apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Unless you are handy with handsewing or a sewing machine, I would vote against it. A friend of mine manages to make wonderful slipcovers on her own, but I wouldn't attempt it. Check out the recent "Cheap" issue of Time Out; some inexpensive upholstery services are mentioned, to the best of my knowledge.

Have a pro do it. With upholstery you get what you pay for.

That said, this piece won't be expensive to re-upholster.

All you're basically doing is having cushions made, from the look of things.

Speaking as someone who has had a number of Craigslist finds professionally reupholstered, the way to look at it is to compare the finished price to that of a brand new piece, because if the frame is in good shape, that's what you'll end up with.

One antique chair that is very unique cost me a grand to have the wood finish restored and new springs and covered in leather (that I bought on Craigslist). So a grand might seem expensive but the piece is worth over 3 times that now.

So if you really like the piece, and you can't buy one new for anywhere near the cost of a professional upholstery job, then it's worth every penny.

But you need to "interview" several upholstery shops, find one that does a lot of furniture like yours, and *don't* automatically go with the lowest price.

To give you an idea, I contacted my favorite upholsterer about making a large down filled cushion this week. He's making it using a roughly 2x2 silk kilim for one side that I supplied. The down insert and the extra material and labor were less than $150 and he's one of the more expensive shops in town (Portland ,OR). Of course if I'd used something other than down, it would have been a lot less expensive, so you get the idea.

A foam insert will run you maybe 20 bucks so you're looking at 60 bucks for the foam, then whatever you're paying for fabric.

Get the best upholsterer you can afford and you'll not be sorry.

unless you are a wiz sewing..and by the looks of that chair you would need to know how to sew piping...and trust me sewing that wrong can have disastrous results.

im all for hiring someone to do it for you.

While we're on the topic, can anyone recommend a good upholsterer in the Washington, DC area?

Agree with everyone above. Do it ONLY if you can do straight lines, which are the hardest thing to do. So if that is not your case, then shop locally and find someone who can do a good job like boomer suggests

Although I have tackled many sewing projects, I leave reupholstering to the professionals. Not only do you need the skills, but your sewing machine needs to be able to handle thicker fabrics and have the "leg" to do piping. I strongly recommend going to an upholsterer. The results will speak for themselves.

I took the 4 week class at The Furniture Joint and it was the best $400 I ever spent, because it convinced me never, ever to attempt reupholstering by myself. The class doesn't really teach you in a meaningful way to do a job, just because there's so you'd need to master and 4 sessions isn't enough to really acquire the skills, but it did impress on me 1. how highly skilled you need to be to do this work and 2. how poorly home tools preform against the expensive professional equipment. (For instance, a hand-held staple gun would never be adequate compared to the high-pressure equipment FJ has.) This chair is just cushions so there's no ripping and tearing and re-webbing etc., but ... I'm just saying. The pros know what they're doing.

Does Furniture Joint have website? The link from AT is wrong.

My mom and I reupholstered a chair that my husband had when we got married. The chair had no real value and needed some reinforcements to the frame to begin with, so we were not terribly concerned about messing it up, and we were in no rush to get it done. My mom can sew reasonably well, and I'm comfortable with woodworking, so we did an ok job. It was fun, frustrating at times, and the result was acceptable but NOT PROFESSIONAL!

I would say that if you really do want it to look professional, have a professional do it. I suspect that if I continually did pieces, I'd be comfortable doing something that had inherent value, but at this point, there's no way that I'd try reupholstereing anything that was worth more than a garage sale price tag.

And bellita_78 is spot on - piping is a pain in the buttocks. We redid the piping on the seat cushion of the chair we did at least 4 times.

Even if you're handy enough at sewing to make a dress or pillows, there's an excellent chance you can't do justice to the clean lines of contemporary furniture. There's no room for mistakes there.

Heavy upholstery fabrics are really different to work with than normal ones, and home equipment isn't truly up to the task. Also, making your own piping and getting it in there all nice and straight and even will take your soul and leave you a hollow shell of a person. If you're quite handy, I'd suggest doing a small test pillow first in the fabric you'd use with the piping and the gussets and all.

That said, upholstery isn't as expensive as you might think, especially since the wood and supportive parts will be new. The upholsterer can get you good pricing on the fabrics they carry as well (mine in Austin does).

Thanks for all of your advice guys! I take it I should just pay for professional help. Pardon the pun. Can you recommend someone who won't charge an arm and a leg for it in NYC? Thanks a lot.

Hmm, I am grappling with this issue myself with a very different kind of chair - this one: http://www.nuovomelodrom.net/catalog/product.asp?pro=50

I got this on Craigslist and based on postings here I thought I could get it reupholstered (change fabric only) for around $300 not counting fabric. I have since gotten two estimates for $900 and $450 for labor only, and the second estimate would require me to drive the chair to and from LIC myself, adding easily over $100 in car rentals and hassle. Aagh!

I've been now planning on trying to do a sleazy DIY job that will involve sewing new fabric onto the existing upholstery and gluing ribbon over the existing piping to hid the seams. Is this a horrible idea, or will this treatment be sufficient for a chair that sits in the corner of my bedroom and primarily serves as a repository for clothes? The chair is bright red currently and my bedroom is a nice soothing apple-green, so dying or painting the fabric won't work, and a slipcover would obviously hide the silver gilt frame and thus would defeat the purpose.

Can anyone recommend a good upholsterer in NYC? I have a pair of Louis XV style chairs I would like to reupholster.

It's perfect that this post came up when it did. I just purchased a danish modern daybed and it's missing the bottom cushion. I am a fairly experienced seamstress, and want to do something basic (not sure if I even want piping). Is it really that difficult to do a plain rectangular cushion?

And ditto shoepirate, if I decided to have someone do it for me, any recommendations?

If you have to ask, you should not undertake this particular upholstery project yourself.

I have to second Kriserts post, having also taking the class at the Furniture Joint.

Even just to make square cushions, you need a pretty heavy duty sewing machine with a special attachment to make the piping.

Unless you happen to have it all around the house, if you add up all the things you will have to buy (including lots of extra fabric because it is so hard to cut right the first time!!!) it might end up being more economical to just have it done.

eeeck - the sleazy DIY job you're talking about is sort of what we sometimes use on upholstered furniture for theatre, film, and tv. The difference is we use hotglue and staple guns instead of sewing. If you'd like to know how to do it without sewing I might be able to help.

uh...my friend picked up a pair of similar chairs from the Hells Kitchen flea market with plans to upholster.. but in the end just bought a couple of pillows from Urban Outfitters that fit perfect!

they look similar to these but square http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=24237&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=336&iSubCat=296&iProductID=24237

cheap and efficient!

eeeck -

For a chair that size I paid $675 with my own material (leather). This included refinishing of the wood, some repairs to the frame, and nailhead trim all around (very labor intensive).

So your $450 quote seems are about right. But then I don't know how the standard labor rate in NYC compares to here in Portland.

Don't let them do piping ling on the chair in your link though. Talk to your upholsterer about a more appropriate trim.

If you're willing to have square corners--not round and forgo the buttoning, then it will be fairly simple to recover those sorts of cushions. (As long as the footstool cushion is not attached to the frame and there's not re-webbing or support work that needs to be done, of course.)

Piping is not a big deal, really.

I did a similiar project to this once--only it was a couch (six cushions). I made the piping with cord and railroaded fabric. I wrapped the piping around a wrapping paper tube, stuck that on a broomstick and fed it through as I sewed the seams together. Furthermore, I did it on a home sewing machine with a sturdy needle.

It took a very long time...but it was fine. I had a great book with excellent instructions.

By all means if you have the resources, though, do get it professionally done.

I would not even attempt that chair, eeek. The upholstery is built right into the frame--and that's impossible to do properly.

Boomer--

Who is your favorite upholsterer in Portland? If you tell me, I'll tell you who builds a great fence.

Alana in Canada - do you remember the name of the book? I was thinking of re-covering a six-cushion couch as well and I'm pretty handy with a sewing machine.

If you are willing to go to Queens, I just got a chair reupholstered for $200. (I supplied the material, though.) It's a tiny shop just above Northern Blvd. on 80th Street in Jackson Heights, owned by a guy named Mike. I think it's called Mike's Refinishing or something, so you may want to call before going, since his hours are kind of irregular.

The attachment you need to make piping is also used to install zippers and is called a zipper foot (not leg.) It comes with most sewing machines. Piping is not hard to make and sort of interesting, since you cut the fabric on the bias and one yard of fabric will makes yards and yardsof piping. Also, nowadays there are many home sewing machines that will sew through multiple layers of denim, so they would probably be heavy enough. Get a book and try making a simple pillow with piping and decide if you want to attempt a bigger project. (And, by the way, have you noticed what throw pillows cost ? Being able to make your own decorative pillows wouldn’t be a bad skill to have.)

brittanykate -

The only upholsterer I will use these days is Rose City Upholstery. They spoiled me!

If you want to see some stuff they've done I'd be happy to show you... They are miracle workers as far as I'm concerned and that's no lie.

Part of their secret is they work with a wood-wizard that does amazing wood refinishing and repair. They specialize in antiques and they can pick up and deliver (extra).

If you go, tell Ray (the owner) that "the chair guy" sent you. He'll know who you mean. I brought him several chairs that I bought off of Craigslist... I even got him going on Craigslist - you should see the Art Deco sofa/chair set I found for him. ;->

brittanykate - you can email me if you want at boomerang_56 at comcast dot net and I can send you some pictures of their work.

To do it yourself or not... that is the question. If you are experienced at machine sewing you may be able to make cushion covers that come out square as opposed to skewed and twisted. If you only know how to hem a pair of slacks or sew on a button with one of those under $200 sewing machines - don't try it your machine is not up to the task.

I would contact a decorating/drapery shop or someone who makes cushions for boats - these folks know how to cover a cushion! Get your cushions recovered and I think you'll be able to reassemble the chair on your own with whatever anchor system. My guess is the cushions are screwed to the frames. There may be wooden plugs covering the head of the screws, just look around on the bottom to get an ideal what will be involved. Good luck,

Last year, I bought two chairs on Craigslist that are almost identical to the one depicted. For replacement cushions, I purchased custom cut foam from Economy Foam and Futons (down filled cushions would have been great but I was on a limited budget at the time). I also bought replacement straps from fagasstraps.com (amusing URL name, eh). I made warm weather (Marimekko Joonas) and cool weather (nubby black and grey wool from Mood Fabrics) slipcovers. I purchased extra long zippers from Joanne Fabrics (a long zipper makes removing the slipcovers much easier). I made my patterns using a graph paper easel pad. Sewing the cushion covers was a very difficult and time consuming endeavor. It took about 4 weekends (10 hour days). I like sewing so I didn't mind the time investment. The chairs look great. I could post a photo if anyone is interested.

Agree with the comments that if you are not a great sewer then get it done professionally. I sewed new slipcovers for a similar chair (with piping and all) and while they only took a day to make, look great and are well made, the piping was a b*tch to sew on.

Thanks for the thoughts on my dilemma as well everyone; today I finally had some time to hold up some fabric against the chair and try pinning it, etc., and let's just say that the results were profoundly depressing.

So now it's back to the upholsterer thing! Does anyone have ANY NYC recommendations at all? Lore did not respond to my call and fax, Zarin wanted to charge $900 and Sukhai won't pick up or deliver. I really don't want to spend my entire summer waiting for upholsterers, so any reccos on someone reliable and reasonable who will make an estimate based on a picture would be VERY welcome.

Have you tried Citysearch?

I have no idea how accurate or unbiased their reviews are but it's some place to start.

http://newyork.citysearch.com/yellowpages/directory/New_York_NY/60/556/page1.html

That site is really expensive. $2900 for a knock off Eames lounger? Wow.

I once had cushions made for a similar chair at a cleaners down on Avenue A or 1st just north of Houston. I can't tell if your cushions are attached, mine were not and it was super cheap to basically have two pillows made.