Custom Made Sofa: Built From Scratch in Our Atlantic Beach Workshop

Building a sofa from scratch is the fullest thing a custom upholstery shop does, and the reason people come to us for one is almost always the same. The room won’t take what the shops sell.

This is a walk through one commission, built start to finish in our Atlantic Beach workshop: a three-seat sofa, from the first saw cut to the last welt cord seam.

The Brief: Dimensions That Retail Does Not Sell

The client had a long living room with a low ceiling, and standard sofa proportions were not working in it. The seat needed to be a little deeper than average and the back lower than most retail options, and the overall length had to fill a particular wall without crowding it.

So we started where we always start, which is talking. Arm style, and we settled on a streamlined track arm. Leg finish, brushed brass. Cushion configuration, three loose seat cushions and two loose back cushions. Fabric last. All of it went into a written specification before anything was cut, because that’s the document you and we both work from afterwards.

Frame Construction: Kiln-Dried Hardwood

The frame was cut from kiln-dried hardwood. That’s not a preference, it’s the requirement for anything expected to last decades, because kiln-dried timber is dimensionally stable and won’t warp as the humidity moves around it. On this coast that matters more than it does inland.

Every joint was corner-blocked and glued, then clamped and left to cure properly before the next stage. The finished frame was stress-tested before a single spring went near it. If a frame is going to fail, you want it to fail then, in the workshop, and not in four years in someone's living room.

Eight-Way Hand-Tied Springs

We specified an eight-way hand-tied coil system for this one. It’s been the gold standard of sofa suspension for well over a century, and nothing has replaced it.

Each spring is tied individually, in eight directions, to a webbing base. What that buys you is a seat that moves as one unified surface and spreads weight evenly across it, rather than a set of springs each doing its own thing under you. It takes considerably longer than the modern alternatives. It’s also the difference you feel the moment you sit down, which is why we still do it.

Foam, Dacron and Cushion Construction

Seat and back cushions are built differently, because they are doing different jobs.

The seats were built on a high-density polyfoam core wrapped in a generous Dacron batting layer, which is what gives you the soft-but-supportive profile that still holds its shape years later. The backs used a polyfoam and feather-down combination for a deeper, softer feel where you lean rather than sit. Every cover was sewn with matched seams and fitted to its form at consistent tension, so none of them bag or pull.

Fabric Selection and Application

The fabric was a linen blend in warm ivory. The layout was planned before cutting so the weave ran true and the grain lined up across all three seat cushion faces, which is the kind of thing nobody notices when it’s right and everybody notices when it’s wrong.

Welt cord, made from the same cloth, finishes every visible edge. What comes out of it is a sofa that belongs in that house and nowhere else: built to the client's dimensions, in the client's fabric, to a standard retail does not reach at any price.

If you’ve got a room that isn’t taking what the shops sell, come and talk to us. You can see more of the work on our upholstery page, browse fabric at the fabric store, or read how we approach a single chair.

Frequently Asked Questions