Cost to reupholster an armchair

[NetZeroZealot]

How much would you expect to pay to get an armchair re-upholstered?

You provide the fabric and there's no need for any new padding or anything, just a new cover?

I'm reeling in shock at the moment ....

When I enquired a couple of years ago I was told it would be at least £400!

I would say £400 but expect its more.

I paid £600 for a wooden frame of a Parker Knoll armchair to be reupholstered. That included everything, as well as wool fabric, in London.

I think £350-ish.

I was quoted £850. Labour only.

For a Habitat armchair I bought over 30 years ago!

Needless to say I'll be getting some more quotes ...

I double checked, and I was quoted £350 18 months ago.

Is it button-back? Can you post a pic?

No buttons. It is a simple bog-standard traditional armchair.

Similar style to this one: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3372357?clickPR=plp:97:124

I looked in to this recently. It was so expensive. It was cheaper to buy a new (and actually much nicer) armchair.

I paid £700 for a three seater sofa 4 years ago. Fabric costs vary hugely. I made sure I picked one at the lower end of the scale, £13 per metre.

I note your quote is labour only. I think that's high. I also got a quote of £500 labour only for a similar chair 3 years ago.

It is crazy-expensive because of the labour involved. Only really worth doing for environmental reasons or if the armchair is made of solid gold.

Oh, this was labour only.

I'm a competent sewer, and have got the original loose cover albeit it is very holey. I might try using it as a template to make a loose cover myself. Although I spent £250 on fabric, so don't want to mess it up ....

If I can get an alternative quote for £500 or under I will go with that. Encouraging to see that PPs have had similar or lower costs for other projects.

Quite tempted to do an upholstery course when I retire.

I was going to guess that it would be about £1k but I see you've already had a quote for £850.

I do agree that reupholstering is very expensive. I think it's only worth doing if you're very fond of the furniture and it is of long-term quality (I'm thinking of Parker Knoll, Ercol, Cintique and the like) so would last for at least another 15 to 20 years.

That does seem a little high but I did an upholstery course - it's very time consuming and quite difficult to do well so quotes are always higher than people expect.

Whether it is worth it really depends on the quality of the chair. Sadly, modern equivalents tend to be considerably less solid, so it may well be worth the cost. Plus you get to choose your own fabric. You may want to compare this person's workmanship with others whose quotes you are going to get.

FWIW, over 30 years ago I paid quite a lot of money to get a John Lewis armchair re-upholstered. I've never regretted it as he did an excellent job, and it's still going strong.

Buying quality old furniture at auctions and getting it reupholstered is my new ruinous addiction.

I did an upholstery class for quite a few years and it's very time intensive and people generally think it should cost peanuts, friends thought I should do their furniture for free as a favour to me - something to do in the class, one friend said she'd even buy the fabric!😂 Upholsterers are never wealthy. We worked out you'd be lucky if you got paid minimum wage for your efforts - some people seemed happy with that because they enjoyed the craft but it's not a profitable way to make a living.

I do understand that it's a skilled job and worth paying an appropriate rate for - I just don't imagine it's more than a day's work to cover a chair, but maybe I'm wrong about that.

@NetZeroZealot find a night class an learn to do it yourself!!! it is really satisfying! although leather is an easier fabric to work with. get yourself the tool [- upholstery hammer, tack remover, studs if necessary. strapping etc

That sounds quite a lot. I had 2 chairs done last year, full upholstery job including fabric, stuffing, studs, buttons and some strapping on one of them and 2 matching scatter cushions. 1200 for both chairs. Local man, east Anglia.

Does the cost include collection and delivery?

@NetZeroZealot That is a large armchair. It will definitely take more than one day to carefully strip, measure and prepare a pattern plan/cut the fabric, sew the cushion cover and recover the rest of the chair. And if it's 30 years old, you really should invest in reupholstering the chair rather than just recovering. The price you've been quoted is actually pretty reasonable given the hours involved.

If it’s a loose cover with the old to unpick an use as a template they are well and truly taking the piss

I though thought you meant they type where they cover the frame

It really doesn't need new padding. It is old, but hasn't been used much - for the last 17 years it was the dog's chair. Luckily it doesn't smell of dog as it was well protected by a throw and sheepskin.

I do understand that it's a time-consuming process though.

I assume the quote includes collection and delivery, it's from a local company so that shouldn't add too much to the quote.