Psychologists claim that only 7% of communication is verbal and the other 93% is non-verbal; this is usually broken down as 38% vocal (volume, pitch, rhythm, etc) and 55% body movements (mostly facial expressions and body language).
| 7% Verbal Communications and 93% Non-Verbal Communication |
Clearly our non-verbal skills are critically important and are something which we should constantly strive to improve. However, for now I’m thinking about the verbal communication when discussing proposed work on a piece of furniture.
The terms ‘re-upholstery’ and ‘recover’ are often used interchangeably as though they mean the same thing. It has been my experience that herein lies the mis-communication.
When a client tells me that they would like their favourite granny’s armchair re-upholstered I like to question them a little more and listen very carefully to what they say. Usually a client is only interested in the main fabric and the finished look of a chair. They usually have little interest and knowledge of the many layers underlying the main fabric. Little do they know that the finished shape and look of the chair is a result of building up several layers of materials.
To Re-Upholster a chair:
- All the materials have to be removed and the chair completely stripped back to the frame.
- Once this is done the chair frame is assessed. All weaknesses or breaks and any looseness or movement of the joints are corrected so that the chair frame is sound.
- Now the frame is ready to be re-upholstered.
- For traditional upholstery this usually involves 7 layers of materials being carefully built up.
- Modern upholstery uses fewer layers of materials.
- It is during these stages that the shape, size and comfort of the chair is achieved. If fundamental mistakes are made during the early stages these may seldom be successfully corrected as the re-upholstery process proceeds: actually some errors may become exponentially magnified as the work progresses.
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| A chair in the process of being re-upholstered |
Of course, for some furniture it isn’t necessary to completely strip off all the old materials. If the chair is sound, the webbing and springs in good condition it may only be necessary to remove some of the layers which will be rebuilt.
The extent of the re-upholstery should be discussed fully.
To Recover a chair:
- The old main fabric and maybe a couple of the underlying layers must be removed and replaced with new materials and the new main fabric.
- When I am recovering furniture I spend time discussing and examining the shape and comfort of the chair. During this time I can assess whether the chair will benefit from adding new stuffing etc.
As you can see when you instruct an upholsterer to Re-Upholster or Recover a chair you are asking them to do different jobs which will be reflected in the price charged. Having an understanding of what the difference is will help you communicate effectively with the upholsterer.
