Reupholster a settee

[Lesleyfool]

I have a 25 year old settee. The seats are getting in a sorry state ie split material. The structure is fine and it’s really comfy.

Anyone know if it’s worth being reupholstered, any idea of price? It is a two seater.

Or any other advice?

[Slarti]

I think that we bought covers for our first settee, when it started to get shabby, but I can't remember where from. May have been a local shop that is no longer there, or a Littlewoods type catalogue.

I'd certainly say it is worth it as my parents had their 3 piece suite done and it lasted another 20 years ending up with us. And we only got rid because it was too big for this house, so it was passed on again.

Slarti

[Lootman]

I have a 3-seater leather chesterfield sofa that I bought second-hand in Islington about 35 years ago. When it became really shabby a couple of years ago I got a quote for replacing the leather. It was somewhere between 3 and 4 grand.

Cost of a new, similar chesterfield sofa? About 3 or 4 grand

It would be nice to restore rather than replace but, in my case, there was no economic argument for doing so.

[kempiejon]

You might be able to find spare covers online - I looked into this a few years ago - https://www.plumbs.co.uk/sofa-covers/
Or learn to do it yourself http://www.upholsteryskills.co.uk/five_ ... nsive.html

[bungeejumper]

Very hard to disagree with those who say it won't be worth it - unless it has really special personal significance, that is?

25 years old? That's a bit of a watershed. It was round about the time that manufacturers stopped hand-crafting their sofas from seasoned wood and started banging them together with bits of old pallet, stapled together with a nail gun. (Others were using lightweight tubular steel frames, as I recall?) Either way, the construction principle changed, and the emphasis shifted toward wrapping everything in successive layers of cheapo foam.

And actually I'm not knocking that, because it produced comfortable sofas at cheap prices. What it does do, however, is raise the question of whether your sofa is really worth saving? From our family's limited personal experience, I'm guessing not. Re-upholstering single armchairs, £350 each. Re-covering the seats of six dining chairs (rather badly), £300.

I'd be surprised if you can bring this reupholstery project home for less than £800. At which point the attractions of brand new seem hard to resist. If it doesn't have a brand name that you can google (Ercol?), just let it go.

BJ

[greenrobbie]

We had a three piece suite reupholstered late last year. We selected an upholsterer used previously by my MiL, so we knew the firm could do a good job. Cost £1750, with a hard-wearing wool and polyester fabric at £21 the metre. We preferred a pure wool tweed fabric, but that was £44 a metre, and probably less durable. Subsequently we had a small bedroom armchair reupholstered by the same people for £275.

The suite was G-Plan, about 18 years old, the small armchair was from John Lewis, possibly 30 years old. All the items were well constructed, and therefore the work was cost-effective for us. Difficult to purchase the same quality new today, but if we could find it, the cost would probably be several thousand for the suite, and £1000 for the small armchair. We are very pleased with the results, and can polish our ecological haloes for reusing rather than replacing. NB, the upholsterers are located in an unfashionable part of Liverpool, I imagine the prices would be well in excess of that in the south of England.

[redsturgeon]

We had two three seat sofas from John Lewis reupholstered by Plumbs some 12 years ago. They were about twelve years old at the time. They were built with solid beech frames so we felt it worthwhile to extend their lives. It cost about £500 each for them the be reupholstered...actually more of a recovering job than reupholstery.

Since then we gave one away through freecycle and still have the other in use in a spare room...it will shortly have to go soon. I will try to recycle it but I fear it may have to be dumped...which will probably mean me paying for someone to take it away!

John

[bungeejumper]

Since then we gave one away through freecycle and still have the other in use in a spare room...it will shortly have to go soon. I will try to recycle it but I fear it may have to be dumped...which will probably mean me paying for someone to take it away!

As long as it's got its foam fire safety certificate on the label, you should be able to shift it through either a charity shop or one of those refuge charities that give away furniture to particularly desperate/deserving households. But without the foam certificate on the label, nobody will touch it.

It is, however, not that difficult to dismantle a sofa to get it down to the tip - a wrecking bar and a pair of wire cutters, and maybe a coarse handsaw, will get it down to back-of-the-car dimensions in 15 minutes. The problems start when the local tip demands that you separate the wood from the metal and the foam from everything else. I once had to chop up a double mattress like that (removing all the metalwork and cutting it down to car-interior sized chunks), and I still bear both the mental and the physical scars.

BJ

[redsturgeon]

Since then we gave one away through freecycle and still have the other in use in a spare room...it will shortly have to go soon. I will try to recycle it but I fear it may have to be dumped...which will probably mean me paying for someone to take it away!

As long as it's got its foam fire safety certificate on the label, you should be able to shift it through either a charity shop or one of those refuge charities that give away furniture to particularly desperate/deserving households. But without the foam certificate on the label, nobody will touch it.

It is, however, not that difficult to dismantle a sofa to get it down to the tip - a wrecking bar and a pair of wire cutters, and maybe a coarse handsaw, will get it down to back-of-the-car dimensions in 15 minutes. The problems start when the local tip demands that you separate the wood from the metal and the foam from everything else. I once had to chop up a double mattress like that (removing all the metalwork and cutting it down to car-interior sized chunks), and I still bear both the mental and the physical scars.

BJ

I have a lot of time on my hand but sometimes life is too short. It would also break my heart to have to chop up a perfectly good solid beech frame. If I did though then I would save the wood to burn it.

John

[twotwo22]

Lesleyfool...are you in South West Wales by any chance ??

[Lesleyfool]

Thanks everybody

Very interesting posts. I think I will be going for something new as it is most cost effective. The settee has lasted very well but I think it’s time for a change.

Someone asked me if I was in Wales, I am in the East Midlands.

[panamagold]

Have you considered someting like This? You stated that the item is comfortable and a 'throw' at this price will also be comfortable on the pocket.

[bungeejumper]

Have you considered someting like This? You stated that the item is comfortable and a 'throw' at this price will also be comfortable on the pocket.

Always worth thinking about. My wife is quite fond of using throws and fairly large cushion covers to renovate battered stuff like this. Okay, the result looks like a cross between a Mongolian yurt and a Turkish brothel, with just a hint of 1970s boho chic, but it's quite fun in a "love and peace, man" kind of way. Careful with that joss stick, babe.

BJ