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I couldn’t stand it any longer. All the blog buzz about tufting is killing me. You just couldn’t be satisfied with upholstery, eh? You had to go and want to learn how to tuft. Well ok, as long as you’re willing to listen and learn.
As an owner of an upholstery business for fifteen years, and now teaching upholstery classes, tufting is one of those fine finish details that all want to know how to do, but very few have the patience to practice the skill.

You may be interested to know that real purpose of tufting was to hold padding in place. Padding of yesteryear was horsehair and cotton batting; tufting was one way to secure it. The beauty of tufting is just and added benefit to its function. Here you see again, FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.

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Skilled diamond tufting, done right, with its tight folds and puffy and uniform middles is not something that is altogether easy to do. There are formulas for laying out the diamonds on the foam and then the fabric. NOTE: It’s not the same layout on the foam as the fabric.
Obviously, you need larger diamonds on the fabric to compensate for the rolls and folds.

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Another spot where things get difficult is when you’re trying to get the fold to be crisp and tight when pulling on fabric on the bias. For those unfamiliar with fabric terms, the bias is the diagonal stretch of fabric. It can get stretched out and you may drive yourself crazy trying to get a fold to stay put. This may be where the upholsterer actually machine stitches the folds in place (tedious and time consuming).

West Elm has this little settee done up with horizontal diamond tufts. I love this. Anytime someone changes the expected, it grabs my attention.

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As with all upholstery projects, my recommendation is to let the fabric know you’re the boss! Most fabric will do what you tell it to, unless it’s just completely unruly. Here is a fairly good tutorial I did on diamond tufting for Apartment Therapy a while back.

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I’m gearing up to show you different forms of diamond tufting so you can decide where you want to start.
I have a few favorites. Just remember that it takes time for even the most skilled crafts person to learn upholstery techniques. You’re superhuman if you can master it on the first try.

I am drawn to understated look of this two row diamond tufting with the long vertical pleats. It’s simple, functional and is extremely pleasing to the eye. Did you know that one reason you often see tufting on inside backs of curved chairs and sofas is that it’s one way to pull the fabric tight up inside that curve? That curve has caused many upholsterer’s hair to turn gray.

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I have a load of good, old fashioned pamphlets on tufting. I’ll be choosing some standard patterns to show you. To me, tufting is a nice side trip off the main upholstering highway. It gives you a chance to ‘decorate’ your piece a bit, get all fancy with it.

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If you want to see a master in action, click here. This is Kim Buckminster, aka Buck, doing his thing at The Upholstery Fair in the summer of 2010. Note: We’re organizing another one for Summer 2012.

In my weekly IndyStar column, DIY Journal, I’ve tackled my whole house for a decorating series. This week I came up with an idea for “stretching” the length of a Goodwill mirror to make it fill the space between the bottom of the light fixture and the back of the sink. It was a solution disguised as design; Form Follows Function, you might say.
The photo above makes it look a little bit off center because it was difficult to get a head on shot.
Remember, those rings could be painted any color you want. Click here to see what I used and how I did it.

Photo Image: IndyStar.com

Charlotte and John didn’t believe this plain old $6.99 Goodwill coffee table could be anything more than mediocre. Little did they know that thrift stores, garage sales, and grandma’s basement are chock full of low slung coffee table castoffs that can be inexpensively converted into stylishly modern upholstered benches. And don’t stop there, more traditional tables with ornate turned legs, a jazzy ikat fabric and the right paint can be transformed into a handy mudroom, entryway, or upholstered bedroom bench.

What you need:
Old coffee table with straight sides
Measuring tape
1/2″ plywood (Cut to fit at Lowes)
1/4″ double strength glass (Cut to fit at Ace Hardware)
Sandpaper
2″ piece of foam
1 yard of dacron
Elmer’s spray adhesive
1 yard of fabric
Staple gun
spray paint
LocTite Power Grab
3 1 1/2″ wood screws
drill with phillps bit

What you do:
1. Determine the dimensions for the seat and the table. I divided my table into 2/3 of the table top for the bench and 1/3 for the glass top table
2. Have the wood and glass cut to fit those dimensions
3. Attach the pre-cut foam to the wood with the spray adhesive
4. Cut a piece of dacron to fit around the foam and attach to the edges of the wood. Spray adhesive to the top of the foam and place the dacron on top to secure it.
5. Cut fabric so it fits around the dacron covered bench top and add 2-3″ for pulling and stapling
6. Using my basic, four side upholstery technique, upholster the fabric on to the wood and foam insert
7. Use sandpaper to smooth off the edges of the cut glass, being careful. Clean glass and let it dry.
8.. In a well ventilated area, spray one side of the glass with spray paint, let dry, repeat until glass is opaque, one side only. This gives you an underpainted piece of glass that looks like a custom made table surface.
9.. Flip the table upside down with the cushion in place, use drill to screw the cushion in place
10. When the glass is dry, spread the Power Grab glue across the remaining 1/3 of the table top, place glass PAINTED SIDE DOWN on the wood and press firmly in place. Let dry overnight.

Any low coffee table with straight edges will work. Give it your own style and spin with jazzy fabric and any color of painted glass to make it sing!

Remember the gaping sewing table from yesterday?

First, I spray painted the entire table with primer and then shiny silver paint. Next, I glued the flip floppy top securely in place.

Here she is all dressed up in mirror tiles. Yep, all I did was go to Lowes, buy a pack of 12″ x 12″ mirror tiles and score, cut and glue ‘um on.

I figured out a simple pattern with paper, measured and drew lines on the mirrors with a Sharpie.
Next, I carefully scored the surface with a little glass cutting tool (read the directions!). After cutting glass, CAREFULLY rub the edges with a fine sandpaper, being careful not to cut your hand!!!!

Snap off excess mirror at the score lines and glue on to the surfaces you want to cover. I started with the top, let it dry, flipped the table on one side, then the next and then the front.

For a little pizazz-a-roony, I added one of my handmade vintage polymer/vintage earring knobs. What was once a big, brown box became a glittery, glammy bedroom side table.

Wait until you get a load of my restyled mirror sewing table, complete with a handmade knob. Check back tomorrow morning for Furniture Redesign.

If you didn’t know, I love to design ottomans out of all sorts of materials. Whether it’s simply restyling an existing ottoman, or whipping one up from scratch, the one detail that can make your ottoman a standout is a stellar set of legs.

Once you find a set of legs worthy of your one of a kind ottoman, you’ll need to know how to attach them securely to the base. Using T-nuts is a polished, high end method that says you know what you’re doing.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Drill four holes equal distance around your ottoman base

2. Tap the T-nut (available at hardware stores) into the drilled holes from the side of the wood that will be facing up inside the ottoman, not the outside bottom of the ottoman

3. After all four T-nuts are installed, screw the leg bolt into the bottom side of the drilled holes until the leg feels tight. Adjust if for proper alignment. A you tighten the legs, the T-nut is tightened down into the wood which secures the leg. Next, attach an tighten a nut on top of the extending leg bolt to prevent the leg from loosening.

After all this, you may need to attach small screws into pre-drilled holes at the top of the legs as another way to hold them in place.

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Got tufting on your mind? This cold snowy morning makes me want to stay home, stay warm and exercise my manual dexterity with a little button tufting. Tufting styles vary from the very traditional deep fold diamond tufting to the modern, barely-there symmetrical tufting, and everything in between. If you’ve mastered DIY upholstery basics, and are ready to step it up, check out my Diamond Tufting 101 tutorial on AT Chicago.

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Ooh La La, look at this:

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Toning it down with biscuit tufting:

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Why stop at furniture, tuft a door, a wall, a vanity and more.

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This mom is my kind of girl. Made Blog author Dana is one of those women who is crafty and creative, as well as being quite adept behind the camera. She needed some stools at her kitchen counter. (Now this is the part I like.) She bought two Ikea counter stools and one of the $20.00 slipcovers they make for that style of stool. Then she promptly took the slipcover apart to use as a pattern and made her own slipcovers out of orange and white oilcloth. Dang! I wish I would have thought of that.
Now her kids can wallow all over those stools and she’ll never be embarrassed by that disgusting, grimey kitchen chair upholstery I’ve reupholstered for so many clients.

Here is a summary of Dana’s project.

The front of the cover has a flap that comes down.

You need to attach one side of velcro to the under side of that flap.

The flap then attaches to the velcro that is attached under the seat bottom.

If you’re using oilcloth or some other non-raveling fabric like microfiber, there’s no need to hem the edges that wrap around the legs.

Thank you so much Dana. You must know the closest Ikea to us is in Cincinnati, a two hour drive. However, I do have two vintage green vinyl counter stools that have a very similar size and shape.
See the full post over on MADE.

All images: MADE

Now that you got your fabric graft, you need to get those covered buttons made. I use an upholsterer’s button maker called Button Maker Junior. I love that name. Anyway, you could take your fabric piece to an upholsterer’s shop and have them make you two buttons, or you can buy those kind of cheapy kits at the fabric or craft store.
What you need:
two covered buttons
15″ of twine
long tufting needle
scissors
measuring tape, chalk

Here’s a peek at button making, one of the favorites of my students.

Now all you need to do is loop some twine through one of the button eyes, thread the cut ends through a big tufting needle, mark the exact button location, push the needle all the way through the cushion and tie the second button securely onto the back of the cushion. It’s a good idea to measure and mark the button location on the back side of the cushion so you can flip the cushion over, if needed.
Tie the knot and cut off the excess twine. RESCUED!

Our sofa upholstery is, oh, I’d say about ten years old. Long gone are the arm covers. About a year ago, I found a leftover scrap of sofa fabric so I made enough covered buttons to give the back cushions a mock tufted look. Somewhere along the line, one of pairs of buttons popped off and I’m sure I put them somewhere so I could repair it later, but it beats me where that might be. This may be the answer for a vintage sofa you’ve had your eye on, but haven’t closed the deal due to missing buttons.

Now I want to fix this lopsided, mock tufted center cushion. However, there’s no sofa fabric to be had.
Or is there?

Here’s what you do, my crafty crafty friends. I need two buttons, front and back, that will be tied with tufting twine.

1. Go to the back bottom of your sofa.

2. Remove the staples that are holding about 24″ of the dust cover in place

3. Take a look and see where the last upholsterer left enough excess fabric beyond the staples so that you can cut off a couple of inches to make your covered buttons.

4. Pull the fabric back down, staple in place, replace the welt cord and cardboard tack strip.

5. Close up the wound by reattaching the dust cover.

6. Voila’! You now have enough fabric to cover two buttons and repair that missing tuft and nobody is the wiser.

Next: I’ll show you how to make and attach those buttons.