Upolstered furniture

[Keith Christopher]

Anyone know of any good books for making this ? I did a google search but it came up with making it in 1/12 scale. I understand the fundamentals, but I would like to better understand the design process. yeah I know I spelled upholstered wrong. (As said before I spell like a cat. :P )

[Jim Becker]

There are plenty of books on the Upholstry part, but nearly "nothing" on the framing design and construction. John Kelsey at Cambium Books (http://www.cambiumbooks.com/) suggested one book to me awhile back and I have it at home...but you'll have to wait until I can get the specific title for you. It has some information, but not nearly what I would have prefered. At any rate, in the link, there is a whole section on the subject of Upholstry.

[Chris Giles]

Keith,
You have stumbled on one of the darkest and most mysterious chapters in the woodworking lexicon, "the upholstery frame". How appropriate with halloween fast approaching. When I was in college many full moons ago, working towards a degree in furniture design, even the working professors were unable to give us a straight answer to this vexing question, "How do you design and build a proper frame for an upholstered sofa or chair? We were in Grand Rapids Michigan, which at that time did a large percentage of the high-end upholstery work in the country.We did factory visits to watch the skilled craftsmen build these wonderful units, and saw many different approaches to the problem. We found that the frames were usually made in a different factory from where the upholstery work was done. This is indeed a major communication challenge, and how they get from a design concept sketch to a solid wood frame, then through the upholstery phase, and come out the other end with a beautiful, finished piece of furniture is something to behold.
I have learned a few things, though. First, soft maple tends to be the choice for high end frames because it is strong, relatively cheap and has great resiliency and resistance to warpage. Other strong woods will also work depending on your local supply. The design of the frame itself requires in-depth knowledge of how this particular piece will be padded, sprung, tacked and fabric covered. The frame can be assembled with glue blocks, screws, dowels, M&T or any other means that will stand up to years of extreme stress. This is a purely structure skeleton, so the joints don't have to be pretty. Think of it like your skull (again, halloween appropriate), It establishes The form and structure of the piece. We did a frame for a wing chair years ago that was to be a collaborative effort with our company making the frames, and another doing the upholstery. It quickly became price prohibitive, so we gave it up. I think the reason it is hard to find info on this type of work is that it is so widely varied, it becomes difficult to define. I think the place to start is determining exactly how you are going to do the padding and upholstery, and design a skeletal framework from there. Without knowing the precise piece you are making, it is hard to give meaningful advise on how the frame should be. Maybe you could post a sketch as a starting point.

[Earl Kelly]

Keith, the easiest way to discover how the upholstery works within the wood frame, is to buy or find a used-junk chair or sofa and take it down to the frame. Basically all framework is similar, until you get to ultra modern and exposed wood. You have to have strength and design for fabric allowance. Use a picture or such to guide you when designing your upholstered piece, remembering what has to go under the fabric.

[Mark Blumer]

Norm Abrams on NYW did a two part show on building a leather upholstered chair. I thought it was one of his more interesting projects and I would like to try it some day myself. If you go to the NYW site, you could order the videos of that project and learn quite a bit about the process.

Mark Blumer (East Lansing, MI)