One thing we want to help you with is the decision whether or not your project is feasible, which may not be a purely financial consideration. We want to ensure we provide you with realistic expectations of what is possible.
Furniture NOT suitable for reupholstering:
Production Furniture
A lot of furniture is not designed to be re-upholstered. Not only are all frame components cut with computer controlled equipment, so is all the foam and fabric. All manner of intricate shaping and cuts can take place in production (for aesthetic reasons as well as for cost saving) and that effects the way a piece of furniture is put together. This may translate into a piece being made with very many small cuts of fabric all seamed together – as layered pillows, or divisions where frames come together, etc. so that items can be packaged as “parts” and simply assembled on site.
In an upholstery shop – once covers are removed from a frame, the upholsterer must take apart all those pieces to make a pattern from. Whereas in a factory this process might have taken 5 minutes, in a small shop this may add up to 8 hours of layout and sewing time in order to get all the same pieces placed, pattern matched and cut out. Often, it is also impossible to recreate the types of fill that are used in production because that too is automated. It may be impossible to achieve the same look and feel.
Recliners
We typically don’t re-upholster recliners with fluffy, attached cushions. We rarely reupholster average recliners. They can be replaced for substantially less than the cost of re-upholstering.
If you have a custom piece that just happens to have a reclining mechanism, we would assess it on an individual basis.
Peeling Faux Leather
Production methods of synthetic leather and leather-like goods have created pieces that look and behave like leather when new but very quickly begin to delaminate or peel and crack with any age or sun exposure.
To reupholster such a piece may not be worth doing. Reupholstering with REAL leather – as in top-grain aniline dyed leathers, the cost of the leather alone for a project is often double what you may pay for a replacement of the same piece in leather-like contemporary furniture.
Furniture With Broken Frame
An important part of the reupholstering process is assessing the quality of the frame. If the frame is damaged, reupholstering may not be the best option. (We are currently creating a page for you to Learn more about assessing frames.)
