Upholstery is on my mind today - and nearly every day since this is the world I work in! There is so much to consider about upholstery, especially right now.
The current situation in the country and the world means that getting anything in new upholstery pieces is becoming increasingly difficult. Even things made domestically are backed way up for a variety of complicated reasons from the inability to get raw goods, to health shut downs, to transportation woes that make the Hunger Games look tame. And this is not going to improve any time soon.
Fair warning - I’m on my upholstery soapbox today…
I have long advocated for buying quality upholstery in classic styles and then opting to reupholster rather than replace pieces. It makes more sense both financially and ecologically in the long run.
Slipcovered club chair, and custom sofa covered in a comfortably elegant chenille | design by JRL Interiors, Acton, MA | photo Carianne Kreml
If you are just starting out and can’t afford the cost of a houseful of good furniture, then borrow, use hand me downs, or source secondhand pieces until you can save to buy decent quality. Slipcovers can cover fabrics you don’t love and buy you some time. Make your purchases slowly and with a plan rather than filling your house with cheap shlock that will just end up in a landfill.
I can’t tell you how often I have heard, “well I don’t want to buy good stuff because the kids will just destroy it.” First of all, what kind of hellions are you raising? (JK, I had a destructo-child too, so I totally get it) And second, heavy use is exactly WHY buying quality is smart. Durability is one of the things you get with quality and a little higher price tag. Quality cushion fill can stand up to jumping and fort making and performance fabrics can repel spills and stains from baby urk to red wine. Why would you live with a likely uncomfortable, stained, and broken down sofa until your kids get old enough? PSA: they never get old enough…even adults lounge and spill on the sofa…and then you {theoretically} get to the grandchild phase and it starts all over!
Fast furniture is very much like fast fashion…but bulkier. Disposable, cheap furniture is more often than not made at the expense of someone and/or something whether that is exploitive labor practices or toxin filled non-sustainable materials sources. And the allure of free shipping just means that cost is rolled into the price making the piece even MORE cheaply made than it appears. Did you really think free shipping was actually free? Well, bless your heart, as they say down south.
Cheap furniture is cheap for a reason.
A very simplistic example: say you buy a trendy new sofa from a big e-tailer for $400 that offers “free” shipping. That $400 sofa might cost $100 or more to transport from the factory to the warehouse to you. If it came from overseas, the cost right now to get it to you is probably higher than the actual cost of the furniture. So that means the sofa is worth $300 (at most) at retail and the retailer is obviously paying the factory much less than that for it to cover their overhead costs and make a profit. It takes between 15 and 20 yds of fabric to upholster a sofa frame, and 10 to 20 hours of labor to do it right - just how much quality do you think factors into the making of that $400/$300 sofa?
And then there is the ecological and financial cost of disposing of it when it dies which will be in a year or less if anyone actually sits on it. According to the EPA, here in the US over 9 MILLION TONS of furniture ends up in landfills every year. Considering the buying frenzy of cheap furniture over the last year, that number is likely to increase dramatically. Most of it is neither biodegradable nor recyclable.
Which is why I believe in buying quality and buying classic style. It makes it possible to reuse and upcycle your furniture for a fresh new look without contributing to the problem.
A high quality, classically made sofa or chair will last upwards of 20 years and the frame can be reupholstered many times beyond that. The spring mechanism and webbing can be shored up, the cushion fill can be refurbished, the fabric can be changed, and even the style and profile can be altered a bit with reupholstery. Even if it was cost effective, a cheap sofa frame cannot sustain reupholstery. Cheap upholstery often contains stapled frames made of cardboard, particle board, and maybe lower grade plywood if you are lucky, and too few and lower gauge springs (if any) that warp when the frame inevitably wracks.
You can buy that $400 trendy sofa every year (at increasing costs and diminishing qualities) for a total cost of over $8000 over 20 years while racking up carbon emissions and contributing to the landfill every time you acquire and dispose of it OR you can buy a really great, really comfortable, custom classic sofa for $5000-$6000 that will last a lifetime and can be reupholstered many times.
So are those the only choices? No, there are always pricier options, and of course, a million choices in between - some of which are worth the asking price and some of which are very much not. Sometimes you are simply supporting an expensive and very slick retail marketing campaign. More on that in another post…
New custom sofa and reupholstered chairs refresh this family room in an antique colonial home | design by JRL Interiors, Acton, MA
Reupholstery done right is not inexpensive, and so is not worth it for lesser quality frames, but it IS the most sustainable and responsible choice for good pieces.
Right now we are having furnishings reupholstered or built for several clients by our genius and erstwhile design hero, Danny, at our favorite upholstery workroom.
He’s working on a vintage sectional made probably in the 50’s or 60’s that is still a great piece with good “bones”. Stripping the fabric was like an archeological dig!
vintage sectional at the upholstery workroom - stripping the fabric from its various upholstery iterations
He’ll be updating a pair of high quality sofas soon that are ~15 years old with some more neutral and family-friendly performance fabrics and changing the skirt style for another project.
And reupholstered dining chairs and some occasional chairs are in progress for another client.
With the costs of shipping soaring, having new, locally built upholstered pieces created is just as cost effective as ordering nice quality new pieces in many cases, and definitely a much quicker turnaround.
Cocktail ottomans are a continuing trend in family rooms - they just have that put-your-feet-up vibe! And Danny has made quite a few for us, including the elegant one in the image above with scalloped gimp detailing and epaulette bullion tassel trim, and the colorful one in the image below.
Recently we had this cocktail ottoman totally rebuilt and reupholstered in a colorful paisley pattern
Currently Danny is building a custom ottoman for us that is sized perfectly for the seating and sporting sexy acrylic turned legs so we can see plenty of the pretty new rug. The fabric is a tweedy Crypton performance fabric so it can stand up to rigors of grandchildren and noshing TV sports fans for our clients. We can’t wait to share more on that project!
The bottom line? Buying quality is better for you, the planet, and ultimately, your wallet!
