Our Story
Welcome To South West Upholstery
Our business is a real family affair started in Bristol by three generations of the Ball family in Grandad John’s garden shed.
John, Andy & Ryan all worked together undertaking seating repair, recovering for buses and coaches. In the early days this was part time work on evenings and weekends alongside John & Andy’s regular jobs but Ryan had a burning passion for business from a young age and took the plunge to take on the business full time and learn the trade alongside his Grandad, driving it forward from their shed to where they are today.
The home of high-quality Bristol Upholsters. Our family-run business started out 25 years ago in our small garden shed in Bristol.
Since then we have steadily grown to become the most recognised upholstery business in Bristol and probably across the UK for quality & service. Offering a wide range of upholstery, re-upholstery, new furniture and soft furnishings to both commercial & domestic customers.
We offer a wide range of upholstery, re-upholstery and new furniture services for every project, from three-piece suites, armchairs, banquette seating to the creation of bespoke furniture. Our Bristol Upholsters really can do it all. We also provide upholstery services for contract customers including pubs, clubs, hotels, and restaurants, as well as reupholstery for motorhomes, caravans and boats, foam replacement, furniture spraying or French polishing, and so much more!
We are your one-stop-shop for all your upholstery needs regardless of where you are in the UK (we cover the whole UK!) and look forward to hearing from you.
Get in touch to speak with our team of friendly Bristol upholsters!
Meet the Team
Ryan
Managing Director
Andy
Director
Abbie
General Manager
Catherine
Rachel
Head of Finance
Kim
Office Secretary
Jordan
Workshop Manager
Robert
Upholsterer
Sam
CNC Cutting
Mahmoud
CNC Cutting & Quality
Pawel
Upholsterer
Eddy
Mike
Upholsterer
Finn
Upholsterer
Alan
Upholstery Team
Aaron
C & D Team
Lottie
Upholsterer
Toby
Designer
Aidan
Designer
Brendan
Upholstery Team
Rhi
Sewing Team
Fatima
Sewing Team
Emma
Sewing Team
Jacob
Office Team
Suzanne
Office Team
Leanne
Office Team
Join Our Family
A Stitch In Time
1999
2003
Ryan dropped out of college to focus on the business, sending out leaflets and making phone calls to promote our upholstery services. He works closely with his Grandad to learn the trade.
2006
John left his regular job and joined the business full time. We moved to new larger premises, offering more services and a yard to take in larger orders for upholstery on vehicles.
2008
We moved to a large manufacturing unit which allows us to increase our output. We tailored our operation to the re-covering of single or double deck bus seating in one day as well as working with a number of pubs and restaurants.
2013
We acquired ‘Bobbie Burns Upholstery’, a well-known upholstery brand and after a major refurbishment of the building, we open up our first shop to the public.
2015
We opened a second shop in Bristol, expanding our high street presence and offering upholstery services and brand new furniture to our customers with a showroom experience.
2016
We purchase our North Street shop and workshop, rooting solid foundations on the high street in BS3 and begin a major overhaul of the building.
2018
We outgrew our workshop, so we purchased a 11,000 sq. foot unit for our upholstery operation. After some TLC, our team was thrilled with the extra space and better set up to serve our customers across the UK.
2022
We continue to increase our skilled team and offer more apprenticeships in upholstery along with investing in the best equipment for our great teams to use.
We close our retail shops bringing our teams under one roof and invite our customers into our new showroom to see our workshops at work too.