DIY furniture upholstery

Upholstered furniture is an indispensable attribute of any home. All households, of course, like to sit comfortably on a soft sofa, sofa or in an armchair to watch an interesting movie, just read the press, a book. But no matter how carefully you relate to furniture, stains still appear on the upholstery over time. Or after the repair of the room, the furniture does not fit the interior, and new furniture needs funds that are always lacking. All these tasks can be solved in a more economical way - with the help of our article you can understand all the intricacies and nuances of the upholstery of furniture: how do you upholstery furniture with your own hands, what materials are suitable for this purpose.

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DIY furniture upholstery

First of all, you need to decide whether you can independently haul furniture.

What difficulties can you encounter in the process of work:

• Dismantling can create obstacles due to the complex design.
• The ingenious forms of the individual parts cannot make the correct pattern.
• Operation of the sofa for more than 5-7 years - it may be necessary to replace the frame and filler.
• The sofa has antique value.
• When working with materials such as leather or leatherette, it is very difficult to work with.

An important role is played by your skills in working with such tools:

• special furniture stapler and anti-stapler;
• Phillips screwdrivers and flat;
• nippers;
• side cutters;
• furniture glue;
• sewing machine.

Important! After weighing all the pros and cons, you decided to hauling furniture yourself? Then let's get started. You probably have a couple of old chairs with soft seats at your place. Practice and refresh your look.

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Training

There are 2 ways to refresh the appearance of upholstered furniture:

1. Washing the old covers - remove carefully, without damaging, wash, fasten again. You can use this method when the structure of the tissue itself has not suffered - there are no holes, the seams on the joints have not parted.

Important! When washing, keep in mind that at a high washing temperature - from 60 ° C, the fabric shrinks and decreases in size.

2. Replacing the upholstery with a new one. We use this method when the fabric has become unusable.

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Stages of the work

Do-it-yourself upholstery can be replaced rather quickly. To do this, you only need to clearly imagine the upcoming procedure and follow it.

Dismantling an interior item into its constituent parts

This stage includes analysis into parts. This will require:

• unscrew the side backs, set aside;
• remove the mechanisms for fixing the seat and back.

Important! Take a picture of how these mechanisms were attached so that there were no difficulties during assembly. Fold all the fasteners in a container so as not to lose anything.

Removing old upholstery

Using an anti-stapler, remove the skin and soft pads.

Important! Upholstery details you must not damage, maintain integrity. You will use these elements as a pattern.

If you do not have this tool, you can use a flat screwdriver and round-nose pliers. Under the fabric there will be a layer of cotton batting or foam rubber - it is attached with staples or glue.

Important! All this is removed if your sofa is more than 5 years old. If you see that the soft lining is in good condition - leave it.

Next, you can assess the condition of the spring frame and wooden frame:

1. Replace the faulty springs with new ones.
2. Inspect the mounts and the seat frame itself.
3. Fix the loose bolts, if there are defects - eliminate them.

Sewing a cover:

1. Attach old trim parts that have been removed from the sofa to the wrong side of the new fabric.
2. Outline the contour making allowances of 1.5-2 cm.

Important! When cutting new parts, pay attention to the arrangement of the threads, the direction of the pile and the pattern, if any. Having skills in modeling, you can significantly upgrade furniture with the help of tucks, folds, and the addition of soft rollers.

Some tips for cutting and sewing a cover:

• Sew the edges of the sewn parts with an overlock or zigzag stitch.
• Having a fleecy fabric, sweep workpieces by hand.
• When stitching decorative pads in a case, process them manually.
• As often as possible while sewing, try on - foam rubber, spring frame, very obedient material. The shape of the sofa mainly depends on the cover.

Important! At the last fitting, consider the fact that this is the last opportunity to change the form. Take into account that the upholstery should fit close to the sofa. If the cover is freely put on, you will get ugly creases and folds as a result.

We do an upholstery on separate parts of a sofa

The most responsible and painstaking stage, if you do furniture upholstery with your own hands:

1. Put the upholstery on the individual parts, make sure that the seams are even and symmetrical, the corners of the covers coincide with the corners of the parts.
2. Fasten the parts with a furniture stapler as follows:
   1. Hold the stapler with your right hand.
   2. Left - pull the fabric from the middle to the edge with stroking movements.
   3. Pay particular attention to rounded shapes.

Important! Start shooting staples from the middle. Possible excess can be sutured at the edge of the part.

3. When working with bylits, you will need to carefully cut out the holes for the bolts with scissors. Shoot the edges of the slice with staples.

Important! From the wrong side, the product must be upholstered with lining fabric. Cutting the lining is very simple. Measure the width of the product, add 3-4 cm, make a notch with scissors and tear with your hands. Start shooting work from the corners, while pulling the fabric well.

Assembly assembly

Finally, the final phase:

1. We attach the locking mechanisms to the back and seat.
2. The resulting system is fixed to the pallet of the sofa.
3. Set the fable.
4. Screw the legs.

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DIY parsing

Before you begin, take a picture of how the chair looks on all sides. At the final stage - assembly, photographs will help you assemble it correctly. We will carry out the work in stages, as with the sofa. But there are small nuances:

• At the first stage of disassembling, we perform all the actions using the same method and tools as in the case of the sofa. Wooden parts that will be attached to the surface require additional processing. Clean the old paint thoroughly and paint with a new one.

Important! Buy paint for coloring wood.

• At the second stage, we remove the skin in the same way.
• On the third - perform all cutting operations as described above.
• At the fourth stage, we perform work on the upholstery of the back, seat, armrest:
  • We start from the seat so that there is no skew of fabric - fasten 4 staples in the middle of the ribs of the parts from opposite sides.
  • Next, we shoot the brackets in a circle, uniformly pulling the fabric from the middle to the edges.
  • Upholstery is carried out on all components of the chair
• The fifth step is the assembly of the chair. Perform the work one by one, in the reverse order (use the photo)

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How to choose upholstery and filler for upholstered furniture?

And now we will examine in detail the choice of fabric for upholstery and filler for the sofa.

Choosing Upholstery

When choosing, take into account not only aesthetic qualities, but also practical ones.

Important! Refrain from artificial and coarse fabrics.

Pay attention to the choice.So that the fabric does not disappoint you, it must meet the following requirements:

• Do not have a poisonous smell, do not fade. You can draw on the fabric with a damp cloth: if traces of paint remain, it means that a poor-quality dye was used.
• When choosing a fabric with a pile, pay particular attention to its fixation so that it holds tight.
• A dense terry cloth will help you hide the imperfections when upholstering furniture with your own hands.
• When cutting, take into account the direction of the pile - the color of all parts was the same, the direction of the pile should be in one direction.

Important! The most popular of all fabrics for upholstery is a high-quality tapestry. Don't be stingy: get an expensive, high-quality tapestry. You will enjoy not only the work, but also the result.

Filler Selection

An important role is played by the filler - foam rubber and synthetic winterizer.

Tips for choosing a synthetic winterizer

When choosing a synthetic winterizer, pay special attention to such factors:

• The color is necessarily white. Inspect the entire section, if there are any other shades, then the manufacturer used low-quality, toxic raw materials in the manufacture.
• Should not have a pungent odor.
• It should have a strong structure - it is difficult to tear with your hands, and if it falls apart in parts, do not buy.
• Thickness, density, strength - evenly distributed over the entire surface of the cut.

Some tips for determining the quality of foam rubber

To make the finished furniture upholstery do-it-yourself correspond to your expectations and make the sofa or chair really comfortable, we select foam rubber as follows:

• by porosity - small bubbles mean high-quality foam rubber, and large ones indicate in a product of dubious origin;
• by tactile sensations - when squeezed with fingers, high-quality material instantly resumes shape.

Important! You will also need foam rubber with different thicknesses and stiffnesses:

• For back and seat - at least 40 mm. To get a tighter and more durable seat, make a “sandwich”: put 20mm foam on top, then a layer of felt and again foam, but already 30mm.
• Use a 20mm thick material to shape it.

As a rule, the factory packs foam rubber into a film. In this case, the product is compressed 5-6 times. After the purchase, unfold and let it rest for several days.

Calculation of the amount of material for upholstery:

• Foam rubber, synthetic winterizer, felt - we calculate by measuring and arithmetic calculation where you will use this material.
• Lining and upholstery fabric - we make a calculation according to surface measurement. But here we still need to add 10-15% for the selection of the pattern, the direction of the pile, the fitting of parts.
• The consumption of matter will be greater when large geometric ornaments or patterns are located on it, because the fragments of the patterns should coincide on the seats and on the back.

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Stock footage

Do-it-yourself furniture upholstery does not really take much time, as it may immediately seem. After reading our article, you can bypass all the "pitfalls" in the process of restoring an armchair or sofa, and get updated furniture without much effort and expense.