8 Essential Upholstery Tools for Newbies
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Upholstery is SeldomRandom’s main area of interest, as noted in the About section. Also, I am aware that I am yet to post anything related to furniture recovering. Before sharing projects, I figured it would be useful to list out some necessary upholstery tools if you are just starting your dabbling journey.
Products below contain affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. However, being mainly self-taught and experimenting with all sorts of instruments, I am only sharing products I use and/or know work well.
Goodies you are going to see are not in order of importance, because when you don’t have a tool you need in the moment, that one tools is the one most significant one. Instead, I have listed them in the order of appearance in the upholstery process.
1. Upholstery Nail Tack Remover Tool ( Staple Lifter )
Just as with a lot of things in life – prep is everything. This is even more true when working with revitalizing furniture. First step will always be removing old fabric, unless you are lucky enough to work with new frames, or the old fabric is in such bad shape it literally crumbles off the frame. I wouldn’t bet on the latter, because if fabric is in that kind of shape, odds are wood is not much better.
So, please, use your best judgement!
In the olden days, upholstery was done with tiny upholstery nails and removing those goes a bit faster. In general, newer furniture predominantly done with staple guns makes removing staples more challenging. Sometimes you hit a Jackpot and run into furniture that was upholstered multiple times and each time old fabric was left untouched and new fabric was attached over it. Subsequently, you have to remove all of them, because simply – GUH-RoSS! (gross!) The most layers I had to remove so far is three and it’s just as much fun as it sounds… NOT!
To make things even more interesting, you may run into a chair that was previously done by a trigger-happy upholsterer. In that case you might want to give yourself time and a swear jar. Or hire an intern.
As far as the tack puller goes, there are a few things you have to keep in mind. Obviously, you need the tool to be sturdy. Speaking from experience, if you get a tool with a wooden handle, the metal piece can easily get loose and that complicates the process. The tip of the tool should be sharp enough to penetrate the wood and small enough to make as little damage as possible when doing so. Possibly most importantly, it needs to be made out of a strong material that will last a long time – kind of like a screwdriver.
C.S. Osborne is known for their quality tools and they are present in majority of upholstery workshops. This is the one I use and absolutely love, BUT make sure you keep your fingers out of the line of fire, because stabbing yourself with it is no joke. Unfortunately, speaking from extensive experience.
2. Long-Nose Pliers
Tack remover will help pull staples up, but most often they will stay attached to the wood. In that case, the only way to get them out is by using pliers. They don’t need to be fancy, but should be on a smaller size, to squeeze into those tight spaces.
The best ones for this purpose have proven to be the long-nose ones. The one shown is mine and I would buy it ten times over, because it is very versatile – small, but mighty!
This does not mean you should go out and buy it if you already have pliers. If they can serve the purpose, use what you got, until you feel like you need to upgrade.
3. Webbing Stretcher
Once your future masterpiece is completely “naked”, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to re-web your chair or settee or whatever you’re working on that has sagging webbing.
Oh, the cruelties of gravity.
If you’re coming in hot claiming to be more powerful than a locomotive and can stretch that webbing as tight as a drum – well then you don’t need one of these tools. All of us ordinary Kryptonite-resistant beings, a webbing stretcher is the way to go.
Sidenote: Did you know that Kryptonite is no longer a thing of the comics? It was discovered in Serbia in 2007. Look it up! You will not be sorry!
Anyway, you will find a lot of different designs out there. The one that makes me feel like a Superwoman and give me enough leverage to get the webbing super stretched is our friends’ at C.S. Osborne goose-neck webbing stretcher.
4. Staple Gun
Once you’ve redone your first set of dining chairs and think you may want to take up upholstery on a more serious level – you will need to make a bit of an investment. And the sooner you get on board, the sooner your life will get easier.
YOU NEED A PNEUMATIC STAPLE GUN!
I am NOT yelling… well maybe a little bit, but I am trying to help you learn from my mistakes. But, I promise, I tried getting around it and there is no good alternative. Here is some reasoning, so you get a clearer picture.
In general, mechanical (hand held) staplers are pretty bulky and hard to handle. They are definitely too big for my small hands and I would have to press with both to get a staple to shoot. But then who’s holding the fabric? Yeah… No…
Personally for me, electricity-powered staplers are a bit easier to handle, but they are still just as bulky and not suitable for tight spots. Also, there are not a lot of them on the market, because they do not offer as much force as those that shoot staples under pressurized air. , I own two electric staple guns (one lower end and one higher end) and neither was good enough to entice me to continue using them.
Now on to the pneumatic ones. I only use long nose staplers, because that saves me from purchasing multiple guns. These are versatile and can squeeze into tight spots, and trust me, there are a lot of them in upholstery.
The BeA below is the top of the line that every professional upholstery shop uses. And it is on my wish list of tools to get next.
However, back in 2016, I purchased one of the Unicatch guns at about a third of a cost. Furthermore, I compared it to the BeA guns we had in my upholstery class and there was not much of a difference. I promised myself a BeA when Unicatch failed on me, but that is yet to happen.
And I have no problem with it being a great tool. So, if you are looking for a more affordable staple gun, I would, without any hesitation, recommend this one.
5. Compressor
This is what will make your gun go!
However, if you have a small one lying around you use to inflate your tires, you might need to leave it in the garage. Furthermore, the lowest capacity you would want to go with is 6 gallons like the pancake Porter Cable I use. BUT, it is portable and does the job. That’s it!
Oh, and it is really loud! Obviously, it is perfect for testing your heart or jumping skills, if not shut off after each run. Otherwise, as the air pressure goes down with use, the compressor will try to compress the air again and start on it’s own.
mmm… Pancakes sound great! But don’t bite into this one.
My pancake was the least expensive one on the market when I was buying it. I was just starting out and I needed a compressor, but didn’t want to spend too much in case upholstery was just a phase. However, there are other compressors on the market of the same capacity from more popular brands like Dewalt. Just do your research before making the investment.
6. Regulator
It took me about two whole years to figure out how to use this tool. In addition, I was really puzzled why my peers were raving about it so much. And then one day I was gluing single welt piping and needed to push the fringe under the piping and grabbed my regulator. Suddenly, it all made sense.
It is not a weapon, but it is insanely sharp!
This regulator is the one I actually use. Its sharp tip requires extremely careful handling. But this is what makes it perfect when needing to get very clean lines. Even the end of the handle is cut at an angle and can be used to push batting to the remote parts of the already covered parts to add some fluff.
7. Hammer(s)
Surely, I don’t need to get into explaining the usefulness of a hammer of any kind. It’s always good to have one handy. Also, I will not get into all the hammers on the market available for upholstery. There is, however, one hammer in particular that I had been using a lot since the day I purchased it – which is September 5 of 2015 according to Amazon!
This particular hammer comes from our friends at C.S. Osborne and is a Nylon Tip Hammer. The tip is crucial when installing decorative nails. It is strong enough to push the tack through the wood, but soft enough to not scratch up the shiny top surface of the nail.
Long-nose pliers come in really handy here, too. Most of us use it to hold the nail in place, while we hammer in the tacks.
8. Glue Gun
In my early days, I had no idea glue guns were even a thing in professional upholstery. But, I soon realized that they come in very handy.
You can use the one you have for gluing on piping. I started with those, but quickly upgraded to another “long nose” tool. Just a regular glue gun with a longer and thinner tip.
Originally, I was going to link the gun I use, because I haven’t had issues with it. That is – until last night, when the trigger started getting sticky.
Instead, let’s just introduce you to the glue gun of all glue guns. This one is a an investment, but all of my seasoned peers who use it swear by it. And it seems like you can glue baseboards with it. Now, that is a solid bonus.
This, of course, is not necessary. My reasoning was, that my stubby cheapo glue gun kept burning myself. There was, also, no release control of any kind. This meant that a lot of the time glue would just come gushing out.
I reached a breaking point when even the frame of the gun started melting and left a yellow plastic stain on a beautiful light gray tweed. I literally rage ordered a new glue gun. Those orders are not always the best, but in this case it worked.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, you find this list helpful.
Clearly, I’ve only scratched the surface of the wide array of tools available and those you may end up needing for your projects.
Most importantly, allow yourself the time to examine the process and figure out if you already have tools you can use or if it’s time to get some new goodies.
If you think you will do more than one upholstery project and have some extra coins, invest in quality tools that will pass the test of time.
