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We have an enormous range of books and samples to choose from, but beware you may be overwhelmed by the choice. Let us bring a few relevant books to you first. The main things you should consider when choosing a fabric are: • Design, colour, style, • Durability • Wash ability or cleaning • Safety (fire retardancy) • Or maybe you want to use your own fabric. Design You will know what colour and general look that you want, and I’m sure that with the wide range of fabrics on the market today you will have a pretty clear idea of what you would like. However bear in mind that not every fabric: A. Is suitable for your furniture B. Is suitable for Covers or Re-Upholstery C. Complies with safety regulations When choosing a fabric, be particularly aware of how different your furniture may look once covered. For instance if you are making a major change from patterned to plain or vice versa your furniture will look very different (which is what you want of course!), but seams for instance that were barely visible in heavy pattern will be clearly seen in plain fabric. You also need to be aware of how a particular design will work on your furniture. Stripes for instance might not be advisable on furniture with a lot of curves, or a very large pattern might not suit a small chair. Another important design issue is ‘shading’ of fabrics. With fabrics which have a ‘pile’ such as velvets and chenille, when light strikes the pile at different angles you get different degrees of reflection, and so you get lighter or darker shades of the underlying colour. This is of course a major part of its appeal and what sets it apart from a plain fabric – but not everyone is aware of this. It is also important that a fabric is actually suitable for Covers or Re-Upholstery. That is, it has the required ‘give’ to go round curves and can be sewn without the seam coming apart under strain (seam slippage) and that it can take the strain of being pulled and stapled for upholstery. Durability A covering on a seat or exposed arm takes a lot of punishment. Standards have been set for the amount of abrasion a particular piece of cloth can take and this is measured with the ‘Martindale’ test and normally expressed as a number of ‘rubs’ e.g. 15,000 rubs. For ease of use this along with other information is then expressed as a usability classification: General Domestic, Severe Domestic, Contract etc. Any fabric you look at should have this classification as a guide. Washing and Cleaning One big advantage of Covers is that they can be removed for washing and cleaning – If you are choosing a light coloured fabric wash ability is a big plus. However with Tailored Covers there will be very little slack, so any shrinkage will be crucial. Many general fabric suppliers will label a fabric washable – what they mean is the colours will not run and it will not be damaged by washing, but there could be considerable shrinkage. A reputable manufacturer of Covers will ensure that their own range of fabrics has very low or no shrinkage to overcome this problem. If dry cleaning - we always say use a reputable dry cleaner, The labels in the Covers will give the dry cleaner instructions on the right method to use. Avoid self cleaning in launderettes as you are likely to damage your Covers. Safety All fabrics used for Covers must meet the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) regulations (as amended). As mentioned above Stretch fabrics do not have to meet as high a standard as Cover and Upholstery fabrics. See more facts below. For Re-Upholstery fabrics everything supplied by us must meet the requirements, although fabrics supplied by the customer may not have to. However we would strongly advise against using non-complying materials for your own safety and because it would significantly reduce the value of the furniture if you ever wanted to dispose of it. 4. My cushion interiors have collapsed, can they be replaced? To make the best of new Covers the cushion interior should be nice and plump. A lot of furniture in recent years has been sold with fibre filled seat cushions. Although lovely and soft and comfortable at first these generally doesn’t last very long and soon needs replacing. You can change to a medium-soft foam to get a similar feel (but not so squashy) or get new fibre filled seats. If you have feather cushions these need plumping up regularly and generally last quite a long time. New replacement feather cushions are available, or you can have feather wrapped foam which gives the luxury of feather but with the recovery and resilience of foam. If you are having your furniture Re-Upholstered, as mentioned above this does not always mean new fillings, but all cushions are ‘topped up’ with Dacron, new fibre or with foam as part of the service. | |||||
5. What will it cost? With thousands of designs of furniture, countless methods of construction, a myriad of fabrics and a choice of Covers, Re-Upholstery etc its impossible to say. As a rule of thumb - the cost to re-upholster a quality suite of about 10/15 years old will be about the same as when you bought it then. Or about half the cost to buy the same quality suite new to-day. If you are looking at competing quotes, be sure you are comparing like-for-like and that you have taken into account such things as guarantees, service, quality, dependability, etc. The most important thing is to be sure of what you are being offered for your money. 6. What standard can I expect? Standards of workmanship vary enormously elsewhere, but as far we are concerned a re-upholstered chair or sofa should look like it did when it was new, and covers should be of the standard as describe earlier. We give a 12 month guarantee on all our work. 7. How long will my furniture be away? We normally have a 3/4 weeks waiting list before we are ready to collect your furniture, which gives us time to take delivery of the fabric. When we are ready we give you a ‘phone to let you know we are able to collect your furniture - when it is suitable to you. An arrangement is made and our van will collect the items and take them to our workshop. The work is started almost right away and takes between one week and 4 weeks which depends on the size of the job – but that is something we will make clear when a quotation is made. As soon as the work is complete we arrange to deliver back the furniture at a suitable time to you. At this point we ask you to inspect the work to make sure you are satisfied with everything. | |||||
| James Erskine Church Hill Place Edinburgh Scotland EH10 4BD Tel:044 01314473135 Fax:044 01314470408 Email:norman.laidlaw@james-erskine.co.uk Copyright © James Erskine 2012 | |||||
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