The Chair Reupholstery Process: Every Stage Explained

Most of what you pay for in a reupholstered chair is invisible in the finished photograph. Here is the whole sequence, so you can see where the work actually goes.

Stage 1: Intake and Frame Assessment

The chair comes in and gets looked at properly before any promises are made. We check the frame for movement, look at the joints, and work out what is under the current cover as far as we can tell without removing it.

This is where you get a written estimate. It is also where we will tell you if a piece is not worth doing, which we would rather do now than after you have chosen a fabric.

Stage 2: Complete Strip-Down

The old cover comes off, and so does everything under it: tacks, staples, old padding, the lot. It’s slow and it isn’t glamorous, and it’s the stage that tells us what we’re really dealing with.

Broken frame members, previous repairs done badly, rotted webbing and collapsed springs all surface here and nowhere earlier. If what we find changes the estimate, you get a call. You don’t get a surprise on the invoice.

Stage 3: Frame Repair and Preparation

With the frame bare we can do the structural work. Loose joints get re-glued and clamped. Corner blocks are replaced where they have failed. Splits are repaired, and where a member is beyond repair it is replaced in matching hardwood.

Then it waits. Glue has to cure fully before anything is built on top of it, and rushing that is the commonest reason a repair comes back. There’s no way to speed this up and no point pretending otherwise.

Stage 4: Webbing, Springs and Foundation

New webbing is stretched and tacked under even tension across the frame. Even is the operative word. Any slack you leave here becomes a dip in the seat within months.

Coil springs are re-tied where the chair uses them. Sinuous wire gets new clips. The foundation is what the chair sits on for the rest of its life, so it’s worth the time it takes.

Stage 5: Foam Cutting and Padding

New foam is cut to the piece, with the density chosen for the chair and for how it will be used. A dining chair and a wing chair by the fire want different things underneath you.

Dacron batting wraps the foam to soften the edges and stop it telegraphing through the fabric. On traditional pieces, cotton or horsehair padding is used where the original construction calls for it, because a period chair rebuilt in modern materials alone does not sit or look right.

Stage 6: Fabric Cutting and Application

The fabric is laid out and the pattern placed before anything is cut. Motifs are centred on the seat and back, the direction is kept consistent across the arms, and on a set the pattern is matched chair to chair.

Then it is cut, fitted and pulled to consistent tension on every panel. That consistency is the thing that stops a chair developing ripples and slack areas in its first year. Welt cord is made from the same fabric and sewn into the seams.

Stage 7: Final Finishing and Inspection

Nailhead trim, where the design calls for it, is spaced by hand rather than applied as a strip. Skirts are hung and pressed. Cushions are filled and fitted.

Then the whole chair is gone over: seams, tension, alignment, the underside. The bottom of a chair is the honest part, because it’s the bit nobody’s supposed to see. That’s exactly why we finish it properly.

What This Adds Up To

Roughly two thirds of the work on a reupholstered chair happens before the fabric is touched. That’s the part you can’t see and the part that decides whether the chair is still good in fifteen years.

If you’ve got a piece in mind, bring a photograph to the Atlantic Beach showroom. You can also read about a single chair from bare frame to finish, see our reupholstery work, or look at which fabrics survive this climate.

Frequently Asked Questions