Basically, to do upholstery you take the thing apart. You can take notes on the pieces of fabric you peel off with a felt tip marker like "left inside arm" to help you keep things straight. Then you make sure the frame is sound, the springs are tied well and you replace any padding that needs replacing. Then you put it back together the way it came apart. Joann Fabrics has any parts you might need.

So if you're clever with your hands you should be able to do it. If the chairs need more structural help than you can give them, you can do what I did and bail out and turn them over to a profesional upholsterer to finish (this time; last time I did them all myself).

If you're not feeling confident, how about looking for an upholstery class in your area? It's a pretty neat skill to have.

IKp

Is there a chance you can post a couple of pic's of the chairs so I can see the level of difficulty?

I'll answer you later this afternoon, as I am working today.
In the mean time, below is a link to upholstering directions.

You'll need a staple gun (or a tack hammer and tacks--but the staple gun is easier) and a curved needle.

Upholstering is an art that one can teach themselves. It is also something that can be done as a couple. I find upholstering easier than making slipcovers.
First thing I will tell you is, for the novice upholsterer, choose a fabric that doesn't need to be matched, also stay away from stripes.

TTYL
Joann

Here is a link that might be useful: upholstering directions

lkplatow, No expert here! Oceanna is right, basically you remove everything carefully labeling each piece and taking notes. I found using my digital camera was helpful to remind me how different parts were originally attached, seamed, tacked, pleated. Small details that were helpful when it came time to put everything back together. I also searched the web for as much info as I could find along with getting a few books from the library. It's not rocket science, but it helped me to feel comfortable with the basics before I jumped in the water. I'll pass along a few of the sites I found. I just want to warn you, after you finish these chairs (and possibly before you finish)you will find it even MORE difficult to pass up any curbside furniture. I have two Craigslist chairs waiting for me in the garage now, but they were only $10.00 each!! :)

http://www.carrscorner.com/whyupholster.php
http://www.upholster.com/howto/reupch.html
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/PubSubject.asp?varSubject=Clothing+and+Furniture
http://www.rochfordsupply.com/category_listing.asp_Q_CatID_E_422
http://georgemfabric.com/yardage.htm

Hopefully you will more advise from the real experts but I wanted to tell you Good Luck and Have Fun! :D

OK, here's a link to some pictures. Use the Next button at the top to navigate through them. Make sure you read the comments below the pics because there's some specific questions there.

Thanks for any advice/opinions, even if the advice is "put those things back at the curb, girl!"

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures

Good for you! Those are great chairs. They don't make 'em like they used to and I think you did the right thing. (DH would not agree...we have had a few too many kerbside delights stashed in our garage over the years for his taste!) My all-time favorite chair is something my upholstery guy trash-picked and sold to me for $25!

I always turn to the professionals as I am not a fine detail person and can't sew anything but pillows and curtains -- you know, straight lines and right angles only. Mitering a corner is as ambitious as I get. (Cover your ears Chelone!)

Good luck with the work and keep us posted!

Note to lkplatow's DH: your wife is not crazy! ;D

I like them, I think they have potential. I'm wondering if they're not newer because of the cardboard, or another likely scenario they're older and someone else reupholstered along the way and used cardboard?

I'm no pro, but upholstery classes would be fun and something I'd love to do. (I've just doodled a bit).

So with that said, the bones looks to me to be in good shape, but I'll defer to someone with more experience on that.

I'd think with a little effort you could have some really sharp chairs!

(Does anyone remember the two guys from Philly who used to be on PBS and were always doing reupholestery? One guy had a pony tail, the other guy was heavier with thick curly hair. They were like Abbott and Costello but it was fun to watch those guys and I learned a lot, just haven't seen those programs on TV in ages. )

WOW!! I love those and can see why you had to sneak out and get them.

They have great lines and look like they are well made. If it was me (and I had way more money than I do), I'd probably invest in having them done professionally. If it was me (and I had my actual bank balance), I'd slipcover them myself. But maybe you are more talented than I am and can do the upholstery. I would definately keep them and do something with them. Great score!

lkplatow, You're not crazy in my book - but then I would have dragged them home also! I see the potential!! I'm going to let the true experts answer your questions but I can tell you it's not a mouse nest! Also, I came across cardboard in two of the old chairs I recovered. I don't know how old they were only that they were from my mom's sister and also from my MIL's house, based on that, I'm guessing they are from the 1930's.

after the chair is stripped, and the springs are tied, cover the entire chair with fresh batting. In this photo I stripped the wood and it was ready for staining dark, to match our existing furniture.

Here is th fabric on the dining room table. Note the paper pinned on the face of the fabric, looking at it now, I think the piece on the right says "outside arm -left."
You must always pay attention to the way the fabric nap runs.

This is the chair mid way through. They first thing we did was the seat, then the inside arms...we had to connect the inside arms to the wings, not we made welt and sewed the pieces together with welt. We also bought heavy foam and re-did the outside back with heavy foam.

Here it is with the inside all completed...we just had to add the arm fronts and the back (you use tacking strip for the outside back which is the last thing upholstered.
then the tacks are applied (if your using tacks, the other method of finishing is using welt. I rather like the tacks.

I'll be back with the finished chair.

Here is the completed chair,

then I completed the cushions and made a new footstool to match, for the footstool,
I used my Mother's coffee table legs from her 1050's coffee table.

You can do it too...of course if hubby helps it's even better!
Joann

lkplatow, It's time to start stripping! The chair - of course!

Joann, your chair is beautiful as is the rest of your home. I love seeing all the things you and your DH have worked on together.

Thanks mry, The more you do the better you get...we did this chair 5 years ago in gold velor, and it just didn't go with the new wing back chair (in the same room)...so I went shopping and bought chocolate fabric and we re-did the chair.
We change the chair design by eliminating the skirt and adding some wood trim to match the wing chair... also the tufted back on the chair was an attached loose pillow and we made it permanent tufts. The level of difficulty on this chair is a few notches harder than the wing chair.
My hubby will do anything...everything I want to buy, he says "I'll make it for you!" LOL...I surprised he's not making my clothes!

Joann, I can only hope to achieve the professional look of your upholstered pieces! I have the hardest time with getting everything uniform. On two of the chairs I recovered for DS1 & DIL, the rolled arms are not identical. It bugs me when I see it, but they are happy with them, and they certainly look better now than before.
Your chocolate chair is beautiful! I haven't attempted tufting yet! That would surely be a challenge!

--- My hubby will do anything...everything I want to buy, he says "I'll make it for you!" ---

You are a very lucky lady!!! :)

Joann, the chairs you did are lovely! Very nice work. :) You are certainly lucky to have a DH like that.

I also love what you did with your staircase -- or was it that way when you moved in?

Beautiful, Joann! I hope to use your inspiration to try this myself. Thanks for the great instructions, too : ) I hope they're over in the permanent Gallery section. Maybe this thread can be moved over, if not.

Thank you ladies for the comments.
mry, practice makes perfect. You need to pay close attention to the way the fabric runs when cutting. Also when upholstering pay close attention to the way the fabric is running as you pull it and staple it, as it is very easy to go off and apply it crooked.
As I mentioned before -- try and pick a fabric that doesn't have to be matched. On the wing chair, the front of the arm is a piece of cardboard that is covered with fabric and welt is applied to the edge before installing it.
On our Living room sofa, we used upholstery nails on the front of the arm. I like that look as well. You cant tell from the above photo, but the top of the skirt (the part under the cushions) has welt.

We did this sofa over about 4 or 5 years ago. I changed the design somewhat, by making the skirt come all the way up to the cushions with one pleat in the middle -- before it was only about a six inch skirt. We also made the matching bolsters. This sofa is a camel back sofa (two humps)
Here is a photo from my archives that shows the skirt.

BTW, I took this photo to show someone how I water my indoor plants. I use a bottle (Like a plastic Mr Clean bottle, you can squeeze the water out and it doesn't drip all over the place.

Oceana, We did the stairs.

Please tell us about the bunny chair? It's absolutely captivating. Now I wanna see pics of your whole house inside. :)

And good job on the stairs. Were they nice wood before you started or did you cover all the treds and uprights? I'd love to do something like that with my stairs. I think those metal rods are pretty expensive.

joann - wow, amazing work! It is almost inspiring-- and then I remember that it is ME who would have to do that. It is inspiring and humbling.

lkplatow - love the bones! You aren't crazy-- you have great vision. Best wishes on your project.

Moonshadow- THE FURNITURE GUYS! Man, they rocked! I think their show was pretty local though-- PA and NJ. (I just read the article below-- didn't realize they were picked up on cable. I watched them on pbs.) I picked their book up at one point. I'll have to pull it out now. What a great show though-- puts all the current design/reality shows to shame. I'd love to see them return to tv.

Here is a link that might be useful: article: the furniture guys (Furniture to Go)

Thanks Oceana, The chair is a small folding rocker that we can trace back in Cliff's family to 1908, Generations of babies have been rocked in it including my children. It folds and is a unique little rocker. The table next to it, is also a family antique. I found the bunny tapestry on ebay when I found the Spanish dancer tapestry on the wing back. The bunny is not real tapestry, it's a print. I love the little bunny on the rocker and covered the seat and back in a cranberry ultra suede to match the cherries. I have had a gizillian covers on this rocker through the years, so far the bunny is my favorite.
The stairs: we cut wood out of oak and installed them on both sides of the stairs, however I ended up painting the
wood on the far end (by the wall because It was too much and it looks better than stained wood on each side) If I do a search I think I can find a photo that shows the wood well...I used oaktag to make the pattern.

If you look closely at the bottom of the rocker you can see the hinges that allow it to fold flat.

I

Oh, way cool to see the pics of the upholstery process! Inspiring for our OP...

Very nice work, Joann!

I have upholstered about 20 chairs and sofas over the years and this book has been the biggest help:

It's been out of print for years but fortunately there are lots of copies available on Amazon. It has step-by-step drawings and very clear text to take you through the entire process.

I can now do a piece without referring to it, but when I first started out I relied heavily on it. I found that it was very hard to remember exactly how each piece of fabric was attached once I'd removed it, especially if some time had elapsed. This book shows you exactly what to do---how to notch the fabric around posts and rails, how to deal with variations on frames, etc.

One other thing-- I would advise replacing all of the padding. It absorbs odors that might not smell so bad now but when warm, humid weather arrives, they will bloom. I learned this the hard way with a 20' sectional sofa from the 50's. Peeyoo!

Also, when you cut the bias strips for welt, make sure you cut on the true bias. Otherwise the welt will twist and then get ripply when you straighten it out. You can also just buy contrasting ready-made welt but the color selection is limited.

Here is a link that might be useful: copies of the book on Amazon

Joann, yes practice makes perfect! I plan to keep practicing but doubt I will come close to your perfection. I recovered sofa cushions for DS1 & DIL in a plaid and I was very careful with layout and fabric run and they actually look pretty good! I'm careful about picking out solids or plain fabric for myself .. not ready for more complications ... yet!
Joann, I'd like to tell you that I am totally envious of what you have. Not for your home, furnishings, talent .... but for what you and your DH have. The two of you have created such a warm and lovely place, it is so obvious from your pictures and your words that you have an amazing relationship. My DH passed away 13 years ago this week, so I am in a memory and wishing mood at this time. I see and talk to many woman who don't realize how lucky they are to have their husbands still with them, their children and grandchildren.
I don't think you need to be told how lucky you are, just today, for some reason I can't really explain, I wanted to tell you this.

funky, THANK YOU!! That's them! They have a web site. And will definitely get the book (spanky shows the cover), which I also did not know they had printed! I so miss those guys, not only were they funny, they made the whole process look so easy! They were on local PBS station in Chicago and then ~poof~ disappeared. :/

Nice work, Joann!
This thread is going in my clippings ;D

Spanky, that sounds like a great book. Anyone thinking of learning the craft would do well to purchase it.
You are right about the padding and the cushions as well.
The only bad thing about upholstering is -- you always want to change things, always!
Have you ever done leather? We have done small things like footstools etc, however we never worked with leather on a chair.To be more specific, I mean sewing a leather cushion
and attaching pieces of leather together to upholster a chair.
We have to get a leather needle and practice.

This chair we covered in February 2005 and I want to do it again in a cream colored leather. It will take two hides.
When I mention it to Cliff, he said, "We just did this chair!" LOL...

The fabric guys I buy my fabric from showed me wonderful hides of leather that they have. They picked it up from Mercedes Benz. It is actually the leather that they upholster the Mercedes seats in. It's a gorgeous cream color and ever since they showed it to me, I've been thinking about doing this chair pictured below.

I recommend to stay away from matching for the novice upholsterer. It's hard enough to learn to get the fabric on straight without worrying about matching.
Stripes are even harder to do, although as soon as you go off when you're stretching striped fabric -- it's easy to see on striped fabric, however when you're sewing it together and matching up the stripes it a real challenge.

There is so much fun to have and not enough time... :)
Made a matching footstool for this chair as well.

Thank you mry. Firstly,
I'm sorry for the loss of your husband. :(
You are quite intuitive, as we do have a wonderful relationship, and enjoy doing everything together.
No matter what crazy things I dream up, he's game. He also always says, "change is good"... now, I love changing things, so that statement is music to me ears! :)
We never take for granted, how lucky we are that we have each other.
Joann

Oceanna, here is the link to ebay where I got the bunny pillow.
It's an adorable bunny, and the green on the back can be cut off, and you can make a back round color of your choice.

Joann

Here is a link that might be useful: Bunny Pillow.

Your chairs have great lines and lots of potential. If you get these done, perhaps I will have the heart and courage to tackle my upholstered antique chair. I want to get it done, but the money doesn't seem to come my way.

JoAnn......you know I love everything you have done in your home, I've commented on it many a time. But the chair tutorial is the best thing I've seen so far. You two are great!!!

Red

Joann, I'm utterly enchanted by all your fine work. Thanks so much for the link on the cute bunny. I'm getting one.

Joann, sorry, I should have checked back on this thread more than once. I didn't see your question until now!

Yes, I have done some upholstery with leather. I've done four of these chairs and have a fifth waiting to be redone (two were for my daughters, one for us and the others to sell). They are made by Plycraft or Selig, not Eames. The Eames chairs are trickier to do. These are easy.

{{!gwi}}

The only sewing is to make the welt and on this one I also had to sew the top edge of the armrest cover. The bottom edge, including the welt, is stapled. The welt around the cushions is just stapled on.

I also did another type of chair that had a loose seat and loose back cushion of leather with welt. I used smaller than usual welt cord and it was hard to gauge the feel of where it was between the layers of leather. If I did that again, I'd use bigger diameter cord.

I haven't done anything that required piecing leather together. I've thought about it. I love the look of the Barcelona chair and the day bed by Mies van der Rohe and have thought it might be fun to make an ottoman using that kind of piecing and tufting, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

{{!gwi}}

Leather isn't hard to sew. What is hard is getting it right on one try. When you rip a seam out to redo it, the holes from the first stitching are still there and function as a perforated line that will tear if stressed. Plus it looks bad if it's in a place that is visible. You can't pin it, either. I'd probably use little bulldog clamps.

If you do want to try it sometime, Kysonleather on Ebay is an excellent source of hides. They will send free swatches of anything you request and also will send swatches of other hides that they think will fit your needs. Swatches are a must since leather is hard to photograph accurately. I've gotten four or five hides from them so far and I've always ended up getting something other than what I thought looked perfect in the photos. The hides are very nice quality and prices are about half (or less) than what I see in the upholstery fabric stores here, even discounted. Their color selection is fantastic, too!

(I don't know them personally. I'm just one very satisfied customer.)

lkplatow I love the lines of those chairs.
Notice you posted those in April. Is there an update ?
I have to have everything done by pros so can't help but Joann's post was great.
My first thought when I saw the shape the chairs were in was to wonder what the heck went on in that house!!!!
Either mean dogs are bad kids lol.
Love the chairs.

WOW! You women are a talented lot! I've sewn a few things in my day, but never would I ever attempt something major like what you all do. Your work is incredibly beautiful!

Spanky, amazing work, your chairs and lounge are beautiful clean and crisp.
I love the lounge with the matching rolled sunburst pillow.
Years ago we made a small tufted leather ottoman, however there was no sewing involved.
I did a search and couldn't find Kysonleather on ebay?
Would you please provide the link?

Thabks, Joann

WOW!! Spanky, the workmanship on those chairs is incredible! Beautiful! just beautiful!!

lovemylilhome -

No, no update. The chairs are still sitting in my garage. My dh still thinks I'm crazy.

We've got about a zillion projects ahead of them in line, so there might be an update by the time my kids go to college in about 10 years or so.

Eee, no no no, I didn't upholster the two Mies van der Rohe pieces! Only the Eames-wannabe lounge chair in the first photo (with the boxes of junk behind it)! I only included the pics of the other two to show what kind of leather upholstery I'd like to try someday!

Joann, here's the Kysonleather link. Have fun shopping and do remember to get swatches!

Here is a link that might be useful: kysonleather on Ebay

Thanks Spanky, I bookmarked the site.
The lounge chair you did do is top notch. :)

Joann