How to Measure Furniture for Reupholstery Fabric

Reupholstering furniture updates your home decor while re-purposing your existing furniture. You can upholster your furniture yourself or have it professionally done. If you decide to upholster your furniture yourself, you must first measure the furniture to determine how much fabric you will need.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape

Instructions

1. Make a list of the different sections of your piece of furniture where your fabric will be applied (for example, seat, inside back, outside back, arm, gusset).

2. Measure the length and width of each section, making note of your measurements. Always measure at the longest or widest part of each section. Add four inches to each measurement for seam allowances.

3. Add all of your measurements together and divide by 36 to get the total yardage for your upholstery fabric. Round up to the nearest 1/2 yard.

4. Add 2 to 3 extra yards if you are adding a skirt to your piece.

5. Add 2 extra yards for piping or wefting.

Tips & Warnings

• Always allow extra yardage for mistakes. Since fabrics often come in dye lots, you want to purchase all your fabric at once to avoid variations in color that may occur from buying extra fabric at a later date. You can always use extra fabric to fashion throw pillows.

• If your chosen fabric has a large pattern, you need to add 10 to 35 percent extra to match patterns.

References

• How to Measure for Fabric
• Yardage Wizard
• Measuring Upholstery Material and Estimating Yardage