Every now and then we can become tired with our furniture. Staring at the same old design can become tedious, or it may even have seen better days. But fear not! There is an easy way for you to revive your sofa or suite by becoming your very own furniture designer!

Reupholstery allows you to take the reins and turn your furniture into something truly unique for you and your home. I’ve compiled a list of just some of the ways you can individualise your furniture with reupholstery.

FABRICS

The quickest way to give your furniture a unique look is by choosing a brand new fabric that is right for you. It’s amazing the difference a fresh new colour and new design can make to your sofa.

If you currently have plain, modest fabrics why not opt for a radical burst of colour for a dramatic transformation. Or if you’re simply looking to refresh your suite, choose a similar design that you know will fit with the rest of your room. Sometimes just a new take on a traditional design can be all your furniture needs to look fresh and new!

There is so much choice when it comes to fabric design so be creative and have fun with it! Remember you can mix and match fabrics, so you could choose a bold design for your feature sofa with a more subtle fabric for your chairs. Or if you’re looking for something with real ‘wow’ why not opt for a different fabric for your seat cushions and a co-ordinating fabric for the base!

Chairs Re-upholstered in Chelsea Velvet with Jacobean Opulence backdrop

Remember, at Plumbs we have over 600 fabric options and colourways to choose from so you can find the perfect look for your home!

FEATURES

If you want a completely new look, reupholstery can help by maintaining (or taking away) features like button backs or piping. Button backs can give furniture a grand, luxury feel especially when combined with a luxurious fabric such as a chenille or velvet. Similarly you could change the entire look and feel of your button backed sofa by simply reupholstering over this feature to give a smooth, modern finish.

Chair Re-upholstered in Chelsea Velvet - Cream

Adding piping to your furniture can give a subtle change when using the same fabric as your furniture, adding definition to the shape. For an original look you could even consider contrast piping, using a completely different colour to the main fabric. This can look particularly effective on occasional furniture.

FEET
Furniture can be given a new look and feel simply by changing or adding castors or feet. You may be surprised to discover the variety of shapes and sizes that are available out there, and the different effects they can have on your furniture.   Knowing what styles to choose can be a minefield so get to know your options and how they can add to your current furniture.
For example, if you have a traditional piece but are looking to add a modern edge, try to find angular, metallic feet which can give a great contrast, or look for bun feet, which are a chunkier design. Combining modern and traditional elements is a popular way to renew your furniture and bring it up to date whilst being respectful of its traditional qualities.

An example of Furniture Feet & Castors

Not only are furniture feet a great way of individualising your favourite sofa or chair, they also have a number of more practical plus points! Since feet come in all different sizes, you could alter the height of your furniture, making it more comfortable for your specific needs. Adjustable feet are a great way to combat uneven floors and a good advantage of opting for castors is that furniture can become easier to move around. So if you prefer to pull your favourite armchair a little closer to the fire, you can do so with ease.

Although we don’t supply furniture feet, our re-upholsterers are more than happy to add your own new feet or castors whilst working on your furniture.

THE FINAL RESULT
With a choice of fabrics, features and feet options there are almost endless combinations that can be created with reupholstery, resulting in truly unique furniture that is exactly how you want it!

Sofa Reupholstered in Chrysanthemum - Coffee Cream

Remember, Plumbs offer free no-obligation advice and a chance to browse through our fabric range in your own home. So next time you’re fed up with your furniture, why not take a look at how we could help you give it a unique make over!

I am handing the floor over to you today to see what you make of our latest project?  We’ve reupholstered this stunning occasional chair in carefully co-ordinating fabrics that could give homes a real wow factor!

For me this is ideal!  I like furniture to make a statement but all too often I find myself not daring enough to opt for eye cathcing fabrics like this Chenille Velvet Stripe.  This latest project would allow me to showcase a modest plain fabric (in a stunning attention grabbing colour I might add!), as well as showing off my personality with the more daring design!  I think this look gives great definition and interest to furniture.  What are your thoughts?

We’ve been working hard this year to raise awareness of our local in-home consultancy service, bringing you information about Consultants in your local area.  And today, the road has stopped in London!  I don’t know about you, but shopping can be stressful at the best of times and when you add a capital city into the mix, scouting around for a new sofa can become unbearable!

Lucky for the residents of London (and the rest of the UK) Plumbs have Consultants who are local to you and will visit you in your own home.  You can browse fabric samples and discuss your options for re-upholstery without any obligation and completely stress free!

Click on the links below to find out more about re-upholstery services in your local area:

Re-upholstery in North London

- including Barnet & Enfield.

Re-upholstery in Central London

-including Waterloo & Kensington

Re-upholstery in West London

-including Wembely & Harrow

Re-upholstery in South West London

- including Richmond & Croydon

Re-upholstery in South East London

- including Greenwich & Dartford

Re-upholstery in North East London

- including Ilford & Redbridge

Remember – Plumbs have Consulatants all over the UK – more spotlighted areas coming soon…

The US will be celebrating Earth day this weekend (22nd April): a day for pledging your efforts for a greener planet! But who says we should leave it all to our friends over the pond? We can all do our bit to help the environment, and here at Plumbs we’re keen to push the message of recycling and reusing old furniture! With landfill space in the UK expected to run out by 2018, now is a great time to think outside of the box and see how you can make your unwanted furniture useable again.

Our primary concern is, of course upholstery. 10 million items of furniture are thrown away in the UK every year. 3 million of these items could be easily re-used; more could be repaired. You’ll be pleasantly suprised to hear of the transformations that loose covers and re-upholstery can do to your old furniture. Bringing a fresh new look to saggy sofas or sprucing up your conservatory suite, recycling, or in many cases up-cycling your favourite furniture in this way is great for the environment and great for your home!

Here are some of our recent transformations…

Remember, it’s not just upholstery that can be kept and made new. Think about other household objects you could renew or repurpose, such as turning old cupboard doors into lap trays, or making a quirky shelf unit from unused drawers as seen on Decorology blog:

Re-purposing, re-cycling and re-upholstering is a win win for you and the environment! So, before considering buying a new suite, sofa or chair, why not arrange your free home consultation to see how Plumbs can help you save your sofa and the environment!

*Environmental statistics sourced from Bulky Waste Collection Services.

If you haven’t seen our new reupholstery TV ad yet, fear not, you still have 3 more weeks to try to catch it on your favourites channels.  The new campaign launched last week on popular channels like ITV3, Home and Channel 4 North and South.

Our newest campaign focuses on the skilled craftsmanship of our upholsterers. The advert includes a sequence of the reupholstery process from stripping down the original furniture, to frame repair, and fitting of new springs, cushions and fabric.

We even cast a real-life upholsterer to play the leading role!  Mick Delaney has worked for us for over 30 years and is no stranger to the lime-light.  Last year he took to the road to join the Plumbs exhibition team in demonstrating his upholstering techniques live across the UK.  (Click here to see this year’s event list!)

The chosen fabric for the ad was a new member to our beautiful range ‘New Sunset Rose’.  We wanted to really go to town with showing you a complete co-ordinated look, so teamed this fabric with Ayre curtains, Perdita blinds and Bijoux Crushed Velvet reupholstered footstool:

If you simply cannot wait to see the ad in action, click here to watch it online!

Paint manufacturer Dulux have unveiled their colour trends for 2012/13.  Their six distinct palettes are set to take interior design by storm, so here at Plumbs we’ve been busily preparing ideas for how you can stay on trend this year!

The great thing about colour trends is that you can pick and just choose exactly which hues you want. You could utilise the entire palette or choose the shades that will be right for you and your home.

Appropriately named Carnivale, this pretty selection of pink and lilac will give an ultra feminine feel to your room. For a more subtle approach, you could leave out the darker pink shades. Plumbs’ fabric choice: Sorrento Stripe and Summer, Soft Aubergine.

A more masculine palette can be found with Re-set, a contemporary monochrome set of blacks, whites and greys. Try patterned fabrics to break up blocks of solid colour when adopting this trend. Plumbs’ fabric choice: Chelsea Velvet – Steel with Jacobean Opulence – Black/White.

A warmer look can be created with Time-Honoured. Twinned with dark wood, these orange and red hues are sure to brighten any room. We’ve added a dash of green here to bring out an earthier feel. Plumbs’ fabric choice: Vista – Terracotta.

If the natural look is more for you, take inspiration for Dulux’s zesty Nurture trend. Mix vibrant greens with soft creams for a fresh, Spring look all year round. Plumbs’ fabric choice: Lily – Pistachio.

Raw is the slightly subtler version of this outdoor trend. Combining slate and grey/green tones gives a softer,  more neutral approach. Plumbs’ fabric choice: Fiore Check – Linen.

Finally, Immerse yourself in relaxing blues. No longer a colour scheme set aside for bathrooms, the calming tones of blue can bring tranquillity to your living space. Plumbs’ fabric choice: Floral Brocade – Turquoise.

With so much inspiration it’s time to  get the sample paint pots and the wallpaper clippings and browse Plumbs fabrics online by clicking here, or click here to arrange your Free Home Visit to see our whole range of fabrics in your own home!  We’ll be back soon with more decorating inspiration.

There are many things we associate with the build up to Christmas.  First come the dazzling shop windows, next the office party invites, perhaps even the odd jingle bells may start to be heard.  For me it’s the adverts on TV!  Every year Coca-Cola does not fail to insight festive spirit when their iconic advert plays out during an episode of Coronation Street, for example!

Another clear sign that Christmas is coming is the abundance of commercials advertising the benefits of buying a new sofa.  This time of year we are inundated with suggestions of buying a new sofa just in time for Christmas.  But is buying new our only option to true comfort this festive season?

Of course not!  Consider this.  You’ve shopped around for the perfect sofa or suite to fit your home.  It’s the right size, the right shape, the right style.  Over time the fabric has become worn or your taste has altered.  It happens!  No problem.  Before throwing your much loved furniture on the tip and going through the whole process again, you may be interested to know of a much better, hassle-free way of transforming your furniture.

Loose Covers can be tailor made in any fabric, colour and design of your choice.  You get to keep all of the benefits of your current furniture and can change the whole look and feel. You can even restore and repair any areas of your furniture with reupholstery – so it’s like having a brand new sofa!  Below are a couple of before and after transformations to whet your appetite.

So before you’re convinced to discard your furniture and buy new this Christmas, it could be worth considering all of your options.  You can click here to find out more information of how Plumbs can transform your furniture with Loose Covers, or click here for reupholstery.

Seasons are the best times of year to take inspiration for decorating your home, and Autumn is no exception.  With its beautifully rich palette of oranges, reds and browns you can create a stunning, warm look in any room.

Consider pairing bold red walls with neutral fabrics and gold accents for an understated warm glow.  For a more earthy feel, why not reverse the look, with neutral walls and a terracotta fabric.  Incorporating leaf designs or adding a vase of pre-lit twigs can really bring the outdoors into your living room.

Alternatively, with Halloween just around the corner, don’t be scared to indulge in more daring colours such as purples, blacks and greens.  Plumbs’ stylist Jenny Stirzaker says ‘Try combining pumpkin orange with a bright green for a contemporary fresh look. Or why not pair a deep purple with black accent features for a truly sumptuous room.’

Take a look at our Anastasia design, to get those Autumnal design ideas flowing.

Click here to find out more about Anastasia.

It is a little known fact that some reupholsterers will charge for reupholstery but actually they are just stapling a cover on top of what is already there!

This chair appeared on the Plumbs Reupholstery unit this morning to be reupholstered. It has been supposedly reupholstered before….or has it?

1. The new cover has simply been stapled on top of the old.
2. As a result the new cover has worn through on the side of the arm as there is no supporting padding
3. The customer was almost certainly of the impression that she was having her chair reupholstered.

Just a word of caution for anyone looking into reupholstery. There are lots of companies out there both large and small, who claim to be reupholsterers. Check exactly what work is actually being done before you make a decision. Stapling a cover on top of what is already there is not reupholstery. It is bad practice and gives the reupholstery craft a bad name.

What we offer:

Plumbs offer a comprehensive reupholstery service of the highest standard backed up by a comprehensive three year quality guarantee.

There are many processes involved in traditional re-upholstery techniques from the basics of pin stuffing to the complex, such as deep buttoning.

As different styles of furniture require different techniques we cannot always guarantee what will be used on your furniture. The first technique, which is performed on every piece we re-upholster, is ‘taking down’ and inspecting the frame.

During this processes we can identify what needs to be done to restore your furniture to its former glory. Re-springing, for example, is not always necessary depending on the condition of the springs. On the other hand, we may need to repair parts of the frame such as loose joints.

We can guarantee that whatever needs repairing, will be expertly carried out. The full reupholstery process carried out by Plumbs is described here:

http://www.plumbsreupholstery.co.uk/reupholstery/index.php

We have created a new collection of fabrics called the ‘Bijoux Collection’. It is a co-ordinated range of four differently styled fabrics, featuring textured tweeds and crushed velvets, which are colour co-ordinated together to offer mixed furniture groupings following current trends.

The new range of fabrics have been manufactured using the very latest technology with the highest quality raw materials to offer beautiful, timeless fabrics.

The four fabrics are:

Bijoux Weave –a richly textured tweed effect combining similar tones
Bijoux Slub – a smooth textured random slub effect for perfect simplicity
Bijoux Velvet – a sumptuous crushed velvet with the very latest design trends
Bijoux Hopsack – s simply styled contemporary tweed with tonal shades

Colourways include: Grey, Mulberry, Pearl, Coca, Chocolate, Teak, Charcoal, Mist, Duck Egg, Pear and Cherry

Chris Plumb of Plumbs said, “Our new collection offers some stunning fabrics with lots of different colourways. Use them to transform a sofa or chair with loose covers or reupholstery to brighten up your room for the summer.”