Furniture Frames

[the_g_ster]

Hello

In the continued quest to not have to venture into MFi or DFS does anybody have any plans, or know of any good books on building the actual frames for 2/3 seater traditional sofa's and wing back chairs?

In a stroke of stupidity I will try and upholster them too.

I know a bit of a distant one, but any tips appreciated.

Cheers.

The G

 

[Paul Chapman]

Whenever I've taken upholstered settees and armchairs apart, they are invariably made with quite crude frames, constructed with substantial chunks of wood held together with large nuts and bolts - crude but seems to work

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[j]

Norm :norm: has doen a few of these, Yesterday on discovery RT he made a leather footstool.

The woodworking seemed very simple, just doweled joints, with corner braces, I think they were just nailed in. The legs were turned, but if you don't need legs you don't need to worry about that.

All the tricky bits were to do with the upholstering.

HTH
J

 

[Evergreen]

The G

There's an upholstery shop just along the road from where I live. In his shop window, the upholsterer puts various unclad frames of armchairs and sofas and alongside them, fully upholstered versions so customers can choose whatever finish they fancy. The unclad frames have always interested me because, as Paul has pointed out, they are shockingly crude. The timber is often rough sawn and all sorts of screws, bolts and yes, even nails, are used in conjunction with glue and metal fastenings to hold them together.

I think to build the frame of an armchair would be relatively straightforward because high precision joinery is definitely not required. But the upholstery stage? Now that's a different matter because comfort and appearance are all important and upholstery is a skilled occupation. A sofa or armchair would be one helluva first project to undertake on your own. I've known several people take upholstery courses at nightschool - if I remember correctly, they started with a footstool!

Regards.

 

[Paul Chapman]

But the upholstery stage? Now that's a different matter because comfort and appearance are all important and upholstery is a skilled occupation.

Last year at Ally Pally there was an upholsterer who had been doing it all his life. My wife and I spent quite a while watching him and chatting to him about his work. It was really fabulous, high quality stuff. He also had some albums showing pictures of the stuff he had done over the years. Quite inspirational. Don't know if he'll be there this year - can't remember his name unfortunately, but I won't forget his work :wink: I think he was on a stand with some educational establishment which ran courses.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[the_g_ster]

Hi,

Where's this shop in Hampshire then? I may check that out?

I am a little ambitious I know in trying to upholster it. I have already managed to do some things that people said "no way" to, so quite looking forward to it. (Think I am just a little mad)

As for Ally Pally, I am tempted to go, maybe friday afternoon.

G

 

[Colin C]

I have repaired lot of frames and can also say that the frames are basic in construction but the upholstery is not going to be so easy.

If you get a good book on it, some thing like this one, it should get you started in the right direction.

Good luck with it

 

[Scrit]

Hi G-ster

I'd recommend you take a look at a couple of books, "Upholstery: The Complete Course" and "Upholstery Techniques & Projects" both by David James (GMC Publications). Whilst neither cover the making of the frames there is sufficient detail to work-out the shapes of frames beneath the upholstery. As others have said, upholstered frames are rought as a dog's back and frequently held toigether with hot melt and staples, but the better quality frames have always been made using beech or ash and dowelled together - a technique still used by one firm I know of, Vale Upholstery.

As an aside a friend and colleague of mine trained at Burnley under Bevan Guy many years ago and currently runs his own upholstery business nearby. If you'd like any photos of frames he's is currently doing, complete with dimensions, I'd be happy to oblige, although I will warn you that he generally uses stapled solid hardwood frames as people simply won't pay the premium for dowelled construction. I'll be down there tomorrow as I'm delivering an Ottoman box frame for him. What sort of thing are you looking for?

Regards

Scrit

 

[Wanlock Dod]

G,

I say go for it, I am firmly of the belief that I/you/we can do anything that we put our minds to. Look at it this way, the chap in the posh upholstery factory thats doing those fantastic sofas etc. is most likely just like yourself (i.e. a human being), he's just a bit better practiced than you are. I also have a bit of an inkling that it isn't necessarially cheaper (especially if you consider the cost of time), but may be more satisfying than working the overtime.

I'm also in agreement with the comments above on the general crudeness of most upholstered stuff, except for the bits that can actually be see, which tend to look great.

Cheers,

Dod

 

[Paul Chapman]

When I first saw the crude way upholstered furniture was made, I was quite surprised. However, when you think through how some people treat their furniture and allow their kids to use settees as trampolines (or worse), constructing them with joints held together by heavy-duty bolts and nuts is quite sensible. This is particularly so when you consider that the joints would usually be uneconomic to repair if they were to fail, as it would involve taking off the upholstery then replacing it.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[the_g_ster]

All,

Thanks for the responses, very much appreciated.

Scrit, : Thanks for offer, if it's okay any single seat high back chairs that your guy has would be good, I think that's what I shall start on. I am still learning this woodwork lark but didnt yet want to turn to the dark side by throwing something togther, so will look at a proper job. I have already invested in an excellent book and luckily the tools cost peanuts too.

Wanlock: Agreed, you can do anything if you set your mind to it.

Paul: Agreed, I am concerned that is secure, more for fact of if you go to all efffort to do all of it yourself and something works loose then that would be pretty gutting. Abuse wise it will only get me passing out on it having had a few too many and a very large curry.

Cheers,

The G

 

[Evergreen]

Hi G

The place I know is in Ringwood Road, Totton (junction 3 of the M27, turn south down the M271 and keep going until you hit the water). They do high quality work but often get fully committed with big refurb contracts for the cruise liners docking in Southampton.

Regards.

 

[Anonymous]

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[johnnyb]

i used to make built in upholstery for clubs etc. the uprights were usually joined with m and t s the rest, the cross pieces rounded parts etc were always stapled together(big staples) on a ply wood template. really simple. the difficult bit was laying these out to fit in their correct places away from the job, in the workshop.

 

[staffie]

G,
Have a go, its time consuming and lots of fun.

I built a 3 seater sofa and single chair about 12 years ago, in SA. Still have the sofas in the lounge.

As many have said used crude pine for most of the construction and one or two hardwood pieces for the seat frames.

Basically made 4 frames, one box section for the seat, two armrest sections and a backrest section.
All screwed together at final assembly after upholstry.

I didn't have any plans but did rip apart an old sofa and used that as a basic design template.

The most difficult was the upholstery, a layer of hard compressed foam, sculpetd to correct shape, (4 inches on seat 1.5 inches on arms), a layer of hard foam (2 inches on seat, 1/2 inch on arms).
Finally a layer of soft foam (1 inch on seat 1/2 inch) with a final layer of down stuffing. All foam is stapled to the frames.

I must admit that after 3 failed attempts to upholster the sofa in leather I had to call in a mate who was an upholsterer and he finished the upholstery on the sofa and left me to do the chair. The chair looks OK but not as good as the sofa.

All in all a great experience, learnt a ton but wont do it again soon.

Hope I got the picture URL link correct.

jock

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[Scrit]

I've been over to my good friend, the upholsterer, this afternoon so here (belatedly ) are some photos of a more traditional low-back chair frame and its matching settee frame so that g_ster can at least see what's involved. The legs are beech whilst the rest is in sycamore;

Assembly is a combination of glued dowels, 16g nails, staples and screws. I hope there's enough detail in there for you to see the construction. Main thing to note is that the joints are all cut square and checked before any shaping is done and that all the parts are marked out using a full-size plywood or hardboard template. If the part is "3D", i.e. has curves in two axes it is marked out top and side on a piece of timber, the top cuts made on the bandsaw, the waste is then taped back on and the side cuts made. My friend has a couple of high back armchairs coming in later this week, so I'll see if I can cadge a few more photos when I deliver his Ottoman boxes

Scrit

 

[the_g_ster]

Scrit,

Superb, that's very helpful indeed. With a bit of time I should be able to get something togther like that. The wood thankfully is a bit cheaper than what I have been using of late, so if a make a faux pas then I won't be saying too many four letters words.

Regards, G.