Smart Upholstery Tips for a Fresh New Look at Home
Out of everything in your home, there is one thing in particular that makes it the most comfortable. It adds style and appeal to your home and also gives you your favorite places to relax in your entire house. Furniture in so many ways sets the comfort, style, and tone of whatever room that you put it in. Like anything in your home that gets regularly used though, your furniture has probably gone through some wear and tear over the years. After it gets enough use and starts to look worn out, your old furniture may need a new face lift and a fresh look.
If you haven’t ever reupholstered your furniture before, you are in for quite an experience. Furniture reupholstery can be a complex process, and there are some essential tips that you need to know before deciding to reupholster your furniture. The first item that we need to look at before anything else though, is asking the question “is your furniture worth reupholstering?”
How Do I know if a Piece of Furniture is Worth Reupholstering?
Two good indicators will let you know if your furniture needs reupholstering or not.
Is your furniture older? (Made in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, or 70’s)
Is your furniture cheaply made or is it nice?
In the world that we live in today, many pieces of furniture are built and designed for one life and one life only. Most pieces are inexpensive, and probably wouldn’t be worth the cost or the hassle of going through the upholstery process. On the other hand, if you have beautiful furniture or nice older furniture that you have either bought or inherited from friends or family, reupholstery is something that you want to consider.
Why Upholstery Can Be So Expensive
Most people think that the upholstery process is just about changing the fabric, but it is so much more than that. Upholstering is something that has to be mastered and is a labor-intensive and dense material process that can include changing springs, reinforcing the frame, reinforcing the joints of the frame, stripping pieces of the frame, and selecting the right padding, fill, and fabric.
Some of the Best Tips for Upholstery
If you are considering getting some of your furniture reupholstered, here are some valuable tips and questions to keep in mind.
1) What’s the Best Way to Go with Cushion Fillings?
Keep in mind that there are price and feel discrepancies between a foam filling and a goose down filling in your couch or sofa cushions. Foam is way cheaper than down, and down is expensive. Down is a comfortable material but it doesn’t hold its shape for long, which means that you have to constantly fluff your cushions to make it look good. That’s why a lot of people go with a mixture of the two.
2) Is There an Ideal Down Ratio that is Best for Couches?
The best ratio for cushions and backs for down tends to be 60/40, down to feathers. If you have any higher of a ratio for feathers in your cushions or backs, you will find that the feathers will start to poke through the cushions, which can get to be annoying and uncomfortable.
3) What are the Best Fabrics for Kids and Pets?
If you have beautiful furniture, it is pretty much inevitable that any fabric or filling that you use is going to get worn out faster with kids and pets. Consider durable materials that are resistant to stains.
4) How to Spot a Bad Upholstery Job
The way you will be able to tell if you have a bad upholstery job is if the person who reupholstered your furniture didn’t strip away the old fabric from your furniture. A bad job would constitute someone covering the old fabric with new fabric to save time.
5) How to Recognize a Fair Price
The best way to find a fair price for getting your furniture reupholstered is to get some quotes from some different companies and experts. You should be suspect if you have one expert telling you that everything needs to be replaced if another says that you simply need to replace the fabric on the outside and that the interior and cushioning is fine.
6) What Are Common Fabric Mistakes?
Make sure that you don’t ever pick any stripes or elaborate patterns for rounded pieces of furniture. Any good upholsterer will let you know if you are making a mistake when it comes to choosing fabric for your furniture.
As you can see, there are quite a few options and questions that you need to consider be beginning the upholstery process. Don’t rush into it, and make sure you find an upholstery specialist with lots of experience and good customer feedback.
Thank you for reading our blog! How can we help you? Contact us today.