UPHOLSTERY 201/ WORKROOM WORK ORDER
How to be sure the upholstery you order is what you get!
Enroll in Course
UPHOLSTERY 201
WORKROOM WORK ORDER
Does the thought of sourcing upholstery leave you frozen? Do you feel unsure about how all the pieces and parts will come together and look and feel the way you imagined it will?
There is nothing worse than that sinking feeling when after weeks, or possibly even months, your client’s upholstery arrives and its just awful. The cushions don’t look or sit like you imagined. The fabric looked so much better on the swatch! And maybe you even wonder, “why is that pattern cut off there?”
A little forethought and pre-planning will make sure that the upholstery you choose for your projects will look and feel great for years and years to come!
In this course, we cover every single detail that can be specified. When you are confident with how an upholstered piece will look and feel, your client’s will trust your design vision and know that you have their best interests at heart! Creating loyalty, trust, and long-term clients who call YOU first for future projects AND proudly refer their friends!
Sourcing custom upholstery adds an average of 25% profit to your bottom line!
This in-depth checklist was developed over several years of working with reupholstery customers and complicated restoration projects. Included here is every question asked and every detail covered when going through the process of creating a CUSTOM upholstery project! Plus? I've included a printable yardage calculator with pattern repeat guide to help you estimate yardage (for budget purposes only) Always purchase yardage recommended by your workroom for best results! You will receive my complete custom upholstery work-order in White Label form, downloadable and ready your own company label and information.
Creating confidence with clients is key when suggesting a project that can't be touched, seen, or worse, sat on until finished. Ensuring clients that their heirloom pieces were in good hands was my goal! More than just specification of style and fabric, in this course, we delve into exactly where the pattern should fall and match, how the welt should lay, what kind of seating material is best for their tush, and were proactive to any potential delivery conundrums.
While is seems simple, I've heard expensive horror stories and when it goes wrong...who pays to fix it?
Included with your course is access to HAUS & HOME Upholstery Academy Facebook student group, with weekly Q&A sessions, ongoing support for future upholstery projects, and insider tips for sourcing vintage upholstery. You can post all your fabric, workroom, and upholstery project questions and be coached through your own sourcing and specifying dilemmas!
Some things you'll learn in this course:
- Workroom Etiquette
- How to make sure your project doesn't get pushed back in line
- How to fill out your own Workroom Work Order and AVOID costly, custom mistakes!
- Make sure your pattern placement is where you imagined
- Pattern Scale, is it a good fit for the frame?
- Understand the difference between up the roll/bolt and railroad - and why it is important!
- Welt? Is it on the bias, and does it matter?
- Cushion construction. What makes a long-lasting cushion?
- Will your vintage piece need structural repairs?
- Nail Heads? Special trims?
- Skirts
- Exposed wood finish
- What to reject. What to accept
And my personal favorite:
Delivery Dilemmas. Freight elevators anyone?
You'll earn back the cost of this course in your FIRST UPHOLSTERY SALE!
Plus? Full access to all content and upgrades for life!
Happy to have you here!
Richelle XO
Your Instructor
Can I just say...I am so incredibly happy to have you here! I am excited for you (and truthfully excited for me too!) because I can't wait to share with you what I've learned in my 20 plus years in the design field, 6 of which I owned and operated a custom upholstery and design studio.
Seeing firsthand how the average person uses their upholstery and hearing their feedback and concerns, has taught me how to analyze a client's needs and translate into the perfect sofa or chair for their family! I have personally sourced fabric and upholstery/reupholstery for over 2,000 projects in the Kansas City and surrounding area. That equates to about 30 pieces of upholstery out my door a month. That's a lot of tushes and thousands of yards of fabric! I've come across just about every-single-thing that could possible rear its ugly head!
Upholstery can be one of the most expensive investments in our home. Most people will have about 50 years of sofa/chair ownership and the question is how many will they own over a lifetime? My design mantra is to furnish forward, that means using the best quality available and keeping it. Reupholstering rather than tossing it out. Teaching clients how a backed fabric wears, and how 1.8lb foam cushions compare to down-wrapped inner coil cushions means that they can make INFORMED BUYING DECISIONS, ensuring they will be happy for years to come - or prepared to replace pieces over time. Either way, clients are empowered to make their own educated decisions!
I believe this is what our design clients really want from us and why they trust us with their budget!
Sourcing upholstery for clients can be an unknown, especially when they can't sit on it themselves first. No one wants to be wrong and cursed after putting the finishing design touches in place. Because, really...how would you know? How many people pick up the phone or send an email when they dislike something? Based on the numerous complaints I heard from clients in my upholstery workroom, they expected better quality when they paid, (what felt to them like) an arm and a leg for their sofa. Followed by feeling stuck with something so uncomfortable and/or so big, it’s just a pain to dispose of and worse yet? Fear of making ANOTHER expensive mistake! No one wants to make a sofa mistake! Not your client! Not you!
So here is the good news! We are going to dive into the details of sourcing custom upholstery with both a re-upholstery studio (Designers, this is best value in upholstery for your clients) AND new to-the-trade upholstery.
BTW. Did you know that furniture accounts for 9.8 MILLION TONS of trash per YEAR???
Let's get this party started! R
Richelle XO