How to Upholster Furniture

Learning how to upholster furniture allows you to get results that are uniquely you. Upholstering furniture is not as difficult as most people think. Your choice of fabric can make this task difficult. If you choose a heavy fabric, it can be difficult to sew.

To upholster furniture, you will need:

• Your choice of fabric
• Upholstery tacks
• A hammer
• Glue
• Thread
• An upholstery needle
• A tape measure

1. Set down on paper exactly what you want the piece of furniture to look like when you are finished. Make sure your measurements are exact. This will help make sure you get enough material to work with. Purchase all required materials.
2. The first thing you are going to need to do is strip the piece of furniture you want to upholster. Take care when removing the existing upholstery as you can use it as a pattern to cut the new material.
3. Sand down the furniture. Be sure to remove any glue that was left after removing the upholstery. You can use a putty knife or a spatula to do this.
4. Seal the wood. This is an important step that is often left out because it is time consuming. It will add to the life of your furniture and will discourage insects from nesting there, so do not leave this step out.
5. Cut the new fabric to fit the piece of furniture you have chosen to upholster. Be sure to allow for seams.
6. Using the upholstery tacks, staple the new fabric to the piece of furniture. There are many decorative tacks to suit many different tastes.
7. The last thing to be done is cover the edges of the upholstery. Glue covers to your piece of furniture to cover up any visible edges.