Services
Upholstery in Cork for Chairs, Sofas and Headboards
We re-cover armchairs, sofas, and dining chairs in Cork, and we supply custom made sofas and chairs built to order in any fabric we stock. Furniture re-upholstery is a service the shop has run for decades. Bring the chair in, or send a photo and the sizes. Ring 023 884 7123.
The honest answer
What Is Worth Re-Covering and What Is Not
Good frames are worth keeping. An old chair with solid joints will outlive most of what you can buy new for the same money.
What we will tell you plainly is when it is not worth it. A soft, glued frame that has already gone at the joints will eat a lot of expensive cloth and still be a poor chair. You are better told that at the counter than after you have paid.
Structure
Frames, Springs and Webbing
Everything under the cloth gets looked at once the old cover comes off.
Webbing sags, springs break, and joints work loose after twenty years of being sat on. That is normal and most of it is fixable. Fixing it is also the part that decides whether the finished chair feels new or just looks new.
Cloth
Choosing a Fabric That Will Last
Curtain fabric and upholstery fabric are not the same thing, and putting the wrong one on a chair is a fast way to waste money.
Upholstery cloth is woven heavier and tested for rub. A dining chair takes more abuse than a bedroom armchair, and a house with a dog takes more again. Say what the room is really like and we will point you at the right shelf.
Quantities
How Much Fabric a Chair Takes
More than people think. Plain armchairs take a good few metres, and a pattern that has to be matched takes more again.
Bring the chair in or send photos with the width, depth, and height, and we will work the metres out for you. That number is most of the price, so it is worth getting before you fall in love with a cloth.
New
Sofas and Chairs Built to Order
Sofas and chairs are made to order in any of our upholstery ranges.
That is the answer for an awkward room, a narrow hall door or a length that does not exist in a shop. You choose the shape, the arm, the leg and the cloth, and it is built to those numbers.
Bedrooms
Headboards, Bedspreads and Cushions
Headboards are made to your bed width and your ceiling height, in any fabric on the shelf.
We also make bedspreads, quilts, pillow and duvet covers and cushions, and we stock bed linen. A headboard and curtains cut from one cloth is a cheap way to make a plain bedroom look designed.
Logistics
Turnaround, Collection and Delivery
Small jobs like dining chairs move quickly. Full sofas take longer, and both depend on the cloth arriving.
You get a date once the piece has been seen. Delivery is offered, and plenty of people bring a chair in the boot and collect it the same way.
Why here
Why Bring the Chair Here
You get an opinion before you spend anything. A frame worth re-covering and a frame not worth re-covering look the same under a worn cover, and you will be told which yours is with the chair in front of you.
Your cloth is chosen from the same books as the curtains, so a re-covered chair can be matched to the room it sits in rather than picked from a small upholstery-only range. The cloth comes from the same books as the curtains in Cork side of the shop, so a chair can be matched to the room it sits in.
Questions About Re-Upholstery
These are what people ask before bringing a chair in. Anything else is quicker on the phone. Chairs come in from all over, and curtains and blinds in Bandon is the busiest run for collections.
Next step
Bring the Chair In and We Will Look at It
There is no charge for an opinion. Bring the chair, or send a photo and the sizes to the shop.
We will tell you what it needs, roughly what the cloth will run to, and whether it is worth doing. Ring 023 884 7123 first if it is a big piece so somebody is there to help you lift it.
The rest of the shop
F.A.Q.
Can you re-cover just the seat cushions?
Dining seats and loose cushions on their own are very common work, and a lot cheaper than doing the whole frame.
Can I supply my own fabric?
You can, once it is a proper upholstery cloth. Bring it in and it gets checked first, because a curtain weight will not last on a seat even if it came from our own curtains in Cork range.
Do you repair frames as well as re-cover?
Loose joints, broken springs and gone webbing all get sorted before the new cover goes on. There is no point covering a frame that moves.
Do you make furniture to a size I give you?
Sofas, chairs and headboards are all made to order in our own upholstery ranges. Bring the measurements, or have an interior designer in Cork plan the room around the piece.
How much does it cost to reupholster a chair in Ireland?
The fabric is most of it, then the amount of work the frame needs. Bring the chair in and you get a figure for that chair rather than an average for somebody else's.
Is it cheaper to reupholster a chair or buy a new one?
For a cheap flat-pack frame, buying new usually wins. For anything with a solid frame, re-covering is normally better value and you keep a chair that was built properly.
Is it worth reupholstering an armchair?
If the frame is sound and the shape suits you, it is worth it. That is exactly what gets checked when you bring it in, before you have committed to a fabric.
What type of fabric is best for reupholstering a chair?
A proper upholstery weight with a decent rub count, not a curtain cloth. Bring your own and it gets checked first, or pick from the upholstery books at the counter.
Next step
Bring the sizes, or let a fitter take them. Either way you get a date at the measure for upholstery.