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Textured fabrics, vibrant colors and fresh designs can liven up any space when upholstered furnishings are redone. Yet, local experts caution that sometimes it makes sense to just buy new.
Robb Begley, co-owner of Begley Upholstering in Clintonville, purchased the family business from his parents in 1998 along with his brother, Tim. Here he sits in the area where customers choose the fabrics for their reupholstering projects.
Tim Johnson
There is no doubt that reupholstering furniture can be costly. After all, a simple update of fabric on an antique sofa could result in coils needing to be replaced, seat cushions needing to be remade and other necessary structural enhancements. The cost can soar upwards of $1,500 per sofa due, in part, to the specially trained craftsmen who will ensure that the furniture is repaired, updated and done to the client’s specifications.
Interior designer David A. Berg is effusive about the upsides of reupholstering. Doing so is “a good way to recycle, renew or revive a piece that might otherwise have been disposed of,” he says, adding that flea markets and second-hand stores are excellent places to shop for furniture worth reupholstering.
The craft of repairing or re-covering furniture, seat cushions or just about anything, reupholstering is a time-trusted approach for ensuring longer life for items too good or sentimental to simply throw away, says Justin McAllister.
McAllister knows all about the art and craft of reupholstering; he’s a fourth generation owner of Fortner Upholstering, and its vice president of sales. Longevity seems to be the long suit of most employees of the company, established in 1929. “We have a lot of upholsterers who have been with us over 30 years,” he says. When his grandfather ran the family business, “it was always less expensive to upholster than to buy new furniture,” he says. “There’s a value to reupholstering.”
While today it is taken for granted, upholstered furniture wasn’t even an issue until the 1930s, explains Robb Begley, the second generation owner of Clintonville-based Begley Upholstering. “People think upholstery’s been around forever but it hasn’t. It was in the 1950s when people really began to need reupholstering,” says Begley, whose parents started the family business in 1968. He bought it from them in 1998.
Today, though, he is surprised at the requests he sometimes gets. “You’d be amazed at what some people want to reupholster,” he says. “At least once a week, I tell people to ‘kick it to the curb.’ I am very straightforward with people about that.”
Others agree. “Every project presents its own personalized set of challenges,” says Berg. “It’s my job to sift through and showcase the best of whatever the client presents. Whether it’s grandma’s chair or an 18th century wingback chair found in a Parisian flea market, both are equally important. It’s my job to find a place for them,” he says.
Berg also is blunt when it comes to an item that is not worthy of the reupholstering expense. Certainly not every piece of furniture is actually worth the investment, at least from a monetary standpoint. When this is the case, Berg takes a tactful, businessman’s approach to help a customer determine the value of the “bones” of the furniture before seriously considering the option to reupholster.
Begley describes quality furniture as “erected with a hardwood frame, potentially from maple or oak, featuring coil spring construction. The frame will be doweled to create sturdier joints. Inferior furniture is constructed with glue and crate stapling, and often out of particle board.”
In his opinion, as long as an item is well-constructed, “there’s nearly no limit what can be reupholstered.” He’s thrilled to see new clients, especially younger ones, who bring their mid-century modern furniture to be reupholstered in what he calls “fun and hip fabrics.”
“I love seeing furniture being repurposed for continued life,” he adds.
Updating colors
Once a piece of furniture has been selected for reupholstering, experts advise choosing stylish fabrics that will blend with a room’s décor for years to come. Choices range from cooler summer colors to warm colors, such as red, for fall and winter. Even though there may be a temptation to select cost-efficient fabrics found on sale at various outlets, seriously consider what will have an everlasting effect in your overall décor scheme, including the textures and patterns that are involved.
Cary Gerschutz, an interior designer with Darron’s Contemporary Furniture, says that gray is the “new neutral” for many items. In addition to gray, taupe is warmer for upholstery during summer months while hot colors for the coming fall will be charcoal, purple, olive, rose, teal, clay, yellow and red.
Trends and colors tend to change every season, but fabrics in the purple hue are “popular all year round,” says Gerschutz. In the fall and winter months, she suggests pairing fabrics that are deeper and darker in color, while in the spring and summer, lighter tones and neutrals are favored.
To Sylvia Watson, owner of Healing Environments with Feng Shui, reupholstering means more than changing the colors or textures of fabrics. “Feng shui is about the interaction of a person with his or her environment,” she says. “It is a two-way conversation that adapts to a person’s evolving emotional, physical and financial needs so that he or she can meet and even exceed their desires and expectations. It is a blending of color, textures and shapes that evoke certain emotions and behaviors with the goal of setting the stage for happiness and success.” The quintet of feng shui elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
For example, when encouraging congeniality and flowing conversation in a dining room is a homeowner’s goal, feng shui suggests that the element of fire be introduced into the room. Red, the color most often associated with fire, is the most yang of all feng shui elements, says Watson. That means it is active, vibrant and moving. Fabrics adorned with some semblance of triangles, animals or even leathers are the strongest representatives of this element.
The earth element is ideal for environments designed for comfort. Thus, earth tones such as beige, tan, peach, yellow, brown and even plaids comprised of those colors are appropriate for family rooms since they evoke the emotions of security and stability, says Watson. For those reasons, she suggests that earth tones also are an excellent choice for the bedrooms of hyperactive children.
Squares best represent the earth element, and upholstery featuring that shape is an excellent way of infusing the calming influence of earth tones into an environment, advises Watson.
A dying art?
Despite all of the choices available when reupholstering furniture, local experts express concern that in a throw-away society, their art is dying.
“Upholstering is the greatest craft,” says Begley. Unfortunately, it also may be a dying one due to the skill and expertise that is required.
“It’s more difficult to find someone who pays attention to the details of classic upholstering. We are losing those craftsmen and that is a shame,” adds Berg. The hectic pace of our everyday lives is a primary reason reupholsterers are becoming increasingly scarce.
That frenzied lifestyle translates into “less attention being paid to the detailing in upholstery,” adds Berg.
Despite today’s consumers enjoying more choices in textures, finishes, colors and designs when considering reupholstering a piece of furniture, fewer artisans are learning the craft of upholstery.
“The next generation of craftsmen will be difficult to find because reupholstering is a lost art,” says McAllister.
Begley surmises, though, that the nation’s soured economy has actually benefited his firm. “People are staying in their homes and keeping what they own,” he says. “So they’re investing money in reupholstering.”
Tami Kamin-Meyer is a freelance writer.
