You are able to reupholster furniture in one of two ways: Eliminate the old fabric and start fresh or cover the old stuff with fresh. While maintaining the material in place may seem simpler, removing the old fabric first allows you to utilize it as a template to make a pattern for the new material. Removing the fabric with thoughtless haste may result in it ripping away into small pieces, making it useless as a template. Taking time with fabric removal utilizing age-old practices ensures the old stuff, no matter how beat up, remains intact when pulled from the furniture.

Staple- and Tack-Pulling Tools

The fabric on many upholstered furniture pieces is held in place with staples, if the furniture is nearly new or handed down through many generations. A regular office staple remover is the only device you will need for many upholstery occupations. When a staple remover isn’t powerful enough to eliminate the staples, pry them up with a narrow slotted screwdriver or a tack puller. A ripping chisel and wooden mallet team up to get rid of stubborn staples as well as upholstery tacks. Needle-nose pliers help pry away partially loose or broken staples.

The Staple-Pulling Procedure

Pick 1 area of their furniture to work on at a time, for instance, the seat fabric in an upholstered chair. Flip the seat over to locate the staples holding the fabric in place and work your way across the piece of fabric, removing the staples one at a time, in order. Though you might be tempted to pull the material to free many staples simultaneously, doing so may cause the material to tear. Keep a trash can handy to guarantee the pulled staples do not end up on the ground Fresno, where they might cause harm or damage your vacuum cleaner. Wear eye protection when pulling staples. If decorative tacks embellish the upholstery, pull those out prior to removing the staples, using a tack puller.

Mark the Materials

When working with numerous pieces of fabric, like the arms, back, sides and front of a sofa, you might be perplexed trying to remember which piece goes where unless you mark the pieces. Put a strip of masking tape on each piece of fabric as you eliminate it, noting the place where it goes, like “left arm” or “left arm exterior panel” Mark the new pieces in exactly the same fashion as you trace the old on the new, so you’re able to reupholster the slice in a reasonable manner without attempting to guess the alignment or alignment of each piece.

Dealing With Difficult Staples

If one staple or several in a row are so stubborn that you can not pull them from the top side of this fabric, work a tool like a slotted screwdriver between the fabric and furniture frame. Wiggle the instrument around, ideally working it between both prongs of the staple until the staple lifts. Pull the staple out the remaining portion of the way from over the fabric, or by continuing to wiggle the instrument till the staple pops out.