How To Reupholster a Leather Couch or Chair

Reupholstering a leather couch may seem like a daunting task, that’s why it’s best left to the experts in furniture upholstery at Finish Line Upholstery! Furniture isn’t just a layer of padding and a layer of cloth or leather – it’s a precisely crafted set of material that allows you to sit in comfort for years and years. Don’t rip up your furniture – let us restore it to better than new!

Before

After

Over time, leather furniture gets damaged and worn. Reupholstering the old frame can give new life to your old pieces while saving you money as compared to buying brand new furniture. Here’s how we do it at Finish Line:

We’ll begin by talking about the materials that we need for this project. First, needle-nose pliers or a screwdriver will be needed for removing the old upholstery. Then, we need a good quality staple gun with staples, sharp scissors, a seam ripper, and a hammer. All of these are important in the process to ensure a professional-looking result. Fresh batting may also be necessary if the old batting is non-usable. Lastly, you need to pick out the new leather that you want for your couch.

Now it is time to begin removing the old fabric from the frame. This can be done by using the screwdriver or needle-nose pliers to pry out the staples in order to loosen up the old upholstery. The seam ripper can help you by making sure that you get all of the old upholstery off before you try to add the new upholstery. If the upholstery you are trying to get off is tough or thick, then electric scissors can be used as well.

We make sure to remove the old upholstery in one big piece if possible. If not, then we lay the pieces out in the way that they were on the couch. These pieces will serve as a template when we reupholster with the new leather. In the same fashion, we carefully remove the old upholstery from the cushions, saving it as a pattern for sewing the new cushions.

After removing the old upholstery, we lay out the new leather. We have to be extra careful when cutting the leather to the size of the old upholstery’s template. In fact, we often cut the shape with another type of fabric or paper before the actual leather. Leather can be extremely expensive, so it is very important that we cut carefully.

Once the leather is cut, we drape it over the un-upholstered couch. If the batting needed to be replaced, we do so before attaching the new leather. We start by stapling each corner of the leather to the corners of the frame. When this is completed, continue by stapling around the edges every inch or so. Keep on going around edges clockwise, pulling the leather so that it is tight. Pulling it tight will ensure that the material is not loose or contain any bubbles. When we finish stapling the edges, and have the new cushions sewn and in place, we will have transformed your couch into one that you will be bragging about for the years to come!