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How to Re-Upholster Your Sofa Yourself


Save Money by Breathing New Life into Your Living Room Furniture

© 2011 by Asha Stuttard; All rights reserved; content may not be copied, rewritten, or republished without webmaster’s written permission.

Brown drapes, wallpaper, and sofa, photo courtesy of Merala


Brown drapes, wallpaper, and sofa, photo courtesy of Merala


This article was updated on 09/01/20.

If you’re sprucing up your own home and the costs are running a little further north than you anticipated — as always seems to be the case — why not consider hanging on to your old fabric sofas for a little while ’ and giving them a bit of a face lift yourself?

Although this article is focused on couches, bear in mind that once you’ve successfully re-upholstered this piece and you have a good idea of how the process works, you can do your chairs, loveseat, etc.

It’s not half as difficult as you might imagine. I know; I’ve done it — and here’s how. First off, carefully remove the old sofa’s cover pieces piece by piece and keep a note of which piece goes where.

In most cases, the fabric is stapled to the bottom of the frame. You will probably also need to remove the feet. In most cases they will simply unscrew. Try to keep the fabric pieces in one piece if at all possible.

Use the Old Fabric as a Template

Now place the pieces on your newly chosen fabric, cutting out the new fabric out with an inch or two to spare all round. Chances are you will need to do a bit of sewing. One good way to take care of this chore is to pick up an inexpensive hand-held “sewing machine” on-line at Amazon.com.

For the next, you’ll need to gradually replace the old pieces in reverse order, carefully stretching the new fabric into place. You can use a good staple gun for this job, fastening one side at a time — which makes things a lot easier and quicker.

You may need a little extra stuffing here and there; it all depends on how old the old sofa is and how worn/compressed its insides have become. Once again, look to Amazon.com for supplies. On the other hand, if you are stuffing an arm cushion and it is a bit tight, a bit of spray silicone on the stuffing will help.

Doing up an old sofa in this way is something of a pro-tem solution unless you’re a real expert, but it will make your home look a lot smarter for relatively little effort, very little cost, and a little creativity particularly in the use of color and materials.

Alternate Ways to Upgrade Your Furniture

Another alternative is to try your hand at getting hold of a good free second hand sofa and chairs to match. There are plenty of websites for people who want to get rid of their old furnishings without simply throwing it away or selling it for relative pennies.

These websites are always worth checking out if you’re trying to do up your home cost effectively. One of the best ones is Craigslist. Then again, sofas are cheaper than ever these days, relatively speaking, so it may be easier to find the best sofas sale you can and doing it that way. It’s all horses for courses. So there you have it; you don't have to be an expert to re-upholster your sofa.


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About the Webmaster:

Photo of Kelly R. Smith and Frankie, Southern Black Mouth CurKelly R. Smith was a commercial carpenter for 20 years before returning to night school at the University of Houston where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science. After working at NASA for a few years, he went on to develop software for the transportation and financial and energy trading industries. He has been writing, in one capacity or another, since he could hold a pencil. As a freelance writer now, he specializes in producing articles and blog content for a variety of clients. His personal blog is at I Can Fix Up My Home Blog where he muses on many different topics.

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Article © 2011 Asha Stuttard; All rights reserved; content may not be copied, rewritten, or republished without Webmaster’s written permission.