Guide 3: Full Upholstery Projects Tutorials
This is where technique meets reality.
Now with Guide 2 you understand the layers. You know how webbing, springs, and padding work. Now you apply all of it to complete pieces, from start to finish, on real furniture.
Guide 3 is a library of full upholstery projects, organized by chair type and complexity. Each project follows a real piece from stripping to finishing, showing how every technique connects in the right order – and why that order matters. This is where everything you’ve learned stops being abstract and starts making sense in your hands.
This page will grow over time. New projects, new chair types, and new seating categories will be added as the library expands. If you want the foundations or the core technical steps first, start with Guide 1 and Guide 2.
And if you ever feel stuck: the forum is here. Ask your question, share a photo, and get help from the community.
Jump to a category: Stools · Simple chairs · Bridge chairs · Cabriolet chairs · Modern chairs · Bergère chair · Sofas
Stools
Stools are the ideal first complete upholstery project. The structure is simple, the shape is forgiving, and there are no arms or backs to navigate. What they do give you is the full upholstery sequence in its most readable form: strip, prepare, web, pad, cover, finish. Every step is there, nothing is hidden, and the result is immediate. If you’ve never taken a piece from bare frame to finished seat, this is where to start.
How to finish a round stool with a simple piping (Blind Stich by Hand)
How to make a foam pouf
Mock cushion stool cover tutorial
Rounded stool tutorial (wooden structure)
Squared stool tutorial (wooden structure)
Simple chairs
Simple chair projects introduce the challenges that stools don’t have: a back to cover, corners to fold, fabric that needs to behave consistently across different planes. These projects are where you practice structure, padding thickness, and clean finishing without the added complexity of arms or curved frames. A natural next step, and a necessary one before moving to more demanding shapes.
Foam seat with edge roll tutorial
How to create a simple pleat on a squared edge seat
How to cover this little chair easily
How to upholster this little chair easily
How to web with elastic webbing
Bridge chairs
Bridge chairs introduce arms, and with them a new layer of complexity. You start managing volume across multiple surfaces, thinking about how the seat, back, and arms relate to each other visually and structurally. Proportions matter more here. Covering decisions made on the seat affect how the back sits are padded affects the overall silhouette. These projects develop your eye as much as your technique.
How to upholster a modern “bridge” chair step by step
Clove Hitch Knot and simple Knot
How to create a simple pleat on a squared edge seat
How to upholster a modern chair seat with foam easily
How to fix a broken arm
How to cover a modern bridge chair (3 videos tutorials)
Cabriolet chairs
Cabriolet chairs – the classic French-style armchair with curved frames and a sprung seat – are where traditional upholstery really comes into its own. The curved back and shaped seat rail require accuracy in both padding and covering: fabric has to ease around curves without pulling or puckering, and the padding has to follow a shape that isn’t flat in any direction. These projects also typically involve hand-tied springs in the seat, which adds another layer of skill. Demanding, but enormously satisfying to complete well.
View cabriolet chair tutorials →
Easy trick to glue an arm junction on a cabriolet chair
How to do a foam seat with edgeroll
How to create arms with horsehair
First stuffing on a cabriolet chair
Clove Hitch Knot and simple Knot
How to create a V pleat (tulip pleat) ending with decorative nails
Modern chairs
Modern chairs have their own logic: cleaner lines, different frame constructions, and materials that behave differently from traditional furniture. Spring units replace hand-tied coils. Foam replaces layered fibre. The covering sequences change. Understanding how upholstery adapts to contemporary furniture – without forcing traditional methods onto frames they weren’t designed for – is a skill that opens up a much wider range of projects. These tutorials show you how.
How to create a perfect 3 layers foam seat cushion
Modern cushion chair tutorial
Bergère chair
The bergère is a generous chair: deep seat, substantial back, padded arms, multiple layers of comfort built up carefully before anything is covered. These projects bring together everything: structure, springing, traditional and modern padding, careful covering across complex shapes, and finishing details that need to work across several different surfaces at once. If you can upholster a bergère well, you can upholster almost anything.
View bergère chair tutorials →
How to upholster the back of a bergere chair
How to create a perfect 3 layers foam seat cushion
How to create a feather seat cushion
Traditional webbing a bergere chair
How to create a front edge platform
How to create a perfect seat cushion pattern for a bergere chair ?
Sofas
Sofas are larger in scale but not necessarily more complex in logic, they’re an extension of everything you’ve learned on chairs, applied across a bigger frame with more surfaces to manage. The challenges are real: more fabric to control, more cushions to make, more finishing decisions to get right consistently across a wider piece. Best approached once you’re comfortable with chairs and have a solid grasp of the core seating sequence.
How to cover a back with a fabric junction?
Maralunga sofa’s secret
How to use this guide
You don’t need to follow every project in order. Choose a category that matches your current confidence level and the piece you have in front of you. Each project reinforces the same upholstery logic while exposing you to new shapes, new challenges, and new decisions. The more projects you complete, the more you start to see the patterns — and the more quickly you can read a new piece and know exactly what it needs.
If you still feel unsure about the technical steps, go back to Guide 2 — Core Upholstery Techniques before tackling a full project.
Is there any upholstery tutorial missing ?
Looking for a specific chair style? Leave a comment on this page and tell me what you’d love to learn next. I regularly create tutorials based on your requests.
Logged-in members can leave a comment below to request future tutorials and specific chair styles.