Upholstery Episode 1

Posted 7 October 2015

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For this method of upholstery, the first step is to cut a piece of plywood to fit into the recess with a small even gap around every side. He removes all the hard edges and bores the holes to allow air escape before cutting the foam to fit. With the prep done Paul cuts the leather to the approximate size.

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18 Comments

  1. Nice video, but I think your tolerances might be unnecessarily tight?. ( You could easily leave a bit more clearance all the way around, with less risk of pinching the leather cover at assembly). Also, using cardboard to make the initial seat pattern might simplify fitting the plywood, esp if you had to do multiple chairs. Multi prong T-nuts and ¼ or 5/16 inch bolts are the typical way these seats are installed in factory made chairs. Great camera work as usual and thank you for the lesson.

  3. Perhaps I missed this, but Is there any particular weight/grade/kind of leather that is suitable for upholstery for seats? What should we be looking for?

    many thanks,

    SV

    2. Good question! I also laughed a little when he said “Leather isn’t expensive, not for this” when I looked a few weeks ago I struggled to find anything that was a reasonable price to play with. I must be looking in the wrong places!

      I’d love to know where Paul got his leather, and more importantly, what he asked for.

    3. This one seemed affordable: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MVJ3D34 – the 10 ft^2 should be enough for covering 3 seats or so (you may need to call the seller to get a 2’x5′ hide – they seem accommodating that way). That works out to about 20$/chair for the leather.

      Depending on what you want, fabric would cost about 15-20$/yard (= 15ft^2) (working off my less than perfect memory of prices at Michael’s), so around 5-7$/chair.

    4. I buy my hides on eBay and can buy a good upholstery hide for about £120 which gives me 6-8 seats. A full hide is about 50 square feet. You can usually buy half a hide or a single seat size too. In the USA go to Abe’s leather or go online again. Abe has all his hides on eBay too. Very nice leather.

  5. I too am quite interested in knowing where Paul purchases his inexpensive leather! I guess the process would be the same if one decided to use fabric as a substitute?
    Very informative as usual.
    Thank you Paul & your team
    bob

  9. I am at the upholstery stage, and also wonder what weight leather I should be looking for. One local gentleman suggested 3-4 oz would be fine. When I felt it I wasn’t sure it was heavy enough.

    Does Paul have any suggestions?

    Dan

  11. Wouldn’t it be easier to make a paper template first? That way the cuts can be optimised and less leather is wasted. A template made from an old newspaper would do. That is how my mom used to do it.

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