I was working here in the studio and thinking about students and their first upholstery project. Choosing a first upholstery project that will help you build the skills slowly and get a feel for the process will make the experience more rewarding.
What’s a good first upholstery project?
- Dining room chair
- Chair with wooden arms
- Ottoman
- Headboard
- Parsons Chair
- Vintage rocking chairs with upholstered seats
- Eastlake Chair
- A settee with wooden arms
These pieces are going to teach you skills and a chance to work with upholstery without getting overwhelmed.
Picking complicated upholstery projects can get very involved and take away from your learning experience.
You might think that if you know how to sew you can handle upholstery, but really there is not a lot of sewing involved in many upholstery projects. Of course, if you are making cushions for a sofa or chair you will need really good sewing skills.
Your first upholstery project is not going to turn out perfect and that is ok. Nothing we do for the first time will ever be our best work. Mistakes, or learning opportunities as I call them, are all a part of the process and help us to become better at the craft we are learning. Any mishap you make can be redone, there’s no harm in that as it helps us to learn better what not to do next time. My hope is that this will help you as you’re choosing your first upholstery project.
I hope you’ll check back and let me know what projects you’re working on. Thanks for spending some time with me today.
If you would like to learn other tips and see tools we use or meet your friends hop over to The Upholstery Life page now.
Thank you for the video transcript. I bought a beautiful Victorian channel back and inside arm button tufted chair and the more I look at it, the more I know that it is for after I’ve learned a lot or maybe it’s something that I should have professionally done but definitely not something that I can do at this time. Maybe I have another piece that I can start with.