When Katy Hoskinson decided it was time for a change of direction, she didn’t do things by halves. Her position as an upholsterer with Plumbs, the soft furnishings specialist, is a far cry from her previous role as a chef in a busy kitchen. Yet the flourishing career that the 43 year old from Lincolnshire has stitched for herself is testament to her will to succeed in not one but two male dominated industries.

The time-honoured skills of upholstery have long since been a masculine domain, with the traditional crafts passed down over the years from master to apprentice. Routes into the industry for a woman embarking on a second career are few and it is only Katy’s sheer determination and genuine love of her craft that have enabled her to achieve what she has to date. With a glowing record behind her and a future specialising in antique restoration ahead, Katy has proven that a bit of grit makes all the difference when breaking into a new industry.

When speaking about her role, Katy’s enthusiasm is clear:

“I love working on all the furniture that comes through the workshop but I get a particular buzz from the older stuff and the antiques. It’s my chance to give it a second life and make it look as good as the day it was first produced. As an upholsterer the challenge is to unravel and convert the designer’s idea and make the piece look beautiful again, and I get a lot of satisfaction from that.”

And yet things could all have turned out very differently, as it was only by accident that Katy discovered her talent for upholstery. Faced with the prospect of finding a new career, with no formal qualifications and no experience other than as a chef, she stuck a pin in a City & Guilds course book and came up with upholstery. After doing some research on the subject, she undertook an access course at York College and was well and truly bitten by the bug.

Several years later and Katy has added a BA Hons in furniture restoration and conservation to her impressive record, as well as the first pure MA degree in upholstery to be awarded in the UK. She also spent time refining her specialised training at the Ecole Boulle, a highly respected Parisian school dedicated to the arts, where her skills have been honed to perfection.

“My life has turned around since I started to learn about upholstery, it’s really become a huge part of my world,” Katy says. “My partner is also a furniture maker and restorer, so our whole house revolves around a love of the craft. I just get such a sense of achievement when I see the finished piece that it makes all the effort it’s taken to get to this place in my career worthwhile.”

The skill, workmanship and passion that a Plumbs craftsman puts into reupholstering your treasured piece of furniture is next to none. Plumbs offers all the benefits of a well established national company, offering furniture repair and reupholstery services, combined with a personal level of service that can only be achieved on a local level.

Although there are plenty of local and even regional companies in the market, Plumbs is the only manufacturer of fitted furniture covers to offer a nationwide service. Each week about 25km of material is converted into more than 1000 made to measure loose covers for armchairs and sofas.

Started some 45 years ago and still owned by the Plumb family, this Lancashire factory has over 300 staff on the payroll. But this is only part of the story as there are another 150 self employed consultants who deal with customers in their homes. Consultants show customers fabric samples and photographs demonstrating the different fabrics on offer and generally giving advice on the available options. After agreement is reached, the consultant measures up, sends in the details and will ultimately fit the products once complete and shipped.

With over 1000 orders a week to process and at least 200 designs and colourways to contend with, it follows that holding stock of raw material is hardly practical. Instead, Plumbs uses its experience to forecast the likely demand for each fabric and colour alternative which it then passes on to its four major and 16 minor suppliers. It takes around four to six weeks to process an order, from the moment measurements come in from the consultant to the point of delivery. The first stage of the process is to check the measurements and set up the documentation. During this time we expect the material to be delivered from the supplier just in time to go straight onto the Lectra cutter.

In a process still very much dependent on skilled sewing machine operators, of whom the factory employs more than 70 plus a few other machinists installing zips and making-up valances, there is a limit to how much automation is possible. But over the years Plumbs has invested heavily in state-of-the-art automatic cutters from the French manufacturer, Lectra – machines that even ten years ago had a £100,000 price tag. “We have worked closely with Lectra for 15 years,” said production director Arthur Diamond, “and now have seven of their cutters. Because each order is unique, every job has to be cut single ply, but even so our productivity in this area has risen enormously.”

It’s not as simple as saying the Lectra machines have made a four-fold improvement in productivity as savings at the cutter need to be offset with time spent in the firm’s drawing office working on CAD systems to feed the cutters with digital data. But, overall costs and training timescales are down, plus, by using a computer to arrange the numerous pattern pieces on the fabric, maximum material utilisation is being achieved.

One of the biggest problems Plumbs has is appealing to a younger market. When they think of Plumbs loose covers, many people think of the brown knitted stretch fabric on granny’s favourite chair. However, with the continuous development of polyester knitted fabrics, a high quality cover with little stretch is now available with all of the easy-care benefits and they still account for 50 per cent of sales. But nowadays there is much more interest from the market in cotton fabrics which has seen the Traditional Cotton brand grow enormously.

For those customers who want a tighter fit from their covers, but without going all the way to re-upholstery, Plumbs is busy building a network of what it calls ‘technical designers’. So far there are 155 of these independent re-upholstery specialists who receive firm orders, generated in the normal way, but who make the covers to much tighter tolerances. Rather than have the field consultant measure up, details are passed to the technical designer who takes his own measurements.

There is an increasing demand for full re-upholstery which Plumbs now offer as a service throughout the United Kingdom.

Plumbs has a terrific reputation, as a completely dependable, friendly, family run business. An obvious extension to the loose cover range are curtains; not the imported, ready made variety, but rather a top of the range product complete with a full design and fitting service. Currently, curtains such as these account for around twelve per cent of the total sales which includes our internet curtain ordering service.

The life of an order in the Plumbs factory can be seen here 

The wings are of beech construction with hand made joints! They don’t make ‘em like that any more.

With quality new fillings, tightened springs and a fabulous new cover, the end result is a joy. A priceless family heirloom.

With reupholstery however it’s a different story. The pictures below show how this sofa was quite literally taken to pieces and rebuilt by the Plumbs reupholstery team.

An added complexity was that each side of the sofa has an independent recliner action. A very complex job but also a very satisfying outcome.

Below shows a view of a piece of furniture that most of us never see. In this case proper steel springs, hardwood frame and quality fillings mean that this is a piec of furniture made to last.

The end result ready to be wrapped and delivered. There is probably 30 hours of skilled labour and around 40 metres of fabric gone into this 3 piece suite.

This is a great example. Double drop arm sofas like this really are worth preserving as the mechanisms and frames are very well built.

These pieces are particularly versatile as they create a fabulous day bed or even emergency sleepover for unexpected guests.

The pictures say it all. The original furniture has been stripped down right to the frame and all internal elements checked and replaced where necessary. The end result with the new fabric applied is just stunning. This could so easily have gone into landfill but now it’s good for another generation to enjoy.

This sofa maybe pushing sentimental attachment to the limits but emotional ties with furniture can often lead to major upholstery repairs.

I haven’t seen a recliner before with this footstool arrangement. Very unusual!

The foot rest has the appearance of a drawer which then pulls out. The leather upholstery contrasts well with the newly reupholstered cushions for a really interesting finish.

The heavily carved wooden frame picture 13 contrasts well with the new fabric, a superb end result.

A lot of work and skill goes into this type of project but the end result is worthwhile. These pictures underline the fact that if a piece of furniture has a good frame, it’s worth keeping. It’s good for the environment and gives really satisying end results. The people doing this work really are taking pride in their efforts.

Show wood is a good example. A couple of recent examples from the Plumbs reupholstery workrooms are shown here.

In both cases the customers had chosen reupholstery to retain the wood features of the furniture:

The example below shows half way through and then the finished article.

This shows work in progress as the reupholstery fabric is attached beneath the position of the arm:

The finished article looks superb. Every details of the furniture is exactly as in the original state when the furniture was brand new.

In summary for furniture with special features such as show wood, reupholstery is the best option.