REFRESH YOUR FURNITURE: REUPHOLSTERY SHOPS MAKE SOMETHING NEWO OUT OF THE OLD

JACKSON, Mo. -- Tired of the floral print on your sofa? Thinking of trading the dark, heavy fabric on your wingback chair for a bright plaid instead?

With spring just around the corner, many people start thinking about redecorating the rooms in their house. But where do you start, especially if you're working on a budget?

Reupholstery shops can turn your old furniture into something new with just a few yards of fabric, and at a reasonable price too.

Most customers like the furniture they have but want to give it a new look. "They want to keep it because it has sentimental value, but it's older and that's not necessarily the fabric that they like," said Sue Ramsey, a partner at Val's Upholstery in Jackson.

People come into the shop trying to find fabric that will match another piece of furniture in their home. And with 200 fabric books in stock, there's something for nearly every color scheme and decorating style -- from bolts of plaids to chintz and even fine imported silk that took a year to arrive.

The cost of a reupholstery project depends on the fabric a customer chooses and the yardage needed for the furniture piece. Wing back chairs typically take seven to nine yards of fabric. Most chairs will run under $300. The shop offers free estimates to customers.

"We can reupholster just about anything," said Don Stevens, also a partner in the business. "We've had people walk right by a chair and not know it was their chair. We changed the looks so much from what they were used to seeing for 15 years or so that they didn't recognize it."

Intensive labor

But that new look doesn't come overnight. It takes a nearly 16 hours of intense labor to recover a couch, and that's if no problems crop up along the way.

Ramsey and Stevens usually tell customers to allow two weeks for a complete project, in case other problems arise or more sewing time is needed. They're usually working on three or four projects at a time, all of them in various stages.

The reupholstery work begins by tearing off all the old fabric -- not covering over it -- and taking out the stuffing. Then new burlap webbing and new foam stuffing are added. Patterns are cut from the fabric and the material sewn together on an industrial machine. The coils are retained, because they usually keep their bounce.

"We bring it back up to the standards it would have had as a new chair," Stevens said. "We will add more padding and take out any warped seating."

One couch, saved from a trash pile by its new owners, was stripped to its bare, wooden frame and then rebuilt. That project is a little more intense than usual, Stevens said.

"Every piece is not like this one," he said. But some older pieces get the same treatment. Ramsey agreed, "That one is rare because it was a total wreck."

When it is finished the sleek, stylish lines of the sofa will be covered in a white chintz fabric, giving the piece an elegant look.

Tearing the piece to its bare bones is usually a messy, dirty job, Stevens said.

"It's hard, dirty work but it's enjoyable," Ramsey said. "I wouldn't do anything else. It's always different because of how the fabric goes on it."

Mixing fabrics

Sometimes even the same types of chairs or couches can offer enough variety to keep the job interesting -- one chair might be in a chintz and another in plaid, she said.

More and more people are mixing the fabrics in their homes, and choosing plaids to complement other furniture, Ramsey said.

"We try to match pieces with something they've already got, and try to coordinate it," she said.

With plaid fabrics, the plaid is matched all the way around the frame, not just what a person might see from the back of the chair. "We have all the hand-tailoring and custom fitting," Ramsey said.

Not every job arrives in a neat package. Ramsey said she has talked with one woman who recovered a chair herself. "She got the job done but said she'd never again attempt anything like that."

Sometimes the furniture comes in with pieces of newer fabric stapled over the old or glued to a frame. "We've seen everything in every stage," she said.

Reupholstering a piece of furniture isn't always the best option for a customer, Ramsey and Stevens said. If a piece of furniture has a warped or bad frame or is flawed, the partners will tell a customer it's not worth recovering. But sometimes the customer still wants it done, they said.

Solid, classic pieces are often best suited for reupholstering. Many newer pieces of furniture aren't built of quality wood and can't last as long as older pieces.

The furniture market today is so competitive and there are so many options that sometimes people can buy a new piece of furniture for about the same as it would cost to reupholster.

But many people don't like the overstuffed chairs that are so popular now. "It doesn't fit them when they sit down," Ramsey said.

Reupholstery jobs for antiques are common, especially since flea markets and consignment shops are hip. "I've seen people bring in antiques that were all over the floor and this man puts them back together," Ramsey said of Stevens' work. "He just remembers how. It's just like a jigsaw puzzle."