We have a roughly 20 year old glider rocker made by Best Chairs, Inc. of Ferdinand, IN. The chair has been incredible. It has lasted through raising four girls and remains solid. quiet and impressively intact.
Now that we are shifting to more mid and high quality pieces, we need to address the upholstery. The chair has a loose seat pad placed on it, and a back pad which snaps onto the chair back. One of the snap straps has torn from the pad, but the rest of the support are actually in good shape. We are changing design from "what we could afford" to a traditional/country style. We just purchased a leather couch, and have been gradually migrating from a light blue theme to browns and tans.
My question is how do you source a reupholsterer who can update the cushion and backing to match a 20 year old chair? How do you know a mid to high quality upholsterer from a low quality one? And how to you select what to use for upholstery on the chair now that the design of our other furniture has changed? I know the base chair will last a long time, so I want to get the design and performance of the new upholstery to match the longevity of the chair itself.
Most good re-upholstery shops have fabric samples in their store and you can see work in various stages being done (and some completed work). Don't use people that work out of their homes or in a run-down store where the workers are all smoking as they staple. Pay a visit to a few of these shops and you'll see very quickly which look like they do good work and can advise on fabrics and which cannot. Take some decent photos of your chair with you as you make the investigative trips (not ones on your cell phone, but an iPad one is fine).
Duane Collie
Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.
To pick an company to reupholstery is always a gamble. I chose a company based on several great jobs they had done for me over the past forty years.
I had two twenty plus years old henredon fireside club chairs reupholstered. They were delivered back to me with the down filled lumbar cushions replaced with 12 inch square non zippered hard as rocks throw pillows, the skirts on the back of each chair was pieced together from scrap material. the box pleats on each front corner was of different lengths. The cost of my mistake was almost four thousand dollars. Now these two chairs after three returns to the shop sit in my living room and poke my eyes out everytime I walk thru. I can not wait until another grandchild wants to furnish a first apartment and is willing to take ugly if it is free. I did not know father that did my previous work had retired and sons had taken over the business. They were definately doing OJT on my chairs.