Upholstered Dining Chairs

[kevin]

OK, so my wife has found these upholstered dining chairs at Restoration Hardware that go for around $350 a pop. The chair legs are the only exposed wood. Sure they're nice looking chairs, but I can't help but think this would be a case where I could build for half the cost of buying. Beyond of course my fear of upholstery.

Has anyone in this group built anything like this? Does anyone know of a source for plans for an upholstered dining chair? It's a simple side chair that would seem to be a reasonable undertaking.

Thanks,

Kevin

[David]

I rarely find I save much money when woodworking. I do it for the fun of it; not to save money. There's no way I've made $17,000 worth of stuff yet--that's what I've spent on tools and wood, in round figures. :)

Dave

[David]

oops. I meant $15k

Case in point: I want to make a china cabinet, but to do it up good, I'd like to use beveled edge glass in the doors and tempered glass shelves. If I order beveled edge doors other than rectangular, the cost for the glass alone is over $400...

Dave

[Charles Spitzer]

it's not hard to make your own bevels. you just need a $5k machine to do so. you then go into the business of beveling for all your neighbors to make back the investment. lol

current pricing is about $1/running inch for custom bevels.

regards, charlie

[Steve]

I happened to be looking back at December 2003 Fine Woodworking. Excellent article about making upholstered chair pads. You could probably apply the same ideas to the rest of the chair. You might be able to order the article or a backcopy of that issue from Taunton if you don't have/save the magazine. Steve

[kevin]

Thanks Steve. I'll have a look. -Kevin

[kevin]

Well yeah I know that! :) I bought my table saw, jointer and planer under the premise I'd be building custom electric guitars (for fun) and furniture for our house. I'd probably be better off buying the chairs and just stick to building the dining room table.

Kevin

[kevin]

And by 'yeah I know that' I meant that I'm far from recouping my tools costs as well. :)

[Steve]

Ooops, that's the June 2003 issues (#163). Sorry. Steve

[J T]

Wed, Nov 9, 2005, 12:48pm (EST-3) [e-mail] (Steve) doth say: Excellent article about making upholstered chair pads.

There's instructions online too, if you look. Or, you "could" go to a library, and probably be inundated with information on upholstering

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