TOP 10 UPHOLSTERY TIPS By Window Treatments

Over the in 2013 or two, I have learned a whole lot about furniture. I thought that a few things that I have actually learned may help some of you DIYers around, so here you go!
All Things Thrifty's leading 10 upholstery tips.
1. You must make use of a fabric that is thick enough to pull hard. Does it require to be upholstery textile especially? No. I have actually cushioned a few items in canvas and it worked wonderful. Slim cotton fabric will not work, trust me. It is not tough enough.
2. You need another "partner in crime" to assist you while doing furniture. There are 2 primary reasons for this: 1-you need two sets of hands, one to pull the material tight, and the other one to essential it into area. 2-It is far more fun to upholster a chair if you can laugh with a friend while you are doing it.
3. You need to adopt a "roll with the punches" type of attitude to do upholstery. I'm working with this one. The good news is the girls I have upholstered with are very considerably such as this and it rubs off. Draping can be challenging, as well as right out annoying at times because it is tough. AND ALSO each and every single chair I have ever done has had different obstacles, so you just have to take care of those challenges as they come.
4. Don't get pricey fabric for 2 factors: 1- If you spend over $10.00 a backyard on your fabric, you risk spending the same on your chair as you could buy from the furniture establishment. Logically this does not make sense to me considering that furniture takes time (A LOT of it). So, make sure that it is worth it in the end. Finding low-cost fabric can be tough so check out Home Fabrics if you have never been there. (The online store isn't nearly as good as the actual store). 2. If you mess up and have to buy more fabric, it won't break your bank.:-RRB-.
5. In the same breath as the above tip, I have to tell you that you should find a textile that you LOVE. I am not contradicting the above statement. So, you may have to be patient and shop the sales in order to get an affordable fabric that you love for your upholstery job. I learned this the hard way. I saw a fabric, that was on MAJOR sale and bought it. It had the right colors, but I did NOT like it. I simply tried to sacrifice design for price. What was the result? I upholstered the chair TWICE because I was not happy with the end result. Believe me, you do not want to do this. Upholstering is testing sufficient, and if you are like me, you need to have the motivation of the transformation to keep you going.if you need to get more ideas, just visit this Upholstery & Slipcovers link.
6. Sometimes you simply have to just DO IT. A few chairs that I have done have posed problems that I was unsure of how to solve. All the projects that I have done have been put together differently. I have come to the conclusion that upholstery can be performed in MANY techniques, and over-thinking the "HOW" will certainly not get you anywhere. So, if you try one technique and it doesn't work, then you can try one more technique.
7. Pull the textile TIGHT. If you don't, your chair will look like you upholstered it. My goal is to make a chair appearance store bought.
8. Preferably use an air compressor with an air staple gun. This has saved me hours and hours, and it has helped save my hands from being VERY aching from squeezing a regular staple gun. After you do it by doing this, you will never go back to the hand-held staple guns.
9. If your furniture job includes tufting, you need to do the tufting first and THEN pull the textile tight. You need to pull the buttons through, safeguard them tightly and then pull the fabric tight. The first reason to do this is to make certain that you can pull the switches to develop the tufted appearance, and if the fabric is currently strict, you will not be able to pull the buttons tight sufficient. The second factor for this is ensure that the fabric is limited enough when the tufting is finished.
10. Acquire extra material (1-2 yards if your budget allows). The wingback chair that I just completed with my friend Leslie reminded me exactly how vital this tip is.
Doing a step by step, detailed furniture tutorial might be out of my league; however, I have actually located a wonderful wingback tutorial over at Creative Mavin that shows some great illustrations on just how to reupholster. I was very impressed by her detailed directions, and of course I LOVED the fabric she chose (it coincides fabric I have on my ottoman).
I have thought about doing a detailed tutorial on ways to reupholster, but have come to the final thought that it would be extremely tough for many reasons. The primary one is that EACH AND EVERY SINGLE chair that you upholster will certainly be different. I have yet to duplicate the same techniques two times. I mean it when I say in my reupholstery 101 article that you have to pay attention to how the chair was put together when you take it apart. It helps to take mental notes.:-RRB-.
This bad boy was a nightmare. Ha ha. We had to re-do the arms several times due to the curvature on the arms.