High-Back Chair Reupholstery (Part 1): Preparation

My high-back chair project is finally done, so I want to share the process with you, as well as some of the discoveries/mistakes I made.

Before you do anything, the first step to reupholstering a piece of furniture is to take a ton of photos. I'm only going to show you a few, but to give you an idea, I took over a hundred photos before and during the deconstruction phase! You want to document every part of the piece of furniture: how and where the cording is attached, where the fabric seams are, what it looks like underneath the chair and underneath the cushion. And you want to continue taking photos as you are deconstructing the chair, so you can remember how and where certain pieces of fabric were attached once it comes time to put the new fabric on.

So here's the chair I started with. I purchases it at a thrift store for $12. It was very sturdy and I liked the shape, but the velvet was worn and stained. Noticed the diamond-shaped pattern of buttons on the back panel (half of which were missing). I decided to forego these when I reconstructed the chair. Unless the back of the chair is concave, there really no need for the buttons and I thought it made the chair look dated.

Make sure to take photos of the detailing, such as this piping along the back cushion. Notice also how the back cushion is boxed (there's a strip of fabric on the side). I actually decided to change this aspect of the chair and replaced the back cushion with a single piece of fabric. That reduced the amount of work and I think it looked better in the end.

One of the worst parts of this chair was the sticky/greasy spots on the arm rests. Notice how the piping on the outside of the armrest is one continuous piece.

That piping on the outside arm continues down to the underside of the chair where it was attached with a nail. Also note how the front corner of the chair is a separate piece of fabric from the outside arm. These are the kinds of things you want to document, so you don't get confused later trying to recreate it in the new fabric.

Another bad aspect of this chair was the cushion and front panel under the cushion. They were both sagging and I suspected the foam inside was crumby and disintegrating. Also take photos of the cushion (how the zipper is attached, etc) if you are planning on ripping it apart to use as a template.

The panel under the cushion also had some unnecessary seams (see those little darts on the side) that I decided to forego when I redid the chair). I also switched the piece of fabric directly under the cushion with thick inexpensive muslin to reduce the amount of upholstery fabric I had to order (no one will see under the cushion anyhow).

Once you are done documenting how the chair is constructed, you can start deconstructing it (again, taking more photos as you open seams and remove panels of fabric. To get started, turn the chair upside down so you are looking at the dust cover (called cambric). And let the staple-removing fun begin!

Check out my next post for the "Deconstruction" steps...

Homemade Pillows

I churned out about 7 pillows the other weekend. I don't think I quite figured out how to do the zipper until the second or third one. Once I figured it out (which only happened once I stopped following the directions), they actually turned out looking pretty professional. I may re-do the first pillow I attempted, since I have extra fabric, but it still turned out okay.

Unfortunately, the charcoal gray fabric I ordered to reupholster my couch is still on backorder, so we are currently living with the couch covered in a chartreuse green bed sheet. At least the new pillows still kind of match!

My first upholstery project, this high-back chair is finished and has it's own throw pillow.

This chair will also be recovered in the charcoal gray fabric. I made a throw pillow for it using the leftover fabric from the high-back chair

Finding Fabric for Upholstery Projects

I did a lot of research (a ton of research, actually) on upholstery fabric for the three pieces of living room furniture I'm redoing this winter. I've only ever sewn quilt blocks and a few random pieces of clothing, so upholstery fabric was pretty foreign to me.

I'm still not an expert, but here are a few tips I learned during my explorations of the upholstery fabric world:

• Make sure you use upholstery-grade fabrics on furniture. Many "home-decor" fabrics are only intended for light-duty curtains or throw pillows, not furniture. If you take the time to reupholster something, you're going to want it to last a while.

• Related to the above statement, find out how many double-rubs a fabric is rated for, if possible.You can sometimes get away with "medium-duty" fabrics, but "heavy-duty" fabrics generally have at least 15,000 double rubs.

• Avoid fabrics that "crock". I had to look this term up after seeing a warning on a fabric at Joann Fabrics. Fabrics that crock have a tendency to release excess dye. That means they can stain clothing and pretty much anything that rubs up against them. They can even stain the plastic parts of a sewing machine. I can't imagine any reason someone would want to use this type of fabric, so I'm not even sure why it exists.

• If ordering fabric online, order swatches if possible. Often, the colors on your computer screen, do not match the real-life colors. For example, I've ordered three swatches of what appeared to be coral fabric (see below) and all three turned out to be more orange in living color. Textured fabrics can also look very different. For example, I found three different textured dark gray fabrics online that I liked, so I ordered swatches. When they arrived, they all looked like cheap commercial carpeting

 

• Keep an eye on how much of your fabric is in-stock. More than once, I ordered swatches of fabric, only to have that fabric sell-out BEFORE the swatches even arrived at my door. 

• If your heart is set on a certain fabric, but it is out of stock, check with the company to see if it will be restocked. Companies can't always restock fabrics, but often they can. Ask them what date the fabric will be back in stock so you can keep an eye out for it.

• If your budget is tight, check out websites like www.fabric.com and www.fabricguru.com. All of the fabrics I picked out from these sites were less than $15/yard (with many being about $8/yard). Most upholstery fabrics at chain fabric stores (like Joann Fabrics) are at least $30/yard. Designer fabrics can be well over $70/yard! As far as I can tell from all the swatches I ordered, the fabrics from these discount websites are perfectly good quality.

• Take advantage of coupons and discount codes. You can pretty much always get 40 to 50% off coupons for Joann Fabric. Sometimes they also have 10 to 15% off your total order coupons and you can often get free shipping coupons. Similarly, websites like www.fabric.com occasionally have discount codes for free shipping.