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Thread: Basics

  1. #1
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    Default Basics

    Upholstery Basics. Shifting gears here, let's jump into some upholstery topics - again, this is VERY general and not specific to one brand or another.

    How do YOU, the consumer, tell if an upholstered piece is well made? It's pretty difficult to do when its in the showroom, because what you really need to see is all covered up with fabric! Very simply, let's not focus on comfort so much on an individual piece, but how the unit is made. Typically a manufacturer will use the same construction across his line, so if you like what you see, it's going to be a pretty safe bet to custom order a piece that you might not be able to see.


    First off, stand back and look at the piece. When a maker goes to lay out a pattern, he can decide how much panel matching he wants to do. That is, if the fabric is anything but dead plain, you have to match it up like you do when hanging wallpaper. The more matching you do, the more yardage you use up (especially in large repeats) and the higher skill your worker needs to have.


    The best upholstery is fully matched, all the way around, on all panels. Best fabric matching I've seen comes from Hancock and Moore, and Southwood Furniture, both premium upholstery shops (granted, I don't see every maker and every brand). Even at a basic level, the cushion and seat back should match - so never accept less that that. I received a Flexsteel chair in the other day where the match on the front panel to the cushion deck was horrid, I couldn't believe it...sloppy.


    Test the arms of the piece. The all flex somewhat, but give them a push outwards and see how much. Better furniture does not have a lot of flex. Try that from brand to brand and you will see a difference. Keep in mind tha motion furniture will always have more flex than stationary, as motion furniture has far less tie-in points to the frame. If you get a lot of movement in the arms when you push them out, or if they squeak, avoid that piece.


    Look at the tailoring. Fabric (and leather) had to be pulled around the corners and attached, over foam or felt as the underlayment. Does the fabric pucker? It shouldn't. Is the fabric on "up the bolt" or did they "railroad" it? Most upholstery and fabrics are designed to go 'up the bolt', however this requires a sewn seam every 54" and more workmanship. "Railroading" means laying the fabric sideways (90 degrees from "up the bolt") but your pattern is usually going sideways as well...unless the fabric was specifically woven to run railroaded. Some to it far better than others. Again, best tailoring I see comes from Hancock & Moore. There's an art to it, and at then end of the day tailoring is nothing more than Pride in Workmanship and a certain skill set.


    Legs. The big bugaboo of upholstery. This is where most companies make shortcuts. It's also a mixed bag. There are times I'm really glad that legs come off so we can get big sofas through narrow doorways and other times I hate those spinoff legs because the nail-in metal grommet with the screws either falls out or is intalled crooked. Hard to fix when that happens....in fact you really can't fix them with out tearing the sofa apart so you fudge-in a make do on those. For myself, I prefer legs that stay on the piece all the time and just hope the customer has a wider doorway when delivery day comes.


    Now to the inside. Ask to see the catalog, for every maker that builds a piece of upholstery right is proud of it and has an exploded interior view of their upholstery in the main book. What you're looking for is construction specifics and springs.


    Hardwood frames (such as maple) are considered the best. The industry standard for construction of these is 'double-doweled', screwed and glue blocks. You are not going to find mortise and tenon joinery in upholstery frames unless you go to high-end specialists like Richard Herzog in PA.
    Second tier construction is furniture-grade hardwood plywood, which has a lot of stability and will cost less than solid wood frames. These hold up well over time and many mid-level companies use this method.
    Avoid frame materials such as the reinforced cardboard that Laz-Z-Boy uses in their backs for obvious reasons.


    Springs! There are sinuous springs (I call them zig-zags), Coil springs and then metal tension bands (such as used in Flexsteel). This is your support structure for your cushions. The best is a coil spring, and the most costly. You'll have an 8-way hand-tied unit on the seating deck and a 4-way hand-tied in the back. They are the nicest to sit on, and most supportive. If truly a hand-knotted tie, (not 8-way looped as you seen on the video at Classic Leather's web site) if a string breaks over time, the spring will stay down as it still has 6 knots holding it. On loop-ties, if a string goes, UP COMES THE SPRING! The devil is in the details......
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Default

    Cushions!

    First of all, lets dispel the myth of 'foam cushions', in decent furniture you do not get a piece of inexpensive block foam that is cut, covered in muslin and shoved in the casement. There is actually quite a bit of engineering and design work that goes into a good cushion.


    The industry standard is Dupont Qualex, a synthetic high density foam that is ofter wrapped in a down ticking (a ticking is a pocketed outer cover with room inside to stuff a cushioning material of some sort). There are superb cushions and not easy to source as a replacement, so think twice before you toss them during a reupholster job. These cushions are comfortable, have excellent shape retention and are particularly well-suited for leather as they keep their form well.


    Down cushions are typically an upgrade that you pay more for as an option. There are various levels of down and feathers used in cushions and one maker might have three option levels depending on that mix. Down is more plush, but moves around more and requires some 'fluffing' to return to its shape. It can shift in seat backs sometimes (but not always) leaving you with an unsightly back cushion as it ages - depending on style and form.
    Down is further divided into two types: Marshall Unit and then loose down (the latter being what exactly what it sounds like). A Marshall unit is a spring core, where there are hundreds of small springs in sleeves, each surrounded by a 'box'. The down goes in the 'box" as well as a wrapped ticking over the whole thing. Unlike loose down, a Marshall unit will spring back (hence the name 'spring down') to about 80% of its shape after being sat upon, so the piece needs less fluffing.


    I do not personally care for down in my leather furniture, nor do most people in the trade -however its great for fabric units. Down allows the leather to flex much more than a standard Qualex cushion which means as the piece ages it picks up hundreds of hairline cracks fro the flexing.
    Cushions shot? Even the best cushions wear out with use. Most better companies offer a lifetime guarantee on their cushions, so keep your model number/brand of the piece somewhere where you can find it ten years down the road and its likely you can get free inserts from the maker. Without the model/style number however - its nearly impossible to do.
    Deck springs. Lots of different ways to do these, from Flexsteels 'torsion spring leaf' to drop-in grids used by companies like Bradington-Young to individually hand-set as Hancock and Moore uses.


    The vast majority of companies use pre-built springs that come in a grid, and they have the grid sized for their frame, staple them in and then tie them together (8-way hand ties). Nothing wrong with this, its a good system. However the best companies like H&M place multi-density springs in the deck and set them in individually. What that means is there are higher (stiffer) sprinds in the back and outboard near the arms than in the center of the piece. The end result is that when you sit upon one of these , you don't 'fall into the crack' near the arm of the back. Try one and see when comparison shopping brands.


    While on the subject of springs and hand-tying, most factories cheat a little on the famous 8-way hand tied they like to brag about. Rather than tying the strings at every juncture into a knot, they loop them around th wire and go to the next one. That means if a string breaks, the spring comes up because the loops unravel. If the string is knotted at each point, and it breaks, the other seven will still hold the spring. I know for sure Hancock and Moore hand-knots each one, but not sure who else might as most do the looping technique.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  3. #3
    Brutuses Guest

    Default So tell me, who makes the best sofa?

    I want to buy a sofa that will last me the rest of my life which is about 15 more years, I think. Is Flex Steel not a good sofa? Who makes the best sofa's that don't cost over $5,000? Thanks

  4. #4
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    Default

    I sell Flexsteel as my 'low end' in my store. It's O.K. as reliable furniture, but its built with no finesse or tailoring. Certainly its sturdy enough and will perform decently, but its the square concrete block building in the land of houses made of brick and marble.

    It all comes down to a price point. A Flexsteel sofa will be in the $ 900 to $ 1,500 range, with most coming in about midpoint. If that's where you want to be, then you'll get a good, solid piece for that money. If you can step up closer to $ 2,000 then there are a lot more possibilities in truly fine furniture such as Hancock and Moore, Bradington Young or Southwood's "Design Your Own" collection or their Fairington Grouping. Any of those will blow Flexsteel away in terms of superior construction and craftsmanship.

    Check your local high end stores if you live in a larger area. Frequently there are big dollar sofas on the floor with good markdowns to move them out for fresh stock. In my store right now I have (4) high end sofas marked down to make way for fall inventory. Most I've knocked $ 500 or so off the regular selling price, so there are definitely deals to be had out there.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  5. #5
    Sarah Guest

    Default

    For mid-high end, I can highly recommend Massoud. Their products are all made in Dallas, Texas (with the exception of some of their carved, decorative chairs). I have a sofa, chair-and-a-half and ottoman made by them. The fabric match is outstanding all the way around. Their pieces are well-constructed and the items that I own look as good today as the day I purchased them in 2006. I did a lot of shopping & internet-research before buying my Massoud furniture and I agree with the reviews--it is some of the best furniture that you can buy in its price point.

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