Furniture reupholstery
Furniture reupholstery in Kaneohe
New and antique chairs, sofas and dining sets re-covered by Ryan and his wife on Kahuhipa Street.
What goes wrong under a tired cover
A sagging or split cover is rarely the whole problem. Under it sit the frame, the springs or webbing and the padding, and any of them can give out before the cloth does. In Kaneohe, sun and humid air work on a piece as hard as daily use.
That is why Ryan looks at the frame and springs before any cloth is cut. A sound frame is the reason to re-cover. Grandma's wing chair, Mom's sectional and Uncle's teak dining set were built to outlast several covers, and the shop's rule is restoration, reuse and reduce.
The koa arm and palm-frond seat cushion of a lounge chair re-covered at John's Upholstery
How a chair gets re-covered here
The old cover comes off first, and it becomes the pattern. New pieces are cut to match, and a patterned fabric is lined up across the seat, back and arms so a palm frond or a coral print does not break at a seam.
Welt and piping are sewn to the piece's own lines. The pair of cane barrel chairs in aqua coral print carry piped seat and back cushions, and the koa-arm lounger has a palm-frond seat cushion cut to the carved wood.
Ryan runs the shop and his wife is the seamstress, so the frame work and the sewing stay under one roof on Kahuhipa Street. Once your fabric is chosen and here, the average turnaround is one to two weeks.
Choosing cloth and getting a price
Fabric changes a piece more than anything else you decide. Thousands of designer choices hang on the sample wall in the shop, modern and sleek next to tropical and casual. Tell the shop how the piece gets used, because a daily dining chair and a guest-room chair call for different cloth.
You do not have to start in the shop. Send a photo with some dimensions to johnsupholstery@hawaii.rr.com or text (808) 271-2665, and the price comes back before you decide anything. Rocky Rawlins wrote that Ryan was accommodating and helpful answering questions about fabrics and what was needed to reupholster the furniture.
Google review by Rocky Rawlins: "I got to see some of his work and it was really beautiful." Call (808) 236-2218.
Pinned beside the finished chairs
The cloth for each piece hangs on the wall a few steps from it. Match a sample to your own chair in the shop, then see what designer fabrics the wall holds. Loose seats can be re-made on their own as cushions and pillows, and a flattened seat gets high-density foam cut to size. For a price, send a photo of the piece with its dimensions.
Koa-arm loungerBlue and green palm frond
Koa chairCream palm leaf
The sample wallTropical prints on bamboo