Guesstimate: How mch to (re)upolster this chair?

[ha98ed14]

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=961821feea&view=att&th=1266e0287c826146&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw

[TwinFoxes]

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=961821feea&view=att&th=1266e0287c826146&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw

Your link doesn't seem to work. It's requiring me sign into my gmail account.

But last week in The Washington Post in a chat they said slipcovering the chair costs around $300 not including fabric. I think that was for an easy chair. Don't know what type you're considering.

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

No way to know w.o knowing what fabric.

[sste]

I can't get the link to work but I think that upholstering is expensive, I would GUESS $800 and up. Slipcovers are cheaper. When I lived in Mass I think that there was a prison that trained inmates in reupholstery and that was much cheaper though with a long wait list.

[TwinFoxes]

I can't get the link to work but I think that upholstering is expensive, I would GUESS $800 and up. Slipcovers are cheaper. When I lived in Mass I think that there was a prison that trained inmates in reupholstery and that was much cheaper though with a long wait list.

Ooh, now that you mention it, my figure was for slipcovers, not reupholstering.

[Corie]

I don't know how accurate this is but I've always heard that it's cheaper
to buy a new chair than to reupolster an old chair.

[tylersmama]

My mom had a chair that they picked up at an auction reupholstered for me for my first apartment. This was over 10 years ago, and I seem to recall it being at least $450 or $500. It's a nice chair, but it definitely would have been cheaper to buy a new one (but they paid, so I didn't care :p).

[jayali]

All of our furniture has slipcovers.

Typically - for a base twill fabric and a basic two cushion chair (back and bottom) I pay about $300.

I have paid much more if I use contrasting welting and in some instances I have used contrasting fabric in the pleats on the skirt. It can get very expensive based on fabric AND the amount of detail in the slipcover design.

[american_mama]

I was pleasantly surprised by a chair I had re-upholstered last year. It was essentially a club chair with ottoman and included some repair work. The labor was about $500 and the fabric was about $260. I too had been told that re-upholstering a chair was the same as buying new, but it turned out to be cheaper in my case.

Upholstery fabric tends to be $17-$35 a yard from what I saw, with most prices $25 and up. A club chair AND ottoman will take 10-13 yards of fabric, smaller chairs will take less. Fabric with a big pattern will often require a little more fabric to get the job done becuase of issues with lining the pattern up to match.

I think there are a couple ideas to help lower your price:

1. Look for fabric in person, but then try to buy it online. I saved over $100 ordering from onlinefabricstore.com versus my local store. There are a number of big mills that make upholstery fabric - Mill Creek/Savelle is one - and you can often find the mill name and pattern name from the bolt, price tag, or sample book. Then google that information to see if anyone sells it online.

2. Ask the upholstery/fabric store if they ever have sales. My store had huge sales twice a year with a minimum of 20% off.

3. Get lots of quotes. The two big re-upholstery stores (one of which was Calico Corners, a national chain) have contracted re-upholsters and they seem to charge a lot, as did a custom sewer in town who has rented space. But there is also someone who re-upholsters out of his home and I always wonder what his quote would have been. I got lucky and a neighbor with a lot of decorating experience recommended a specific re-upholsterer out of our small but expensive town because he was so good and cheap. So, I drove to a cheaper town for the project.

I am very glad I had the chair done, for price and quality reasons. DH and I both liked the chair and found it comfortable, and going to furniture stores to find a new one, much less agree on one, was not happening, so we decided to re-upholster what we already had. Plus, the chair has sentimental value since it was a hand-me-down from my parents, and it survived very rough use during my childhood and is still rock solid. I feel the chair has proven it can withstand my kids too.