post? Check out: "How to Re-Upholster Furniture with Wood Parts" You might also be interested in: How To Re-Upholster Furniture with Deep, Folded Tufts
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Welcome to my tutorial blog post on how I reupholstered this second hand French Provincial arm chair. I took lots of photos at some points, and less at other points during the process, but hopefully this tutorial will inspire you to give it a try and not be intimidated to attempt reupholstering. I have never tried it before, and when I scored this chair at an antique/vintage shop, I didn't love the fabric, although there was nothing wrong with it. After giving it some thought I didn't see why I couldn't just go over the existing fabric with the new fabric. So that was my plan, and the only thing I will tell you is that you must buy or rent a pneumatic stapler that gets powered from being attached by a curly stretchy cord to a small compressor. This nailer/stapler will shoot the staples into the hardest of wood with barely a squeeze of the trigger. The staples are tiny and I used a 3/8" size staple for this project. A regular stapler will not work. For fabric, I ordered 7 yards of a toile (note: this was plenty of fabric for both pieces) which I figured was going to be very easy to use, pattern wise. Stripes and checks would likely be harder as you have to kind of pay attention to matching the pattern when you put it on the adjoining sections of the chair. This chair would be kind of easy to do because its parts were all like little islands that would have their own pieces of fabrics stapled onto the independent sections. So here we go~lets get this thing upholstered! Here is the chair, and is shown after I took the seat cushion off of the chair. This is a photo of the compressor and the nail gun. It plugs into any household outlet. You will see Colby in a lot of these photos as he was relentlessly watching and sniffing around as I did the project. When I bought the chair, it had never been finished with the cording or trim that would normally have been attached to hide the staples. This was what really inspired me to think about just stapling more fabric on top of the existing fabric. See the tiny staples? They are all along the border of the fabric. I will leave them there and just lay some fabric over it and do the same thing. But I decided to start on a less conspicuous area in case it was harder than I predicted. If you have a chair that you want to do this to that does have the cording or trim covering the staples, then pull it off and remove it using pliers or just pull it off. Then you will be able to start at the same point that I did on this tutorial. I cut a piece of the toile and laid it over the side panel of the chair. Then I put in a staple at the middle of the top and bottom, and left and right borders to center and anchor the fabric. Then I just started firing staples in a row a few to the left, a few to the right, a few up and a few down... Give yourself a few extra inches of fabric all the way around so you won't be short. This was my first panel that I stapled and one side was very close to the edge, and it was too close to comfort. I cut the rest of the pieces a bit larger after that. Here you can see the staple gun nose hitting the fabric. I can feel the wood border of the chair frame and by running my finger over the fabric, I can feel where to fire in a staple. After putting in the staples, which are side by side, you will trim off the excess fabric as close as you can to the staples themselves. I started off using scissors to trim, but switched to a straight edge razor to get a close trim job. And just like that, the first panel was done, and it only took about ten minutes! See how the fabric is trimmed very close? Its a bit ragged looking but this will all be covered with a decorative flat braid called gimp, which will be applied with glue. The fabric is nice and smooth and held in place by one million staples on the edges. Now that I am feeling confident, I cut a piece of fabric for the center back. I wanted the toile pattern to be featured on the back, so I cut it out accordingly. Solid fabrics would be the most simple to do of course. I fired in a staple at the North South East and West points on the border and then worked out from there. Here you can see there are more staples along the sides than there are at the top and the bottom. I did the sides a bit more, next did the top border and then finished the bottom border along the chair frame. After all is stapled along the edge of the frame, you trim off the excess with your razor or scissors. I laid the chair on its back on top of an ottoman so I could work on it with ease. I had a few tools on the table, which I didn't need to use often. A needle nose plier helped pull out any staple that didn't go in all the way, or bounced back leaving a sharp end exposed. I also had a tiny tack hammer to pound in any staples that didn't go in as far as they should have. I did the small area on top of the arm, which was super fast. Then I did the inside panel. See how the fabric is just laid over the arm? I am deciding where to trim it so get the pattern where I want it. Then I started stapling the borders. I recommend putting a staple in at the top and bottom borders to anchor the pattern, and then again on the left and right sides if it applies. After that you can quickly just start stapling the rest of the border until finished, with your staples side by side. For this area in the "armpit of the chair" where the joint meets and you don't see a wood frame, feel in the area with your fingers to see where the wood frame is hidden in the recess. Then push your fabric into the crevice, but turn an inch or so back on the fabric (look at next photo) and shoot a staple in there. Easy peasy! Anything that seems to make sense is probably sensible, so I followed my gut on reupholstering this chair whenever anything wasn't clear as a bell. Some areas that wouldn't have gimp trim will need you to give it a finished edge, and you can do this by simply folding the edge of the fabric underneath before you staple it in place. Then continue stapling... Then trim off the excess. See the pink fabric underneath? Its going to be ok, because that will be hidden with the decorative gimp trim. Sometimes I used scissors, sometimes the razor, to trim the fabric. Woohoo! Look how fast this thing was getting done! It really was moving along quickly. I finished all the little panels and now I had to deal with how to upholster the decking area. The decking is the area that is hidden under the seat cushion, but then there was the part that was upholstered and attached to the frame. I made a three section piece of fabric to fit this area, and I would say that this was the most difficult part of the project, as it involved the sewing machine and doing some fitting. I will try to explain it as best I can to you. I know how to make slipcovers and so the technique here uses some of that know-how. Lay the fabric ( I kept mine on the bolt so it wouldn't wrinkle) across the front part of the chair, and in doing so, I knew I could cut a piece straight across that would fit from where the arms join the deck to the front of the chair where the fabric gets attached to the frame. Each chair will be different and you will have to devise your own home made pattern to how to cover your decking area. After cutting a length of fabric, I turned it face down and got my pin cushion and created darts at the right and left hand edges/corners of the chair. A dart is just making a triangle to take up the extra fabric so you can turn the corner with ease. This is a dart. I pinned from the corners to the edge of the fabric and it got wider as it moved away from the corner. Colby was in the mix all along the way, so if you see Mr. Pumpkin Head chewy toy in my shots, that is why. This was the right hand dart I made to fit the fabric to the edge of the chair. Here are both darts pinned. Just pin up the excess fabric and then repin it if you feel it doesn't seem to fit correctly. This is something I learned to do in junior high school sewing class making simple clothing, like A-line skirts. Don't get scared at this part, just try it, and retry it and then check it by flipping it over and putting back over the front of the chair. I flipped it right side over to see how it would look. I was seeing if my darts had taken up enough of the fabric to fit snuggly but not too tightly. Remember we will be stapling the front area and if the darts aren't taking up enough fabric you will have extra fabric to staple, which you want to try to avoid because it can look bunched up. Ok, my fabric fits pretty good, after I did this check, so now I take it off and bring it to my sewing machine and stitch a line right where I put all my pins on the dart. This is the stitched up dart. Now cut off the triangle of fabric that was created when you stitched the line. Leave yourself about 3/8" or 1/2" of fabric so you can iron it out flat. Cut the fabric and then make a small cut to the point in between the seam so you can iron it flat. I stitched both darts, trimmed them and ironed them and then put the piece back on the chair to see if it fit nicely. Nice enough! You can see there is excess fabric on all sides of this piece. That is good. All we were trying to do was to get this piece fitted over the front area of the chair. See how it drapes over the "knees" of the chair? Very good. And see how ragged the top edge of the fabric is now that the darts were added? I will trim this off in a straight line, and this doesn't have to be perfect. Just trim it up kind of straight. I left it in place, and trimmed it out straight. The sides are still just loose with lots of extra fabric hanging off the sides. Ignore these for now. See the white fabric on the existing decking area that shows the manufacturers label? Well we are now going to cut a piece of fabric for that area. You can use a piece of lining or other fabric if you want to save your good fabric, but I am just going to use the same toile fabric as I had plenty of it. I cut a large enough rectangle and pinned it to the decking front piece with darts. Put your fabric right sides together and then pin in place. This piece of fabric you are sewing onto the front edge fabric has to cover the white area you see, plus have enough to tuck into the crevices. I flipped back the second piece of fabric that is now pinned in place to the front fabric. I will only sew the one pinned edge (which is the edge we trimmed straight with our scissors). I stitched it at the machine then ironed the seam flat, then brought it back to the chair and laid it in place. The fabric has plenty to get tucked into crevices on the left and right. In the back I will trim it straight across to attach the third piece of our 3 piece decking pattern. Two down, one to go!! We are almost finished with this part! The last piece of the three piece pattern will need to be cut to come out through the chair back and get stapled onto the bottom back side of the chair frame. This chair has a space on the bottom area. Assess your chair and then look at where the existing upholstery is stapled, or just folded or stitched. It is kind of like a blue print for what you have to do to your own chair. Not all chairs are going to be the same, and remember, this is the FIRST time I have done this. But fearlessly I plunge ahead, as I can sniff the finish line!! I measure roughly and cut a rectangle of fabric for my third and last piece of the decking area. Above you can see the seam line where it was stitched and then ironed open in a flat position. You want to iron all seams because it will lay flatter and look more professional. You can also see the left and the right raw edges of the second piece of our pattern, just laying on the chair. It is all still getting fitted, nothing has been stapled yet. We are making the pattern and fitting it before we staple in place. After the third piece is attached, I laid it all out and fit it at the "knees" (the front corners where the legs are, by placing the darts over each knee. Then I took a flat wood spoon (or spatula) and I shoved the fabric through the very small opening so it would fall out over the backside of the bottom of the chair. That is the area where the third piece of fabric will be covering the upholstery. Now the back end of the decking fabric is seen over the bottom area of the chair. I fold under the raw edge, about an inch or two to prepare it to be stapled onto the bottom of the back frame. Now move to the front of the decking and start stapling there, saving the rear back part for last. The left and right sides of the crevices (the interior upholstery cracks where sides meet the seat) parts of the fabric are still sitting on top of the decking. That is ok. Lets just start stapling the front along the frame and get the corners stapled around the knees. Then we will deal with crevices after that. Staple from the center out a few staples in each direction. Then move to the right corner and smooth it out and add a staple and do the left side as well. There will be a little excess fabric at the corners and you will make a nice little fold, one on each side of the knee and staple in place. Watch how to do this part. As you come around the front corner, turn the fabric back on itself to create a finished edge, as there are no staples adding along the area where the base of the arm frame meets the front corner. All you have to do is EXAMINE your chair for staples, and add them where you see the old upholsterer added them. COPY what you see! I always imagine what the next couple of steps will be, before I add staples, so that way I don't have to pull any out to start over. The fabric above is just folded and laying close as it can to the arm frame. Now I will add my staples to the bottom of the frame, and this folded fabric edge will be held in place by tension. The left corner is all stapled in tightly, and you can see there is a little tuck of fabric on each side of the corner/knee area, which is where I took up the excess fabric. (Note that there are no staples on the left folded piece of fabric, and the fabric is held in place nicely without them.) See the little pleats around the knee that is created by folding extra fabric and stapling it in place? You will see this a lot in upholstered pieces. After stapling the bottom, I trimmed off the excess. Now I am going to fold under the edges of the crevice fabric pieces and then take my flat wooden spoon and shove it deep into the crevices! Look how good the chair looks already! At the very back that third piece of the decking pattern has been pushed out and is dangling off the back. You can see the gap between the frame. But the next step is to fold under the edge of each crevice fabric and shove in deeply then anchor with a few staples. Look how smoothly the front of the chair is looking! Don't worry about the raggy threads we can clean it up later when we apply the gimp. Colby was really starting to put his foot down...he wanted me to pay attention to him, right when I was trying to finish the decking inside edges. So I didn't take a pic of it cuz I had to shove the fabric in with the flat spoon and staple it before he could stop me. Just insert the fabric in the crevice as tightly and smoothly as you can, and try to have the raw edge turned under when you shove the nail gun deep into the recess of the crevice. At this point I had to take a break, because someone wasn't happy. He really wasn't happy. Enough was enough. Haha. Anyway, the chair is just about finished. I did the back side and stapled that third and last piece of the decking pattern onto the back frame and trimmed it. For the cushion, I cut out a slipcover style pattern, as most cushions are not upholstered, as much as they have slipcovers with zippers. I stitched that up at the end of the day and then I made a ruffled slipcover for the matching ottoman. The reason I made the slipcover was two fold. Number one, the ottoman had a cushion attached to the base and I couldn't figure out how to staple it on without taking the entire thing apart, and removing the existing pink fabric. With a slipcover I could just fit it over the shaped ottoman and if I added a ruffle it would still expose the curvy legs. The second part is that I can launder it if needed, and that is where Colby usually sits when I am on this chair. I made small pleats along the edge of the ottoman slipcover to give it feminine dressmaker details. I will add to this tutorial when I add the gimp, but that won't be for a week or two... I have to say that reupholstering was way more easy doing it this way, and I think if you aren't a total perfectionist, you would be thrilled with the results. By the way, this took me one full day, but I did it in two, because of my puppy Colby. I love how it came out, and if you have a chair in good shape, then maybe this method will work for you too. Oh, and for those interested, the name and brand of the fabric is Covington, Bosphorous, in Flax. Read PART TWO Here.
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