Making an upholstered chair

[gasman]

I wonder if anyone can help me? I want to make a rocking chair with a padded - ie upholstered seat. It needs to be quite small - the upholstered bit would need to be about 22" square. Can anyone point me in a good direction? I have some experience of upholstery having recently re-sprung and recovered a chaise longue, but I didn't touch the upholstery - just took the 'pad' off and then put it back on again when it was re-sprung. It would not necessarily have to be done with traditional horsehair / wadding etc - I do not ming using foam as long as it is comfortable.

 

[Recky33]

Need a bit more info if you can m8.

Is it going directly onto a solid seat like a pad and are the edges seen, if so what are you going to cover them with.

Is it going to be fitted to a frame thats reccessed in to the chair frame.

Are you planning on covering the whole seat area front to back and side to side with cover going down the side rails and under the bottom.

How high do you need it to finish from the frame

Allan

 

[Ironballs]

I got the plans for my Morris chair from Plans Now, they have plenty you can download for about 10 bucks and there are bound to be some that cover different types of upholstery.

My plans cover two types, a simple foam cushion on a ply base for the footstool and a foam and webbing seat for the chair. Looks complicated enough and I'm going to farm mine out to a local to do; I asked the upholstery tutor at my college if any of her students would be interested in doing it for cash, she didn't think they would be skilled enough yet to do a decent job. Which is my way of saying I'd think twice about doing it yourself if you want a nice job :lol:

 

[gasman]

Thank you both of you for your replies.
Ironballs I take your point about me being a rank amateur but I like a challenge and as I say I have done some upholstery before and understand the principles. If I cock it up I will not have ruined the frame so it would be salvageable by an expert.
Allan I was planning to make an open frame about 22" square with the sides about 4" x 1" morticed into the legs. Then I was going to put webbing across the bottom rebated into the frame sides. Then tie in 5 springs to the webbing and then cover them and tension them...... So I am looking for padding / foam to cover the springs so that I am left with a square sprung 'cushion' which will be about 3-4" higher than the top of the frame. The edges of the padding thus need to have some structure to them - so they retain their shape. I know in a traditional upholstery job this would be done with multiple layers and with multiple lines of stitches across the edge to keep the shape. I could not do this. My question was really whether there is a simpler modern replacement for this traditional upholstery technique?
I am planning a velvet cover which will come down and be tacked to the frame into a small rebate on the upper outside of the frame sides. The tacks will be covered with a 1/2 inch strip of braid / to match
That is my initial plan anyway

 

[Recky33]

Easyest way I can think of is to use foam, that way you don't need to web anything just board over the hole, then use recon foam or "crumb" which is like a foam version of chipboard, use a fairly firm grade about 2" thick with a 1" rap of something like CMHR40 over the top and down the sides, try to get this from an upholsterer not off the local market, Finish size this a good 1/2" bigger all round so it stays under tension when the cover is tightened over it .
You might find this a little on the firm side to start with depending on the grade of crumb used but it can only get softer with time.

HTH

Allan

 

[gasman]

Thanks Allan
I think as long as it is not too expensive I am going to give it a go. Is there an online store you could recommend to get the products you suggested?
Thanks
Mark

 

[Recky33]

Have a look in Yellow pages under upholsterer and go to the nearest one, with the financial climate at the moment they will sell to anyone, Hmm... that didn't seem to come out right, but you know what I mean.

Allan

 

[JWF]

Mark

There is little point in using springs with foam on top. The normal way is to use webbing on an open frame, with no bottom board. Springs are then tied onto the webbing and tensoned. These are covered with hessian, followed by coir (which is synthetic horse hair). Next comes a layer of calico and then the top cover. Sounds a lot for a rocking chair, go with foam.

Google, The Upholstery Shop for supplies.
Have a look at my website: www.streatleycrafts.co.uk to see the stages used to re-upholster an Edwardian easy chair. A lot of work, but worth it.

 

[gasman]

Perfect thanks very much for the tips