Reposhture Studio: Upholsterying your walls

March 22, 2012

Upholsterying your walls

So you want to learn to upholster do ya'? This ain't not furniture upholstery tute. This is for you gals that love fabric so much you want to put it on your walls! I upholstered my entry way for a different reason. I had to! See why here, here, and here . I finally covered the staples so I thought I'd show you how easy it was. I did it without any help if that tells you anything. It might just tell you I am stubborn or crazy or both but after you see how easy it was, you will go for it too.

This is what I had to cover up....

Materials I used: (you will need to calculate your area to figure how much of each to purchase)

level and pencil

high loft batting

6x9 drop cloth

staple gun

staples spray adhesive

scissors

hot glue gun

gimp/trim or make your own like I did (in which case you also need a sewing machine)

wood trim for the top ( I used what was already there)

finishing nails

awl

How to:

1. Using the level, draw a line where you want the wood trim to end. You will upholster to just underneath that line

2. Spray your adhesive on the wall and apply your batting just underneath the pencil line. You do not have to go too crazy with the spray. Just enough to get the batting to stick. Cut off the excess batting from the bottom

I had to piece together some of the wall with the excess. I would have also used 2 layers of batting if I was doing this again.

3. Wash, dry, and iron your drop cloth. My 6x9 worked perfectly cut in half.

This is where the photography won't win any awards. I was doing this at night and there is no light in this little entryway so I was using the work spotlight.

4. Starting in the corner near the door frame, staple your finished edge to the wall and then go along the baseboard. Staple close the the edge of the cloth. You will be covered in the cloth and most likely bent over and stapling upside down. It worked that's all I know. Next staple the edge near the door frame. Staple about every 10 inches until you are sure everything is lining up right. You will fill in when the cloth is tacked all the way to the wall. Now pull the cloth into your first corner and staple the corner tightly.

5. Now go along the next baseboard and then the other corner and the other side near the other wall. Make sure you pull and staple tightly or you won't get a nice smooth look. Once you have everything tacked in place smoothly, fill in your staples about every 2 inches. Again, make sure to staple close to the edge of the cloth.

It should look like this when you are done.

Staple the end and THEN cut the excess material off. Save it for later. I used mine to make my edging.

This is the other wall of the entry way.

6. I painted the trim that was already there in the same color as the rest of the wood trim. Then I nailed it in place using the pencil line as my guide. Countersink the nail heads using the awl and a hammer and then fill in with spackle. Touch up those spots with your paint.

Here it is all finished. It took about 1 hour to do the whole thing. The trim to cover took a might longer.

So here is your BOGTT ( Blog one get two tutes!) of the week:

How to make your own gimp/trim to cover those staples.

Material you'll need:

leftover drop cloth material

sewing machine

matching thread

How to:

1. Figure out how much trim you will need. I figured on about 13 yards but only needed 11. Gimp was gonna cost me $15 WITH the 40% discount so that motivated me to get sewin'!

2. Lay out the left over drop cloth or what ever fabric you want to use for trim. Contrasting fabric would also look great. It all depends on the look you are going after.

3. Mark off 1 inch increments equal to the number of yards you'll need. My fabric was over a yard long so I marked off 13.

4. Now using your level again, mark the lines all the way down the fabric and then cut your strips.

5. Sew all of your strips together at the ends. Line up your fabric edge with the edge of your presser foot and sew, and sew and sew, and sew. You get the picture. Make sure you sew all of the ends together the same way or you will have your seam on the wrong side.

It should look like this.

6. Now fold your fabric like so. Like you fold a letter to go in an envelope. Your outer edges will meet in the middle and just slightly overlap. Sew the entire length of your trim like this. It only took about a half an hour to sew all 13 yards.