Furniture Making: Upholstery?

[Jared McMahon]

How many of you find yourselves working on pieces of furniture that involve upholstery? I see beautiful pieces such as corner chairs and daybeds and think they would be really fun to build, but I'm just getting ramped up on the wood side of life, I know effectively nothing about the rest. Do y'all avoid pieces with upholstery? Do the wood part and farm out the rest? How many do it all yourself, soup to nuts?

Anyone have experience with these questions and care to share their experiences?

[Scott Stafford]

Welcome to the wood side Jared,

I posted a similar question not long ago. I was looking for information regarding the designing and building of furniture frames to be upholstered. Most replies agreed that there isn't much written.

Maybe we'll see more replies here?


Scott in Montana

[Mike Henderson]

I've done some upholstered furniture, chairs of different kinds that required different approaches to upholstery. I wouldn't want to tackle a complex piece, such as a sofa, but simpler things are not too difficult. You need some special tools to stretch the upholstery and an air stapler is much easier than driving tacks by hand. Also, that trim that hides the tack area (now the staple area) is actually glued on with a special upholstery glue (a clear liquid). You also need to learn about the different kinds of foam. And strapping. And more things I can't think of right now. Avoid projects that require sewing the upholstery before installation.

Complex pieces require a lot of knowledge/experience and a lot of special tools.

If you can find someone who knows upholstery to give you some lessons, you'll save a bunch of money in the long run (upholstery fabrics are expensive). They can also point you to the places that sell upholstery and supplies. If that's impossible, read some books on upholstery before you try your project.

Mike

[If you plan to have someone else do the upholstery, talk with them before you build the piece. They will give you some good pointers on what to do and not do so that they can do the job.]

[Larry Fox]

I looked into this exact thing a while back and there are a few decent books to be had in the library. I thought that it looked pretty simple -- but like most things that look simple -- there was a lot to it. I ended up backing away from it because there was a lot involved and there is a local shop that I know can do it cheaper and better. There was an episode of the NYW where he built an ottoman and it looked pretty straightforward but most of his stuff does until you get into it only to discover that you need a tool that costs the equivalent of the national debt of a small country to complete it.

I hope you have success and would love to see pics of the results and hear your experience if you try it.

[Thomas S Stockton]

Jared
I do my own as long as it doesn't involve sewing. Pretty simple and you really don't need a lot of specialized tools. The most expensive is probably a staple gun, I use a $40 from homedepot. I sent you a link by PM to an article I did on the subject, it is on another forum so I can't direct link it
Tom