Whether you purchased an antique furniture online or have a vintage piece you inherited from your grandparents, you must have considered restoring it to its original glory. When thinking of reupholstering antiques, you have to first consider factors that are important to you. Do you just want to refurbish the frames or want to make it usable? Do you want it restored to its original state or just revamp some rough patches?

Decide on the furniture’s purpose

Determine if your antique chair needs to be usable in your household or just serve as a statement piece in your living room that has historical value. This will help you consider the cost you want to spend on the furniture and decide on the specific parts to reupholster.

Consider the condition of your furniture

Most owners see their furniture in its original state, in which they only see the relatively good condition of the fabric, and they fail to acknowledge that there might be underlying damages caused by the normal wear and tear. Antiques are more subjected to the inevitable decline of their parts and are therefore more in need of care.

It is vital that you have the furniture be thoroughly inspected instead of dismissing repair and just wanting to replace the covers. The true condition of your antique sofa or chair is seen when the padding is removed. The quality of the springs, frame, support linings and padding determines how much work is needed to be done.

Prepare for a higher cost

Reupholstering antiques is without a doubt more costly than upholstering modern furniture. Most of the time, antiques that are brought in for upholstery have more problems other than the cover. Frames are more brittle and, consequently, must be handled with care. Springs and padding are also most likely in need of repair. Additionally, attaching the cover on the antique wood involves extra care.

It is important to first designate a budget and browse around your local upholstery service to ask for quotes. Be wary for those who offer cheaper quotes. If you’re looking to have your antique for another decade or so, choosing a high-quality service is worth the investment, as opposed with having your antique be poorly handled because of lower costs. With a botched work, glue is applied to attach the materials, which can discolour the fabric. It also dries out, which will ultimately lead to dislocation. However, with a high end approach, upholsterers apply labour intensive hand sewing to finish a quality piece.

Visit showrooms

At South West Upholstery, we encourage you to visit our showrooms, see our team at work and view our quality for yourselves. Here you will see our work first-hand and the quality we offer.

Be active in the creative process

Reupholstering your antique also gives you a rare chance to have unique furniture that can only be found in your home. Be involved with your upholsterer in the creative process and know the wide variety of options you can choose from. Merge your ideas with the upholsterer and have a concrete visualisation for the actual product. Aside from drawings, images and inspiration boards, you can go as far as bringing your desired sample fabric so that your upholsterer can fully know what you desire.

With South West Upholstery, our friendly sales team can discuss your requirements in a no pressure environment. You can send drawing or photographs, browse a full range of fabric, leather and vinyl sample books on display and ask as many questions as you like.

Things To Consider About your Antique Furniture

• Frame. Check if all the joints of the frame are solid or loose. Shake every frame part to know if it needs regluing or repair.
• Padding. Check the condition of your padding and if it needs to be replaced. Know the material used and its cost. Enquire if attaching the padding involves a labour intensive process, especially with materials originally used in antiques such as horsehair, and ask for a rough quote. Modern materials like foam require little extra labour, so decide if you want to have the original material of your antique or go with a more modern one.
• Finish. Decide what type of service you want done with your antique, if you want a simple cleaning, a full restoration or a refinishing.
• Springs. Know if the existing springs are in good shape or if they are in need of replacement. Your antique furniture may be using springs that are no longer available today, so you have to decide if you want to reuse the springs of your antique, if still usable, or go with more modern long lasting ones.

If you’re looking to have your antique restored or reupholstered, look no further than South West Upholstery. As experts in our field we are able to offer a range of options depending on your needs. We cover every requirement for your household upholstery, re-upholstery and soft furnishing needs using our highly experienced upholsterers and sewing machinist. We do the job once and properly so it will last for many years to come, and as such we offer a 2 year guarantee for any works we carry out. If you have any enquiries or if you want to book a visit, contact us on 0117 370 2745 / 0117 332 0800 or email us at [email protected] and one of our friendly sales team will reach out to you promptly.