Grubb - The Beginners Guide to Upholstery

Upholstery was not my initial choice of career. After university, I worked in research, which involved a great deal of travelling. I felt unfulfilled and after a visit to a career coach, I started to rediscover my creative roots. From the very first night class I took, I fell instantly in love with everything upholstery, and with the encouragement of my teacher, Sarah, and the support of an understanding employer, I enrolled for a one-day-a-week upholstery diploma course.

After successfully finishing my course, I took commissions via word of mouth, and through friends of friends, I received my first hotel contract. Although I dreamed of a fancy workshop, these starting-out commissions were all achieved on my kitchen table. Eventually I spent some time (and a little bit of money) converting our brick garage into my very own creative space, filling it with vintage fabrics, an oversized table made from old scaffold boards, and a 1930s kitchen cupboard full of threads and tools. At The Upholstery Studio, I take commissions, run upholstery courses and create my own furniture too, in between looking after two small children.

All the projects in this book can be achieved from your kitchen table, so you dont have to think about renting a space just yet! After all, that was how I started: I kept my staples and tools in a handy tool bag and used plastic tubs to store my threads and needles in. As long as you have a system for your bits and bobs, theres no reason why you cant clear the plates from dinner, pop on the radio and upholster into the evening. My advice on a basic toolkit and tips on sourcing furniture and fabrics will set you on your way to upholstering your first project.

There are numerous ways to upholster a chair with a variety of stuffing and fillings, and with the many tools and materials available, it can be a little daunting. But just as easily as you can whizz up a pair of bedroom curtains, you can make a headboard for your bed or cover a blanket box.

In this book I take you through ten achievable projects that are ideal starter pieces for the fulfilling craft of upholstery. Using my step-by-step instructions and watching my online time-lapse videos to help you, you can learn how to upholster using modern upholstery techniques.

Let your upholstery journey start here. I hope this guide gives you the confidence to go out and find furniture, spruce it up and give it a new place in your home. One of the things I most enjoy about upholstery is seeing my students creations and I would love to see your transformations too. Heres how to get in touch with me:

email:

twitter: @something_fine

instagram: @something_fine

hashtag: #kitchentableupholstery

I love nothing more than an early morning mooch around a flea market. There is no telling what treasures I will find. I buy furniture online too and I love to pick up a bargain at a second-hand store. I want to share with you my tips of what to look for, and what to watch out for, when purchasing second-hand furniture.

I adore mid-century furniture and Ive tried to keep things simple by using modern post-war furniture in this book. Antique furniture is upholstered using traditional upholstery techniques employing sophisticated stitching and is much more labour intensive. If you prefer antique-style furniture, you will find that most reproduction antique furniture is, and can be, upholstered using modern upholstery techniques.

Its a good idea to try to pin down the furniture styles you like and the main manufacturers. Knowing the manufacturer will help you to gain knowledge of how their furniture pieces are constructed. A simple Google Images search or scour on Pinterest can give you numerous ways in which that particular frame has been upholstered.

You can use the Internet to search for an era or style of furniture you like: if you type in 1970s chair, for example, this will bring up lots of different styles and you can start to whittle it down to a specific type of dining or arm chair, say, and this, in turn, could be used to search for an exact item in an online auction site.