Haven't seen much on this topic so I thought I'd post my adventures. My Great Grandmother was fond of saying, "Well, if you think that you're just wrong again!" Over the years it's been somewhat disheartening how often the old lady has been right. I was sure I'd never build furniture I'd be willing to put in my house, and certainly nothing upholstered. I recently made this chair: (I made the matching couch as well, those of you who worked on the Morris chair project may recognize it from Wood magazine's "Arts and Crafts Furniture").
Chair1.jpg
Couch1.jpgDSCN3718.jpgDSCN3727.jpgBack1.jpgDSCN3733.jpg
The plans said no sewing required, so I decided to give it a shot. The photos above show the basic process. Lay the fabric face down, cut batting (glorified dryer lent, you'll need ~ 1 bale), put the foam on top of the batting, wrap the fabric around and attach it to the frame w/staples. The rubber webbing comes in a roll, you cut lengths and add clips that attach to the frame sides. The frame attaches to ledgers on the chair frame, in the process translating the downward force of someone sitting to the front and rear chair rails, hence the 3 spreaders in the 1st picture. For the back you need a wedge shaped piece of foam and a couple of pieces of plywood.
Things I learned:
1. High quality foam and upholstery is expensive!!! I've got ~ 2K in this project, $500/wood, $400/fabric, $500/foam & misc. I used Q41 foam for the base and Q21 (softer) foam for the back. The 41 is very firm, you probably wouldn't want to go much firmer than this. With the rubber webbing seating is firm but has enough give or bounce to be comfortable. These have density's of 2.8 and 2.3 respectively. In general, the higher the density the higher the quality, and the longer it will last before breaking down.
2. I got my foam cut at a local upholstery supply shop, I would recommend this option if available. Although the foam cuts quite easily on a bandsaw, manhandling a 25 lb 2 1/2' x 5' piece of foam on a small table or trying to cut a precise angle can be problematic. I wound up needing to trim 1/8" in width for the couch base cushion; an electric carving knife was a much better tool than a 21" bandsaw
3. If at all possible keep batting off of carpet. I's easy to sweep up on a hardwood or tile floor, but it clings to carpet like there's no tomorrow.
4. I needed to buy a 3/8" staple gun. The one I got shot staples fine, but was too wimpy to drive the 5/8" brads for the seat back through the fabric. A dedicated brad nailer had no problem.
5. I made the legs using the 5 piece method to get QS grain on all 4 sides. I clamped by tying each leg together w/surgical rubber (I had a limited number of clamps & was impatient). This worked pretty well, but I did get some slight separation on one piece due to glue swelling. If I had to do it again I'd cut a chamfer on the edges of the center piece to give the glue somewhere to go.
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