Should You Reupholster or Replace

We’ve all been there before.

You love a certain piece of furniture.

Perhaps it just doesn’t go with your style any longer.

Or, maybe it is beginning to show signs of wear and tear.

It is time to replace it…or is it?

The age old question of “do I reupholster or replace” my sofa/chair/ottoman has gotten your full attention.

How would you make this decision?

Let’s break it down via a few questions:

Does it fit in the room?

Is it the correct size? If it is not currently in the room, you can tape off the footprint of the piece or draw a space plan like I did here.

Does the style work with your other pieces? With the style of your home?

Does it still function as intended?

Is it in good shape?

Is the piece of well made quality? Would it be quite expensive to replace?

How does it smell…musty, dingy, like cigarette smoke?

How old is the piece in question?

Is it still comfortable?

Do you love it?

Perhaps this is most important. The truth is, if you don’t love the piece, nothing else matters.

I’d like to share with you my recent experience with reupholstering an item.

We purchased this piece when we moved into our home. It is from RH and the fabric is called antiqued cotton.

Truth be told, I didn’t love the fabric when it first arrived. It didn’t look like the picture we were shown.

However, at the time I was working full-time and trying to furnish our entire new home and simply decided to make it work. I should have listened to my gut. (Always listen to your gut).

We purchased the piece because we wanted a place to rest our feet while sitting on the sofa. And this is where the problem began. The edges simply didn’t hold up at all. We were so disappointed.

I hate posting ugly pictures, but it’s necessary in this case….

You can see that I frequently used a throw to protect and cover the frayed fabric.

Now, to answer my own questions…

Does it fit the room? Yes, perfectly.

Is it in good shape? Yes. It’s like new other than the fabric. 

Do you love it? Yes.

This made our decision to reupholster quite easy. We then began the process of finding the right fabric and upholsterer to end the madness of our fraying supposed-to-be-antique-cotton fabric.

Much better, right?

 Shop the Look – Accessories

 

You can see the details below.

Shop the Look – Pillows and Throws

I’m so happy with the end result. The gentleman who updated this piece for us did a fantastic job.

The cost of the fabric and the labor added up to a bit less than half of the cost of replacing the ottoman. This is not always the case, so be sure and do your research before making your own decision to reupholster or replace.

Shop the Look – Furnishings

 

I hope this helps you the next time you are trying to decide what do do with a piece of furniture with less than desirable fabric. I’d love to hear about your experience, so feel free to comment below.

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