Handmade Furniture Vs Furniture Upholstery
Handmade furniture shows high quality, but the quality of furniture upholstery comes from more than just being crafted by hand, but also from the processes used and the quality of the materials used. Here, when you purchase upholstered furniture, we will discuss what you should be looking for. Next, the idea of upholstery, because we all use the same language. The term derives from the ‘Upholder’ of old English, or one who held up his items for inspection. There are a few versions of how this has been transferred to chairs and sofas, but many think it is the way you are held up on the seat by the upholstery!
Believe it or not, furniture upholstery refers primarily to seating furniture, such as chairs and sofas, as well as to support furniture, such as footstools and ottomans. Four unique elements are involved in high quality handmade furniture of this type: the frame, the seating support, the comfort cushioning, and the cover.
Each Of These Plays A Very Significant Role In Your Chair Or Sofa 's Comfort And Overall Look, And The Significance And Purpose Of Each Is Explained Here:
Furniture Handmade: The Frame
The reason your body has its form is its frame, which you know better as your skeleton, which can withstand the stresses and strains that it does when you work. Your furniture also has a skeleton, known as the structure to which your seating and back cushioning ‘s complete support system is connected-just as your tendons hold your muscles to your skeleton.
A solid frame, or skeleton, should be created with properly designed handmade furniture. That is why the solid mortise and tenon, dovetail and pinned joints were devised by our forefathers for strength so that the frame would provide a sturdy skeleton for the visible part of the furniture. The frame is fitted to all of the furniture upholstery, and should be sturdy and strong enough to support the weight for which it is made-yours!
Upholstery For Furniture: The Support
You have to be able to bear the initial shock of your weight when you flop down on a bench, and then spring up to provide you with support. The back of your chair should provide comfort as you lie back, but also yield somewhat to strain. This originates from springs in modern furniture upholstery that have been engineered to move with the contours of your body.
There are two basic types of springs: wave-shaped (sinusoidal springs) compressed wires that are joined together in a single unit, and individual coiled springs attached to the frame. It is possible to pre-fabricate even the latter into an individual framed spring unit. Individual coiled springs attached to a compressible base are, however, the most powerful types of furniture support.
The springs compress not only, but the foundation they are connected to is also compressible, providing optimum comfort. In handmade furniture, this base is built from front to back by nailing (or tacking) tightly stretched fabric webbing, and then woven side by side of the seat’s base frame. The individual coiled steel springs are then attached with twine to the webbing foundation, and then the tops of each spring are linked with twine lengths that are extended down and nailed to the frame, tensioning the springs.
The Layers Of Comfort
Springs are not comfortable to sit on, so a canvas sheet is mounted, extended, and then nailed down to the same frame over the spring layer. The padding is put on top of that. This would historically be a layer of horsehair and then wool, but today it would be layers of synthetic materials built up over the support until thick enough to provide the necessary level of comfort.
A modern chair or sofa may have many comfort layers, including cushions for the seat and pillows for the back. It is not always necessary to require cushions, particularly with handmade furniture using furniture upholstery techniques to stuff the seat to such a high degree of comfort that cushions are not needed.
Such conventionally upholstered furniture can still be purchased today, but most will have cushions to cover the base seat. In fact, a thin covering over the spring unit with cushions would have cheaper sofas over that.
The Shielding Outer
Originally, the outer cover had a sheet of canvas or linen spread and tacked over the final layer of stuffing. Today, with a sheet of the same material covering the majority of the structure, it is more likely to be a cushion cover for the seat and back. It is the exterior covering for your furniture, whatever that material is, and will have been carefully picked.
Properly made, handmade furniture using proper jointing methods and sturdy hardwood, using dowels, glue and low-quality woods and laminates, lasts far longer than its factory-made counterparts. However, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference while coated with the outer cloth or leather: this comes with usage.