Padding of furniture: how to give a second life to an armchair or sofa and save a lot

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Well-worn furniture can become an interior decoration, if you give it a couple of evenings. The Lifehacker's detailed instructions will help you to feel like an artist-restorer.

What is good about self-repair of furniture

Padding of upholstered furniture includes the replacement of upholstery, damaged mechanisms and parts, repair of the frame. In fact, after the restoration work, you get completely renewed interior items. At the same time, you are free to choose any upholstery and use various decorative elements that are in harmony with the design of the room.

Well, all this is much cheaper than buying new furniture or hiring specialists.

When you shouldn't restore furniture yourself

1. The furniture is antiques and requires an exceptionally professional renovation.
2. You want to use an upholstery material that requires special skills to work with. It can be leather or leatherette.
3. Due to the design features, it is very difficult to disassemble the furniture and cut the upholstery correctly.

How to choose upholstery fabric

Choose upholstery fabrics with a density of 360 g / m². Pay attention to the pictograms on the wrong side:

1. Chair - high strength fabric, suitable for furniture in public places.
2. Armchair - has an average degree of wear resistance and is suitable for home upholstered furniture.
3. Armchair and curtains - the fabric drapes well.

If the restored furniture will be in the children's room, it is necessary to use only natural hypoallergenic materials that can be easily cleaned: linen or cotton.

For living room furniture, choose synthetic fabrics that are easy to clean and durable. Flock, courtesan, artificial suede, microfiber will suit you.

Upholstered furniture, on which they sleep, should be upholstered with wear-resistant fabric with natural threads. These requirements are met by jacquard, chenille, tapestry, velor.

How to calculate the right amount of fabric

For an approximate calculation, multiply the sum of the length and width of the piece of furniture by 2. So, for a sofa with dimensions of 1, 6 × 2 m, you will need more than 7 running meters of fabric.

This drawing will help to determine the approximate footage of upholstery fabric:

So, for a chair you will need from 2.7 m (for the simplest one) to 7.5 m (for a chair-bed) or 8.2 m (for a chair with a pouf). For chairs you need 2-3 m of fabric, for poufs 2-5 m. For a sofa you will have to purchase from 2, 7 m (compact simple) to 31 m (double corner).

For an accurate calculation of the upholstery fabric, take measurements from all parts of the furniture: seats, backs, armrests, cushions. Then sketch the details on paper and indicate the dimensions. In this case, in the figure, vertical elements should be placed vertically, and horizontal ones - horizontally. Be sure to add 3-4 cm each for folds, seams, and new filler.

The width of the future cut will be equal to the maximum value of the obtained horizontal dimensions. And the length will come out of the sum of the lengths of the vertical dimensions of all parts. For every 5 m of fabric, it is recommended to add another meter per trim, pattern alignment, and so on.

In addition to the upholstery fabric, you will need filler material that will increase the durability of your furniture. For example, foam rubber sheets with a thickness of at least 4 cm and a density of 30 kg / m³. To prevent the filler from coming into contact with the spring block, felt is used. It is also better to replace it with a new one.

What tools are needed to pull furniture

For the main restoration work you will need:

1. Flat and Phillips screwdrivers.
2. Furniture stapler.
3. Staple remover or pliers.
4. A set of wrenches from 8 to 19 mm.
5. Strong threads to pull the sofa with quality.
6. Scissors, wire cutters or side cutters.
7. Decorative buttons.
8. Glue or glue gun.
9. Drill.
10. Screwdriver.

To cut and sew new covers you will need:

1. Sewing machine with a large foot lift.
2. Tailor's scissors.
3. Crayons or thin bars of soap.
4. Threads - no less than 10 or reinforced for tough fabrics.
5. Meter ruler.
6. Pattern paper (if you are going to modify the look of the product) or old covers.

Padding furniture: step by step instructions

Furniture repair consists of five stages:

1. Disassembly, removal of individual elements (pillows, poufs and sidewalls).
2. Removing worn upholstery.
3. Replacing broken parts.
4. Sewing and fastening of new upholstery.
5. Final assembly of the structure.

Let's take a look at all these steps using a sofa as an example.

1. Disassembly

Start by removing poufs, bolsters, pillows, drawers, folding tables, armrests, removable linings. Using a screwdriver and keys, carefully detach the sides of the sofa, as well as the locks holding the back, the drawer side (lower part) and the seat.

To avoid confusion during assembly, mark which parts should be on the right side of the sofa and which on the left. Be sure to take a photo of each stage of dismantling.

During disassembly, fold the fasteners into a prepared container to ensure their safety.

2. Removing worn upholstery

Using a screwdriver and furniture staple remover or pliers, remove the fastening brackets and old upholstery, which you will later use as templates.

Please note: after removing the fabric, you need to take out all the filler in order to replace it with a new one. Changing the padding will add elasticity to the sofa and remove lumps and dents formed during operation.

3. Replacing broken parts

After the sofa is disassembled, it is necessary to carefully examine its insides. Furniture fittings that have fallen into disrepair are subject to mandatory replacement. It is worth saving on this only if you are sure that you can properly repair individual parts, for example, folding or lifting mechanisms. This clearly does not apply to broken springs.

The basis of the construction of old sofas and armchairs is a wooden frame, parts of which are fastened with locking cuts and glue. Replace cracked beams with new ones made of dry quality wood. Saturate the joints of the frame with PVA before joining. Measure the broken fiberboard parts and replace them with new ones by sawing them out with a jigsaw.

Attach the restored elements to the frame with nails or a pneumatic stapler. It is better to order a castle drink to a master carpenter.

After replacing the parts and the spring block, cover the updated frame with felt, secure the material around the perimeter with staples, and lay the foam rubber on top.

4. Sewing and fixing new upholstery

Iron both upholstery fabrics well, old and new. Mark on the old upholstery which part of the sofa it belongs to and rip at the seams. Put the resulting details on a new material, circle them with crayons or soap and transfer the marks to the wrong side of the fabric. When cutting, be sure to leave 3-4 cm for the seams and fastening.

Then cut out the details of the new covers, overlock the edges and sew. In the process, try on as often as possible.

You can update the design of the sofa and make it more comfortable by using additional foam cushions, headrest pads, lumbar inserts, and so on. But this is only if you are confident in your abilities.

First, decorative elements are fitted, then the sidewalls, backrest, seat. With the stapler in one hand, pull the fabric from the middle of the piece to the edge with the other hand. Secure the material with staples. The distance between them should not exceed 4 cm.

5. Final assembly of overtightened furniture

The assembly of the sofa must be carried out in the same order as the disassembly. To do this, use the captured photographs and, if available, the instructions for the specific model.

First, you will need to attach the back to the base, then the sides, seats and cushions. After that, handles and decorative elements, overhead panels and covers are fixed. The legs are mounted last.