When you are in the process of making or changing fabric designs of the furniture you may find yourself having to replace the upholstery foam. Perhaps the chair was not as soft as it could be or it lost its softness too quickly. Whatever the reasons, you may wish to replace the upholstery foam. The problem is that there are a lot of products out there that you can use which can make this seemingly easy purchase much more difficult than it has to be. The following article will help you determine what makes an upholstery good or bad. Thick or Thin: The Choice is Yours You will come to find out rather quickly that the thickness of upholstery foam is varied. Some states have furniture flammable laws so if you are in one of these states (check with your upholsterer) you may be locked in to a certain kind of foam that is rated as fire resistant. If you are lucky and you are left to choosing it on your own then consider the item you are having upholstered. The ultimate use of the furniture will determine how thick the foam should be.
Dining room chairs as an example would typically prefer a medium soft foam (2.8 rating) but if you're after extra comfort then you could always go much softer than that if you like. Seat back cushions are typically much firmer than the seat cushion so keep that in mind when having chairs upholstered. The Cost of Upholstery Foam The price for upholstery foam is based on sheets of one specific size and weight as well as thickness in some cases. Some shops will offer custom sizing and pricing for upholstery foam if you do not need the large pieces will normally sell. Expect the price to be slightly higher per square foot than if you bought in larger sheets and then cut yourself. Upholstery foam can range from $12.00 a sheet (sold in 24 by 24 by 2 inch sections for dining room chairs) to over $126.00 a sheet (6 by 24 by 84 inch). Upholstery foam is rated in density by a 2 digit number ranging from 18 to 35 with a decimal point between the 2 numbers so a #18 foam would be 1.8 foam.
This is determined by 2 factors: urethane and air. The more urethane that is present in the foam means that the foam will have a higher density. A #18 foam would translate to 1.8 pounds of urethane in each cubic foot of the foam which equals 12 by 12 by 12 inch. This density foam would not be very popular as a seat cushion because it would be too thin but could make a nice back cushion. The most popular upholstery foam is as follows: 1.8 (extra soft, used as back cushions) 2.4 (comfortable soft, firmer back cushions) 2.7 (soft, Soft seat but firm back cushions) 2.8 (medium soft, medium soft seat) 2.7 (medium, medium seat) 2.8 (firm, typically a 2 inch thick dining room chair) The choice is ultimately up to you.Last week I had little time for cooking because I was up to my elbows in a DIY project: reupholstering our dining room chairs. Sam and I have eight dining room chairs that were sorely in need of a facelift. The original beige fabric was badly soiled and beyond the magical cleaning powers of Oxi-Clean.
Instead of trying to clean them, we decided the best course was to reupholster them. I am fairly new to the household DIY scene, but thankfully my mom was willing to help me with this project. Here’s a day-by-day overview of our project. I picked up my mom from the BART station and we drove straight to Sal Baressi fabrics in SOMA. Type in “fabric store in San Francisco” on Yelp! and you’ll find Sal Baressi is the top-rated store, with 4.5 stars. Not only that, they specialize in upholstery fabric. I haven’t been to many fabric stores, but my mom, who used to sew all her clothes, was in heaven in Sal Baressi because the selection was amazing. It was fun to walk around and touch all the fabrics. Suddenly I fancied myself a seamstress and began plotting sewing projects: this fabric would make a great throw pillow or that one a cute oilcloth lunch bag. Plenty of fodder for creativity. With the dining chair seat cushion in hand, we walked up and down the aisles and in and out of rooms of the 9000 sq. ft. warehouse to find the perfect fabric.
Our mission was to find something that was versatile and would not show dirt. We decided to use a chenille fabric with yellow, orange, red and green tones and a large paisley-like flower pattern. It perfectly fit the bill of what we were looking for: versatile and easy to keep clean. The retail price is $36/yard, but everything in the store is always 40% retail price, meaning it was $21.60/yard. We bought three yards for the eight cushions. Back at my house, we unscrewed the rest of the seat cushions from the chairs and removed the decorative cording and black buckram-like fabric, which had been stapled onto the wooden underside of the cushion. Prying off the staples was surprisingly one of the most time consuming and difficult parts of the project. After completing that task, we cut out squares of the new fabric and stapled it right on top of the old beige fabric. Stapling the fabric along the sides of the cushion was easy, but it took more thought to carefully and decoratively gather the fabric up around the edges.
on how to reupholster a chair offered some helpful advice and guidance as we tackled our project. In 6 hours, we picked out our fabric, removed staples from the cushions and covered two cushions with the new fabric. The next day, I loaded all the cushions, fabric and one chair frame into my car and drove to my parents’ house. In about three hours my mom and I finished stapling the rest of the fabric on the remaining six cushions. Three hours may sound like a long time for covering six cushions, but he staple gun is physically difficult to use and we found ourselves needing to take breaks to give our hands a rest. After waffling about whether the chairs needed a decorative cording (which we would have to sew ourselves), we decided we would do it because it would give the chairs a more finished look. On my way home, I dropped by Sal Baressi’s and bought more fabric and raw cording to make the decorative cording. The people at Sal Baressi’s are so helpful in figuring out what type and how much fabric you need for your project.
It is such a fun experience to simply be in the store—go visit! I made another trip to my parents’ house. My mom and I cut strips of fabric on the bias (i.e. diagonally), which is important so that it “gives” when you wrap and sew it around the cording. After trying to get my mom’s old sewing machine to work, we called up my aunt and asked if we could finish the sewing at her house using her machine. She agreed and we were set to finish the sewing—and hopefully the project—on Sunday. After two hours of work and with no sewing to do, I decided to take advantage of being in the suburbs and washed and vacuumed our car. (Somehow it’s incredibly difficult to wash your car in the City!) The party got bigger: my mom, sister Laurel and I drove to my Aunt Barbara’s across the Golden Gate Bridge. My mom and aunt figured out how to piece together the strips on the bias so we have strips 59” long. Laurel and I watched and stayed out of the way; our sewing knowledge is limited, but we’re eager to learn.
Once the strips were pieced together, my Aunt Barbara began sewing the fabric strips around the raw cording. I sewed the few strips, which was quite exciting for me since it was probably my third time to ever use a sewing machine. Meanwhile, my sister and mom stapled the decorative cording around the edges of the cushions. Within two hours, all of the decorative cording was sewn and stapled onto the cushions. Last step: screw the cushions back onto the chair frames. (not including BART tickets, auto gas or bridge tolls, which probably add $50 to the total) Total Work Time: 13 hours (not including travel time) Was it worth $152.99 and 13 hours of work? I believe it would have cost much more to have the chairs professionally reupholstered and it is so nice to have attractively covered chairs. A good bit of our 13 hours were spent familiarizing ourselves with the staple gun and sewing machines, so the next round of reupholstering would likely take even less time. Thanks Mom, Laurel and Aunt Barbara for your help and time with this project!