I remember the first days of tearing down furniture for re-upholstery. I would grab the piece and start ripping and tearing untill I had no strength left to do any more. I’d stand back and look to see that all I had done was to make a mess and I still had a lot of stuff attached to the frame. After a while I began to realize that there was a process to follow during teardown and I found a few short cuts along the way. Let me share them with you.

 If this is your first project get a camera and take pictures of the chair from many angles before you pry  anything off. You may also want to take pictures of all the pieces you remove, as a reminder of how to put the new pieces back on.

Choose the right tools.      

Upholstery tools                                   

Tear down tools

I use a Osborne & Co staple puller, Osborne chisel, dull wire cutter, awl, and bent nose pliers. These are not the only tools that will do the job, but they are the tools I use most often.

  • lay the chair on it’s back
  • begin by removing the dust cover
  • pull all staples from fabric on the bottom of the chair frame – (I generally leave the webbing and springs to remove last)
  • stand the chair up
  • if  you think you may need to copy patterns or you just want a reference, mark all panels , out side arm panel left = oal, inside back = ib, inside arm panel right = iar, and so on
  • remove the outside back
  • now you will see where the inside back, deck,  and inside arms are attached – remove all staples
  • remove out side arms
  • remove  inside arms, back and the deck
  •  remove all burlap

  • inspect spring system, remove or replace

    Visit the Tickeo’s Channel on YouTube to see a short video of this sequence.

    Tickeo’s Channel