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10 Upholstery Tips That Beginners Don’t Know

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Have you ever taken a piece of furniture to a professional upholsterer to see how much it would cost? It’s freakin’ expensive!! For the price they charge, you can get a whole new piece of furniture, shipped, and a matching foot stool.

But have you ever thought about why it’s so expensive?

The reason is because most people don’t know a thing about reupholstering furniture! So when you have a subset of people who know how to take something that’s ugly and make it look brand new with fabric and stuffing (pssst….did you know a professional upholstery can reupholster a wingback chair in less than 5 hours??), you best believe they get paid handsomely for something most the general public doesn’t know how to do.

But here at Thrift Diving, you and I are not about paying professionals to do things that we ourselves can learn. Right? We also enjoy (and can be quite skilled!) at taking something ugly and blinging it out with decorative furniture tacks and luscious velvet.

While it may not be perfect (don’t look too closely!), it’s good enough for our homes.

So in this blog post, if you’re a beginner, I’ll share with you some tips that I learned during my time in upholstery classes here in Maryland. I had an excellent teacher that taught me a few things that I’ll pass on to you, in the hopes that you, too, will be able to upholster your own furniture (and save a bunch of money!).

Let’s jump into it right now!

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DIY upholstery doesn't have to be rocket science. But there ARE some things that professionals know that beginners don't know. These things can make or break your project. Learn more about these top upholstery tips that will make your own projects cleaner and more professional looking! - Thrift Diving

 

And if you’d like to listen to this post, you can listen via my podcast, with new episodes published each Friday!

 

 

TIP #1 – Use Your Old Fabric As a Pattern

Okay, let’s start with the obvious. Even for people who are newbies, you may already know that the smartest thing you can do when reupholstering furniture is to save the old fabric that you remove (using a tack remover). When you save the old fabric, you’ve got the blueprint for the exact shape of the fabric that needs to go back onto your piece of furniture. I like to add a bit more of fabric just in case my fabric doesn’t cooperate or stretch the way the old existing fabric does. Add about 1/2″ extra around the perimeter of the old fabric. Use chalk to mark the fabric, which won’t permanently mess up your new fabric.

Just remember: you can always trim down excess fabric, but if you cut a pattern too small, you can never add extra fabric!

 

 

TIP #2 – Easily Cut Straight Lines Without a Yard Stick

One of the hardest things when working with fabric is figuring out how to cut a straight line. Why is this important? Well, imagine reupholstery a chair and you need each piece of fabric to be 20″ x 20″. You can place a yard stick on the fabric and try to measure properly to get a right angle so that all the sides are straight, but from my experience, the likelihood of that happening is slim, especially if you’re a beginner!

Instead, use this trick that my upholstery teacher taught me:

STEP 1: Snip the edge of the fabric across the selvaged (fuzzy edges on the left and right side). 

STEP 2: Pull the edges apart and find a loose thread.

 

 

STEP 3: Pull the loose thread, and move the fabric along the thread, creating a run in the fabric. Be careful not to pull too hard or else the loose thread may break.

 

 

STEP 4: Keep pulling the thread and cinching the fabric to create a longer run in the fabric.

 

 

 

STEP 5: Use your scissors or a rotary cutter to cut along the run. You will be guaranteed to have a straight cut across your fabric!

 

 

If you want to see how I used this trick to make my DIY shower curtain, just click below to watch the demonstration! 🙂

 

 

TIP #3 – Find the Center of Everything!

It’s tempting to just lay your fabric on your furniture that you’re reupholstering and just decide to….well, staple it in place as best as you can. But there is a method to how the professionals upholstery furniture:

They find the center of everything.

That means that before they place fabric, they’ve located the center of their furniture along the edge. They’ve found the center of their fabric. And they strategically place all the materials for best results. 

Here’s how to find the center:

STEP 1: Measure the width of your chair’s edge. Divide the measurement in half and then mark the center. (For example, if your chair’s seat is 24 inches wide, mark the chair’s edge at 12 inches in the center).

STEP 2: Fold your fabric piece in half evenly to find the center of your fabric. If you’re placing a special motif in the center of your chair, be sure that the center of your fabric is the center of that motif. To mark the center, fold your fabric at the halfway mark and snip your fabric’s edge at a slant. When you open the fabric up, you’ll get a nice little “V” at the center of your fabric, with the “V” notch cut into the seam allowance of the fabric. 

TIP: Make sure your “V” notch is small so that you don’t cut into the area of your fabric that will be visible once your furniture is upholstered.

STEP 3: Match up the center of your chair to the center of your fabric. 

STEP 4: Place a single staple to secure the fabric to your furniture.

 

 

TIP #4 – Start in the Middle and Work Your Way to the Sides

This tip is the next step to why you found the center to your fabric and project. 

When I first started upholstering furniture, I used to start stapling at the corners. I’d fold and staple the corners as neatly as I could, and then I would pull the fabric to the other corner, convinced I was doing it right.

But imagine my dismay when I’d look at my fabric and see that the pattern was crooked, stretched, lopsided, and looked bad. “What am I doing wrong?!”

What happened was that I wasn’t matching up the center of my fabric with the center of the chair (as mentioned in Tip #3). So while I thought I was starting in a good place (the corners), whatever placement of the fabric I thought I had positioned would get shifted out of place. 

While this isn’t as big of a deal if you’re using solid fabric, this definitely won’t work with patterns or any fabric where you want to place a certain motif in the center of your chair. 

 

 

So instead of starting at the corner, start at the center of your furniture, where you placed that single staple. Then, begin to pull towards the corners, making sure that all the wrinkles are pulled taut. This will guarantee that the carefully placed fabric, motif, or pattern, won’t shift while you’re pulling!

Read this blog post to learn how to get smooth corners when upholstering.

 

 

TIP #5 – Use a Pneumatic Stapler Whenever Possible

If you’re a beginning DIYer, you might have an Arrow Fastener T50 heavy duty stapler like this one. These do and can work when doing simple reupholster projects like dining room chairs that just need a new layer of fabric. 

 

 

However, if you’re planning to do lots of reupholstery projects, I highly recommend you buy a pneumatic stapler. These are what the professionals use and run on an air compressor.  (I recommend the California Air Tools quiet air compressor. Be sure to buy the hose and connectors). 

Also, when building up lots of layers of fabric, lining, dacron batting, etc., small handheld staplers don’t go through all those layers into the wood quite as easily. So a pneumatic stapler is your friend. Whichever brand of pneumatic 22-gauge upholstery stapler you buy, be sure the tip allows you to get close to the edge of whatever you’re stapling. Some pneumatic staplers don’t allow you to get close to the edge.

 

 

TIP #6 – Pay Attention to What Gets Removed First, Second, Third

When I was reupholstering my wingback chair, one thing was very clear: pay attention to what gets removed first, second, third (etc.) The reason why is because how you remove parts of the chair will tell you how it should be put back together, and in the correct order.

For example, in the picture below you see that the fabric on the right was removed first, followed by the curve-ease (the metal strip that holds the outside fabric in place), then the cording, and then the fabric on the left. 

When the chair is upholstered, you’ll put it back together again in the opposite order.

TIP: I always recommend taking lots of pictures and videos before and during the process so you can look back on it while you’re working!

 

 

TIP #7 – The “Pinch Test” is Your Friend

How do you know if you upholstered a piece of furniture properly? Well, one clue is how many wrinkles you have. Lots of wrinkles means you didn’t pull your fabric tightly enough around the piece of furniture. Sometimes they’re clearly visible, but other times, it looks smooth, but still has some slack. 

The best way to test this is what my upholstery teacher called the “pinch test.”

 

 

TIP #8 – Hire Professionals to Make Your Upholstered Buttons

Most craft stores sell button kits that allow you to make your own DIY buttons. But honestly? They’re pretty cheap and don’t look that great. They’re good in a pinch. But if you’ve got professional upholsters nearby, hire them to create your upholstered buttons. They’ve got professional button machines that can create amazing buttons. Take them some of your fabric and they’ll create them for you. Not only will they last longer but they’re look better. I think I paid about $2.00 per button.

While this can be expensive if you’ve got a large tufted piece of furniture, but you’ll get better results. Who doesn’t want that? 🙂

 

 

TIP #9 – Don’t Be Afraid to Use Tack Strips

Tacks are hard to use because they often are crooked, irregularly spaced, and–well, just difficult to hammer in consistently. Don’t be afraid to use tack strips, which are one long strand of perfectly spaced tacks. All you’ve got to do is nail them into place. It also helps keep kids from pulling them out! (Ask me how I know this….LOL).

If you do decide to use individual decorative tacks, order them from Amazon, and buy more than what you think you’ll need (believe me–you’ll ruin some of them while hammering them in). Use a piece of cardboard as a template for keeping them straight, with slits about 1/2″ apart.

 

 

While they still won’t be perfect, this does help! Have a good tack remover on hand so that you can easily remove any that get bent or uneven.

 

 

 

TIP #10 – Snip and Fit Your Fabric Around the Furniture’s Hard Edges

What I have learned about upholstery is that the difference between the professionals and the beginners is the ability to fit the fabric around the fixed parts of furniture, like a glove. They know exactly where to snip and fit, where to pull, and how to staple it into place for best results.

Remember from TIP #3 and #4 how you should find the center of the fabric and match it to the center of edge of the chair? How you’ll start with a single staple in the middle and then pull tight to the corners?

Well, you must pull out the slack from the fabric first and then snip while fitting the fabric around the furniture.

For example, when I reupholstered two dining room chairs in gorgeous velvet, I pulled the fabric taut, then snipped carefully around the chair legs, securing the fabric in place with staples, and then folding the edges of the fabric up to create a beautiful profile around the legs.

If I had snipped and then pulled tight, the cut would have been misaligned.

 

 

So just remember:

  • Place a single staple at the center of the furniture edge.
  • Pull tight to the each corner.
  • Pull the fabric tight around legs, arms, and edges.
  • Snip and secure neatly with staples, tucking the raw edges of fabric around the legs and arms.

Works every time! 🙂 As a beginner, it won’t be perfect, but you’ll get good results and will learn to do this more effectively the more pieces of furniture you reupholster!

 

 

Get Inspired!

I love motivating people to get inspired, not be frustrated, when it comes to reupholstering furniture! While I don’t consider myself to be a professional (because I don’t upholster every day), I do know that these tips are straight from the professional who taught me while I reupholstered my wingback chair. And I’m passing them on to you so that you can become comfortable with reupholstering your own furniture.

Going to professional upholsters is super expensive, and I can see why. It’s a skill that not many people have. But if you’re willing to put in the work, you can make it happen!

Check out these reupholster projects to learn more:

Got a Question?

Leave your questions below and let’s chat about your beginner DIY reupholstery questions!

 

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DIY upholstery doesn't have to be rocket science. But there ARE some things that professionals know that beginners don't know when they're starting out. These things can make or break your project. Learn more about these top upholstery tips that will make your own projects cleaner and more professional looking! - Thrift Diving

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8 Comments

  1. Bonnie Bryan says:

    Hello I am reuplostery rounded seated kitchen chairs and replacing the foam with new, high dense foam. Any other suggestions when replacing the foam AND fabric? ie, use glue to secur the foam first?

    Thanks
    Bonnie

    1. Hi Bonnie! Great question. You don’t have to use glue, but a spray adhesive could be beneficial, especially when trying to upholstery the cushions so they don’t slide around when trying to secure the fabric to the underside. Hope that helps!

  2. These are some awesome tips I haven’t seen in all the other blogs I have been researching to re do my camel back sofa sleeper. For the center staple, would you do the front first and then the arms before adding the back?

  3. I’m confused about what you’re putting the center staple into. The fabric you’re putting on to the chair, or the chair itself? If you’re putting it into the replacing fabric, it seems like pulling it (to get it taut) would cause fabric to stretch around the staple & an unwanted hole to form.

    1. Hi Florence! That center staple will go into the fabric to secure the fabric to the wood frame of the chair or the seat. If you’re using a stretchy fabric, it wouldn’t work well. Most home decor fabrics aren’t stretchy for this very reason. They’re pretty tough, thick fabrics. Hope that helps!

      1. Hi Serena
        I really like the fabric you used for the shower curtain do you know the name of the fabric. It looks like it is lavenders purples and greens in the pics is that right?

        1. Hi Cheri! I wish I could find that fabric for you for the shower curtain! I found it at a local fabric store. I don’t know the name of it, unfortunately, and it’s been a long time since I had found it. But you’re right, it’s lavender florals with greens! Try doing a search online and see if you can find it! Sometimes that works for me! 🙂 Thanks!

          1. Thanks Serena, I tried looking but didn’t find anything that looked like it

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