This Victorian button-back armchair came to our workshop in a state that is familiar to anyone who has inherited older furniture: the fabric was threadbare, the springs had collapsed on one side, and years of use had compressed the traditional stuffing until the frame was almost visible through the padding. The owner had been told by another workshop that it was not worth restoring.

We disagreed. The frame (solid beech, hand-cut mortise and tenon joints, original castors) was in excellent condition. This is a chair that was built to last a century or more. It just needed the upholstery rebuilt from scratch.

Assessment and Quote

The owner brought the chair to our Tottenham Court Road workshop in person, which saved on collection costs. We assessed it on the spot: the frame was structurally sound with no cracks, splits, or woodworm. One rear leg had a slightly loose joint that we could re-glue and clamp. The rest of the work was purely upholstery.

We quoted £950–£1,100 depending on fabric choice, plus the cost of fabric itself. The owner chose a deep teal velvet from Warwick's Plush range (40,000+ Martindale, £52/m) , a sensible choice for a statement piece that would see regular use.

Step 1: Strip-Back

The first job is always a complete strip-back. We remove every layer of fabric, wadding, stuffing, and hessian down to the bare frame. This serves two purposes: it lets us inspect the frame properly, and it gives us a clean starting point.

On this chair, stripping revealed the original horsehair stuffing (still in reasonable condition, as horsehair lasts well), eight coil springs on the seat, and the original hessian webbing on the base. The webbing had stretched and broken in two places, which explained the collapsed springs.

Step 2: Frame Repair

The loose rear leg joint was knocked apart, cleaned of old glue, re-glued with PVA wood adhesive, and clamped overnight. We also cleaned and polished the original brass castors. The rest of the frame needed no work, a testament to Victorian craftsmanship.

Step 3: Re-Webbing and Re-Springing

New jute webbing was stretched and tacked across the seat base in a woven grid pattern. The eight original coil springs were cleaned, repositioned, and lashed to the webbing with laid cord. Spring lashing is a skilled job: each spring must sit level and at the correct tension to create an even seat profile.

We covered the springs with new hessian, stitched through to hold them in place. This creates the foundation that the stuffing sits on.

Step 4: Stuffing and Stitching

We reused the original horsehair (washed and carded to restore its loft) supplemented with fresh curled hair. Horsehair is the traditional stuffing for Victorian chairs and gives a firmness and resilience that modern foam cannot replicate.

The stuffing was built up in layers: a base layer over the hessian, covered with scrim (an open-weave fabric), then hand-stitched to create firm, square edges along the seat front and arms. Edge stitching is what gives traditionally upholstered furniture its crisp, defined shape. It is done entirely by hand with a long double-pointed needle, and a single chair can take several hours of stitching.

A second layer of stuffing was added over the scrim for softness, then covered with cotton wadding to prevent the hair working through the final fabric.

Step 5: Deep Buttoning

This is the signature feature of Victorian button-back chairs and one of the most labour-intensive techniques in upholstery. Each button position is marked out on both the fabric and the padding, measured to create a symmetrical diamond pattern.

The diamond layout starts with calculating the grid spacing. On this chair, the back had a 5-wide by 3-deep grid of 15 buttons, offset in alternating rows to form the diamond shape. The distance between buttons was set at 100mm horizontally and 90mm vertically, adjusted to fit the curved back panel with equal margins on all sides. Getting these measurements right is the foundation of the entire operation: a 5mm error on the first row compounds across the panel and results in crooked diamonds at the edges.

The fabric is cut with a stretch allowance of roughly 40% beyond the finished dimensions. Each button pulls fabric down into the padding, consuming material. Without that extra allowance, the fabric goes taut between buttons, distorting the diamond pattern and creating stress points that wear through over time. For a velvet like this Warwick Plush, which has less stretch than a woven cotton, we increase the allowance by another 5–10%.

Using a long double-pointed needle, twine is threaded through the fabric at each marked button point, driven through the padding, and pulled out the back of the chair. A fabric-covered button is threaded onto the twine on the face side before pulling through. Each button is pulled to the same depth into the stuffing, and the twine is secured at the back with a knot and a small piece of webbing to prevent it pulling through.

The order matters. We work from the centre outward, setting the middle button first, then working in a spiral pattern. This lets us balance the tension across all 25 buttons as we go. If you start from one corner, the fabric shifts and bunches on the opposite side. Between each button, the surplus fabric is folded into neat, even pleats, all running in the same direction. On this chair, all pleats fold downward, directing dust and crumbs away rather than trapping them.

This chair had 15 buttons on the back and 5 on each arm, totalling 25 buttons. The arms are done separately from the back, each with their own fabric panel. Where the arm panel meets the back panel, the pleats must align cleanly, which requires precise coordination between the two sections. The buttoning alone on this chair took a full day.

Step 6: Final Covering and Finishing

The seat, front border, and outside panels were covered in the teal velvet, pulled tight and tacked. The piping was made from the same velvet, cut on the bias for flexibility around curves. A black cotton cambric dust cloth was fitted to the base, and the compliance label attached.

Total fabric used: 5.5 metres. Total time: approximately 4.5 days of skilled work across stripping, framing, upholstering, and finishing.

The Result

The finished chair is better than it was when it left the original maker's workshop 130+ years ago. The frame has the patina and character of age; the upholstery is brand new, with perfect buttoning, crisp edges, and a fabric that will last decades of regular use.

The total cost, including fabric, was £1,036, roughly what you would pay for a mid-range new armchair from a department store. The difference is that this chair has a solid hardwood frame that will outlast several more recoverings, it is genuinely handmade, and it has 130 years of history.

Caring for Your Reupholstered Piece

A reupholstered chair like this one should last 15–20 years before the fabric needs attention again, longer if you look after it. Here is what we recommend for velvet and other common upholstery fabrics:

Brush velvet with the pile direction. Use a soft clothes brush or velvet brush once a week to lift the pile and remove dust. Always brush in one direction, following the nap. This prevents pile crush from settling into permanent marks.
Keep the piece out of direct sunlight. UV light fades fabric colour and degrades fibres over time. If the chair sits near a window, consider curtains, blinds, or UV-filtering film. Even a few hours of direct sun each day will cause noticeable fading within a year or two.
Rotate cushions if applicable. On pieces with loose seat cushions, flip and rotate them every couple of weeks to distribute wear evenly. This chair has a fixed seat, so this does not apply here, but it matters for sofas.
Vacuum with a low-suction upholstery attachment. Once a month, go over the fabric with a soft brush attachment on low suction. This pulls out dust that has settled into the weave or pile without stressing the fabric.
Professional cleaning every 2–3 years. For a deep clean, use a professional upholstery cleaning service rather than DIY steam cleaners. Professional cleaners use the correct solvents and extraction methods for each fabric type. A steam cleaner used incorrectly on velvet can mat the pile and leave water marks.
Deal with spills immediately. Blot (do not rub) with a clean, dry cloth. For velvet, press the cloth into the spill and lift. Rubbing pushes liquid deeper into the pile and can cause permanent marks.

Is Your Furniture Worth Restoring?

Not every piece is worth the investment, and we will always be honest about that. But if your furniture has a solid hardwood frame, sentimental value, or a quality of construction that is hard to find new, reupholstery almost always makes sense.

Before you get a quote, run through this quick checklist at home. It takes five minutes and gives you a good indication of whether the piece is a candidate for restoration:

Frame material test:Lift one end of the piece. Hardwood frames (beech, oak, ash, birch) are heavy. A two-seater sofa with a hardwood frame weighs 30–40kg or more without cushions. If it feels light for its size, the frame is likely softwood, chipboard, or MDF, and restoration may not be worth it.
Corner block check: Turn the piece upside down and look at the corners where the rails meet the legs. Quality furniture has corner blocks (triangular wooden braces) glued and screwed into each corner. If you see staples holding the frame together or no corner blocks at all, the frame is budget-grade.
Spring test: Press down firmly on the seat. Coil springs (the traditional kind) feel bouncy with a firm, even resistance. Serpentine (zigzag) springs feel flatter and can sag with a metallic creak. Coil springs are repairable and can be re-lashed. Serpentine springs on a worn frame are often not worth the cost of repair.
Joint test: Grab the arm and push and pull it. Then try the back. Movement in the joints means loose dowels or broken glue lines. This is fixable on a hardwood frame (we re-glue and clamp), but on a softwood frame the wood itself may have split around the joint, which is harder to repair well.
Woodworm signs:Check the underside and any exposed wood for small round holes (1–2mm diameter) and fine sawdust. Active woodworm produces fresh, pale dust around the holes. Old, inactive holes will be dark inside with no fresh dust. Inactive woodworm is not a problem. Active woodworm needs treatment before any upholstery work begins, but is treatable.

If your piece passes most of these checks, it is a strong candidate for reupholstery. Send us photos for a free assessment and we will tell you what we think. You can also read our guide on when reupholstery is worth it and our pricing guide for realistic costs.

Visit our Tottenham Court Road workshop (WC1E 6HP, near Goodge Street station) to see work in progress and discuss your project in person.