Upholstering chairs - quote advice

[WobblyLondoner]

We'd like to recover some dining room chairs we were given by my family. Very nice mid century wooden chairs with covered padded seats. The first quote has come in at £120 per chair plus fabric for the job (so removing what is there, new padding, covering, back cloth underneath to finish).

I did wonder about having a go myself (I am fairly handy with these things) and took one of them apart. It's quite tricky as the seat surface is curved and I was worried it would look a bit bodged (esp with patterned fabric) so thought I'd go to a professional!

Any thoughts on the quote welcome. I'm in London.

That sounds outrageously expensive to me, but then I've never paid to have anything reupholstered!
I have however, reupholstered my dining room chairs myself, with no previous experience. I thought it was very easy, if fiddly at times. I think you can totally do it yourself! I bought my staple gun from Amazon for about £16 too!

We paid £90 a pair of chairs, but I chose the fabric and paid for that separately. Padding was added. My chairs were covered in that dark brown leather that was in fashion, but it had crumbled considerably. The frame and structure of the chairs is pretty solid, so would be a waste to throw out.
I got the fabric from the Mill Shop online, loads of other designs, colours etc.

I paid approx £100 per chair for carver chairs - seat pads, foam and a fabric back on front and back. Material on top. Took me years to sort it out .. but i love them.

I’m not handy at all but managed to do this. The chairs were ikea though so not much to lose if it went wrong. I just liked the shape of the chairs and the covers needed a refresh. I bought the stapler, fabric etc from John Lewis. I watched a couple of YouTube videos too.

Could you try doing it yourself and if it goes wrong, go back to the upholsterer and get them to fix it?

That's extortionate - do it yourself with a staple gun

@SurfnTerfFantasticmissfoxy wow never thought of that.....of course I considered doing it myself!! Even took the chair apart to see if i could. But our chairs have a covered back which has to be sewn and stretched over the chair in someway that someone with upholstery experience knows how to do. If it was that easy they wouldn't be able to charge what they charge. It's actually a skilled job that they train for.....

That does seem a bit steep.

I had this reupholstered, I sourced the fabric myself. A local woman who has a small upholstery business recovered it. I think all in I paid £200.

@Longdistance Very nice 👍

I'm considering getting my sofa done.

Op, that sounds very expensive to me, I'd look around.

Different pieces of furniture have different shapes so varying amounts of time involved in upholstering.

Don’t forget that there is more to upholstery than just the fabric. Foam is pricey depending upon the quality and density. Your chair are an unusual shape, so there may be a few for the foam to be cut to shape. Webbing varies in price, tacks are cheap but there’s still the price, fire retardant lining has a cost too.

Your pieces also need to be stripped down too. There’s labour charge for that too

At 120 a chair - did they give their hourly labour fee? Is that including VAT?

If they charge £15 to £20 an hour for labour, this is a very reasonable fee as there is also additional materials other than the actual fabric.

If they didn’t have to strip down your chairs the pricing would be on the pricey side.

I did some myself with some old chairs from FB marketplace. Bought some foam pads and fabric from Dunelm, Removed the old fabric and grotty seat pad, cut the new foam to size, used a staple gun to attach new fabric to the wooden base and then trimmed the edges and glued them to stop fraying.
They look ok, obviously not a professional finish underneath but we only wanted them as spare chairs. I was happy though! Takes a couple of hours per chair though if you are removing old tacks/staples etc.

I went to upholstery classes a few years ago, Remember to keep the covering and any foam padding for patterns. I have a set of dining chairs to do now and shall google for reminders and hints,

I think that is actually quite reasonable if the job is being done by a professional. My late dad was an upholsterer and I used to spend hours watching him work. The skill and care he took was amazing. Removing the old coverings can actually be quite hazardous - the dust and fibres he encountered over a lifetime of work were a major factor in the illness that caused his death - so have to be removed with the utmost care. The choice of fabric will require different skills - some are quite straightforward, but some coverings are quite specialist - leather, for example a good upholsterer will be able to advise on suitable fabrics for the intended purpose, rather like a carpet salesman should advise different carpet for areas with high/low traffic. Then there is the quality of the finish. Some finishing has to be done by hand (more likely on bigger pieces) and has to be consistent across all pieces in a set. It the job also has to be done to a high standard so it does not need to be done again in a short time. For a proper upholsterer, it is about more than owning and using a staple gun. A good upholsterer will also be able to make any minor repairs that are needed to the framework, to ensure the longevity of the piece. If your chairs have good quality frames, recovering them will mean you enjoy them for many years to come.

Thanks everyone, very helpful. I'm waiting for a few more quotes. On the "just DIY" responses - I did think about this but, having taken one of the chairs to bits to have a look, I just don't think I could do it well enough and so it would always look like a bit of a bodge. They are really really nice chairs that I inherited from my parents and I'm happy to spend a bit on getting a good job.

Try Hamilton and Hodson, Redlands Station, Bristol. Perhaps getting a quote outside of London if you can get them there. My daughter recommends them.

@thisstooshallpass love your wing backed chair. I’d have saved that too. Looks lovely and solid.

I paid about £550 (plus fabric) for an antique chaise longue to be reupholstered. Totally worth it, it looks amazing. South east.

@Longdistance it was part of a 4 piece suite (3 chairs and a two seater) which belonged to my MIL. Wish I'd kept them all!

Hm got two more quotes in - £45 and £30 per chair plus fabric. Quite the difference compared to the £120 one. I think we'll go with the £45.