Reupholstering furniture isn't just about cushion covers

The process of reupholstering furniture involves more than just choosing your reupholstery fabric. Without good replacement interiors for your new covers, and replacement webbing where required, you won't get the best benefits from your reupholstered furniture. Your furniture is subject to a lot of stress over the years; if you think about the number of people who have used it and the frequency with which it's sat on, you begin to realise just how much it endures!

Before reupholstering your furniture, it can be helpful to understand the different elements of recovering your furniture; as well as choosing your reupholstery fabric, you'll also need new interiors to fill them. Additionally, if your furniture has supportive webbing straps underneath the seat cushions, we recommend that you replace these at the same time.

Furniture recovering with new interiors and cases

When reupholstering furniture, both interiors and covers should be replaced at the same time; while it's possible to keep your original covers and just purchase new interiors, we do not advise the reuse of old interiors in new cases. Foam is prone to natural degradation, and this can result in sagging and an overall poor fit when new cases are used to recover old cushion interiors. For this reason when you order from ercol we will provide you with both new covers and new interiors.

Upon reupholstering your furniture, you'll immediately notice a difference in the feel of your chair or sofa. The new interiors will have a firmer and more supportive feel in comparison to your previous cushions, as wear will have degraded the old foam over time, making your upholstery feel softer. It may also be the case that the foam used for your furniture recovering is of a newer specification than your original items, reflecting improvements in materials and changes to regulations over the years. All of our interiors of course meet with the appropriate health and safety requirements.

When placing your order for furniture recovering, on some models you will have a choice of foam and fibre interiors, which offer firmer support, or feather and fibre interiors, which give a luxurious, softer feel, but need regular plumping to maintain their shape.  If you have a feather allergy, please feel free to contact customer services to discuss your requirements.

Why replace webbing when reupholstering furniture?

Webbing straps help to keep your cushions well supported and you should always include the purchase of webbing when reupholstering furniture to get the best results. Our webbing is made from a rubber compound, and after years of use, it will start to stretch and lose its integrity, so replacement webbing should always be part of the furniture recovering process. Please note that over the long production lives of some of our ranges we have had different models for a given piece of furniture, as the designs have been revised and evolved with time.  This means that on some of our ranges, you will need to identify the correct webbing kit for your specific version - you can use our furniture reupholstery guide , or if any doubt please contact our Customer Services team who will be delighted to help.  Your local ercol stockist should also be able to provide assistance if required.

When reupholstering furniture with reCover, all of your cushions and covers are sent to you ready to use; however, you will need to replace the webbing yourself. The webbing needs to be fixed into place under tension and this does require some physical strength, so you might need to ask someone to help you. We provide a webbing tool with your furniture recovering order, along with instructions.

You can learn more about reCover quality when reupholstering furniture by following the link, or ask a re-upholstery expert if you have a specific question regarding our service.