I'm sure it varies on budget--probably major facctor for most people, presence of children and/or pets, how high profile/visible the furniture is, etc.

For us, it's really budget, and that the LR looks like we are still in grad school! I painted the LR last summer, so now the furniture looks out of place. Our kitchen is mostly done, too, so there is this huge contrast between the two spaces. We have a pretty open floor plan for an older home.

I bought the current sofa in 1997 and never expected to have it this long. It's got a slipcover on it which has bought some time, and I've long gotten my $450 worth out of it. But we are looking at a new one. Since we spend most of our evening on the sofa, it's a priority purchase.

I have a channel back chair I bought 10 years ago that is getting reupholstered right now (pics soon!). I'm getting another Surefit for the recliner as there is really nothing wrong with it other than the fabric is dated. We don't use the recliner and side chair as much. Not sure when DH bought the recliner, but I'm guessing when he was in law school unless MIL bought it for him.

We reupholster when needed rather than replace and that decision is driven by how the piece looks or if the cushions are worn out and the piece is no longer comfortable.

I've only heard good things about the quality of Flexsteel. I don't think there is a time frame for reupholstering. If it needs it and it's in your budget, go for it.

We recently reupholstered a 10 year old sofa to update to compliment the rest of our home.

My furniture has lasted seven years (also since 2004.) It survived a couple apartments and is now in our second house; however, it doesn't fit the new space properly.

The microfiber couch and loveseat have held up beautifully.... No pets/kids, though. The cushions could use some stuffing adjustments, but that's it. :)

To answer your question, I don't have any rule as to when to replace. I would have held on to these pieces for several more years, if they worked in this house.

Uh, never? I've got two small chairs that belonged to my late MIL that I've recovered twice, a sofa we bought 27 years ago and I've slipcovered twice, but am now going to reupholster. I buy stuff off CL, too. If it's got a good solid hardwood frame, I think there's no reason to replace. I buy bookcases at Ikea but I'm more than willing to spend lots more for sofas, etc.

Depends. We have a 60 year old sectional in the living room that is still in really good shape and we just re-upholster it, same with our 50 year old couch and chair in the rec room.
However, the $2000 6-year old Natuzzi micro-fibre sofa in our family room has already fallen apart with the frame cracking and it seldom gets used. It can't be used now. There is apparently a lifetime warranty on their products and it will probably take a lifetime to get an answer from them. We're now 7 months and counting.

No standard time here. If the upholstery on a piece is worn or no longer works with my decor, but the construction is good quality, then I would reupholster it. If it's not good construction, then it gets donated if it's still in good condition or trashed if not.

ideefixe: "Uh, never?"
Ditto for me. Much of mine is 20-30 years old, or more, and all reupholstered. Older is often of better quality: eight way hand tied, etc. Once, needing a new chair, I hunted the usual thrift places until I found a torn and dirty, but gorgeous Baker club chair. That one needed to be taken down to the bones...still a huge bargain. Often a family piece needs only new fabric. Check carefully, as foam and down are not cheap. As for your Flexsteel, maybe it has changed hands and not the old Flexsteel of yore. Sadly true of many of the old, trusted companies.

Never here, too. My loveseat is an oak and leather mission convertible couch from 1912; don't know when the leather was redone, but it still looks new and I've had the piece for close to 20 years. I expect it will out last me. My two chairs have loose cushions. One is a reclining oak morris platform rocker from the late 1800's, which I bought in the 70's; I had new cushions made in '97 with a sturdy upholstery- still looks like new...

Well...I've been married 28 years...and we still have the same upholstered pieces we acquired along the way...(though I hope to be replacing one of the basement sofas soon!) so add me to the every-30-years-or-so crowd. ;^) (I have had most of them re-upholstered along the way.)

Never here, too.

It's been never for me--one of my earliest memories is of trying to stand up in the club chair that's now in my living room, but I have to say the extremely high cost of reupholstering is starting to make me think twice about some things.

I have a sofa I got in 1987 and it needs reupholstering now, but I have to admit that it's even more of a pinch knowing that the price of the job (will need springs and cushions this time) would keep me in boring ikea sofas for the rest of my life, most likely. Particularly irksome since I know exactly the fabric I want and it's discontinued. Can't find it anywhere anymore.

"I know some people have a standard time for replacing, and wondered how many people here do."

I surely don't!

Me neither. I have a set of This End Up furniture that has had 3 sets of new covers over the years...DS2 has it now. I tis kiln dried pine and dates from 1975. I have a reclining Morris chair also from the late 1800's and had new leather cushions made last year for it. I have another from the same period that I got off of Craigslist and it need new cushions but I haven't decided what fabric/leather yet. My good leather sofa is from the mid 90's and still looks new. So I guess it is what you have to start with and then the quality and how you decorate that dictates what you do. Great thread. c

trailrunner---where did you get your replacement cushions for your This End Up furniture?

I'm not trailrunner, but I can answer that! I was really amused to see a reference to This End Up furniture. So out of date that it is probably practically coming back into style. I have 2 loveseats and an ottoman of the same vintage (late 70s) in my family room and have no intention of replacing them any time soon!

You can get replacement cushions and covers from thisendup.com. A slightly less expensive option (although the fabric choices are a bit more limited) is replacemycushions.com. I recently ordered a new set of covers from the latter and both service and quality were excellent.

My livingroom sofa is circa 1850. I've reupholstered it once in 30 years.

We kept a 1986 (from a first marriage) crappy Seaman's couch and loveseat until spring 2007. The couch itself actually hit the curb Dec 2006 when we demo'd for our kitchen reno, and the loveseat got tossed when the floors were refinished at the completion of the reno (sp '07)--DH had moved it to the garage for the floor guys, and there was no way it was coming back inside ever again!

The fabric on the sofa cushions was literally threadbare in some spots and completely shredded in others. We had duct taped the fabric lining the underside to keep our kitten (now 7 1/2 yrs old) from burrowing inside the couch from underneath as she was wont to do.

We kept the pieces as long as we did because we were waiting until after at least some of our home's renovation work/construction was completed to buy something new (we didn't want to waste any $ at all buying even something cheap just to tide us over).

So I guess my answer is; over 20 years!

gillianma--I've no idea if our crate furniture is "This End Up" or some other maker. I have a couch and a love-seat...and we got them for free. We went on vacation a few years ago and one of the cats took exception to our absence and marked the sofa. Repeatedly. I've replaced the cushions with some foam...but it's not as comfy as the original cushions were. I shall check out the sites you posted!

Here are pics of the frame and the original cushions for my sofa:

mjsee,

That is definitely crate furniture but doesn't look like my "This End Up" -- but they had several different styles over the years and I may be wrong. In any case, I'd recommend talking to replacemycushions.com first, sending them measurements. I know they do custom jobs too. I got my covers in I dealt with "Sally" there. She was very personable and helpful. I think it is a very small business. The great thing about them is that you don't have to pay anything until you take delivery and try the cushions on your furniture.

Now does anyone have recommendations on good slipcovers for recliners. I have one that I've been pining to send to the curb, but my husband won't let me until he finds a equally comfortable replacement. He hasn't found it yet.

I never replace; I always re-upholster. I purchased the best furniture I could afford in the early 1970s (scrimped and saved for a long time to do this!), and have taken good care of the furniture .... throughout the entire house. Every piece of furniture I have today, I've had since the 1970s or 1980s, when I was acquiring furniture.

The furniture is classic, timeless, superbly crafted in the USA, and will be in excellent condition for "next generations" to use. I just can't buy something that is supposed to be durable with an expiration date stamped invisibly upon it.

I reupholster every 15 years or so...and I've moved across country many times (always hard on furniture). When I reupholster, I update the look. Over the years, I've added skirts or removed skirts. Stained legs. Remove tufted backs and replaced with cushions popular today. This is why buying high quality furniture makes so much sense in the long run -- every few years you can update the look, yet keep the high quality of construction.

I'll be the first to admit that RH, PB and decorator magazines don't like people like me....They're not making any money from me. But I consider home furniture to be a major, permanent investment....And I love what the Europeans have historically done with their furniture pieces...they treasure them and reuse them for decades.

Ok, replace or reupholster. I just wonder how long upholstered pieces last for most people before they are threadbare, sagging, or something that requires replacement.

WOW...how fun that others still have TEU furniture. We saw it at the Apple Chill Fair in Chapel Hill NC and couldn't believe how perfect it was for a couple with 2 babies. I got to thinking and it was actually 1977..right after baby #2 was born. The guy who invented the company and his buddy had a truck with the furniture in it. He was from that part of NC and had a cool story about how he made the first set of furniture. They were pedaling it from the back of the panel truck LOL.

Boy did we get a great deal as far as price. I have the sofa, 2 chairs, an ottoman, 2 end tables and a coffee table. We also had the bunk bed and a chest of drawers !! Did I say we loved that stuff. We sold the beds and chest to a couple with 2 little boys. I hated to part with it and wish we had it now for our new grand boy to be :) At least DS2 has it and won't ever part with it. I still have the sofa table upstairs !!

I never replaced the cushions..only the covers. I have the furniture with the solid wood sides that are the same height sides/back. We had 3 sets of covers...a dark green plaid wool that it came with . Then an unbleached creamy nubby cotton and the current dusky blue with one chair in a dusky weave to coordinate. The foam needs replacing and I guess DS will some day do it but he is happy with the old stuff so I don't care.

The pic that you show MJ is not TEU but is similar. Look on their web site and you will see the kind I have. It is about the 5-6 pic in the slide show. I had no idea that they have upholstered stuff now ! I know they closed down completely and were bankrupt years ago and then reopened. I wrote them and told them I still have the original stuff and offered to send pics...they never answered. Anyway...fun conversation.

Gillian...do you have pics ??? Where did you get yours ?? My coffee table ( all of it is in San Diego with DS 2 ) still have the red hammer marks from the tool set that DS1 had...I still have the tool set and grand son to be is getting it. I am going to teach him how to " fix" DS1's furniture too LOL . c

I bought my first-ever sofa (and lovseat) from Ethan Allen in 2003, covered in their base- price " family friendly" leather. It has been our main living furniture and subject to two young kids and a big dog. It was made in the US but I don't know about all the "hand tied springs" etc. I doubt it has that. Regardless it is still in great shape. In fact I am thinking about trying to get a fabric slipcover made for the sofa just because I have always thought that the family-friendly leather, although indestructible, looks a little cheap.

Never! I have a 40 year old sofa that has been through my parents, my brother and now me. It has been reupholstered six times. I have five club chairs that have been around the block a few times as well. If you buy good furniture there is never any reason to discard it.

I think upholstered furniture needs a facelift every 7 years or so.

A lot depends upon quality. My first Jennifer Convertibles sofa the seat cushions started to get worn pretty quickly but it was really inexpensive. However I donated it to a neighborhood place and it made the rounds several times through that place for years.

I had an Ethan Allen sofa from !995-2002. It had attached back cushions that I felt were saggy, but the seat cushions were fine and it was in very good condition. I sold it when I moved and the buyer felt it looked new.

I now have a vintage sofa that was reupholstered in 2004 and it looks brand new still.

My parent's very high quality sofas:
1969: reupholstered once in about 1987 still perfect.
1969: never reupholstered. HEAVY use. Seat cushions could be restuffed. Still looks "good"
1975: upholstery a bit worn in spots because of heavy abuse by grand children. Still completely presentable, definitely worth recovering.

So--the cheap sofa--a couple years. The moderate sofa--I would have recovered it and or restuffed it by now if I still had it.

The expensive sofas, maybe never. And always worth recovering if the frame is good. Keep in mind that a basic car and one of my parent's sofas cost about the same amount though in 1969. So that should last forever. However it has been very cheap over its 42 year and ticking lifespan.

The upholstered armchair I am sitting in is probably 70+ years old. My mom had the pair of them reupholstered twice during the 40 years she had them, although they had virtually no wear since no one was allowed in the living room.

When she gave them to me 4 years ago I had them slipcovered and they went into daily use. So far, they look and feel like new. Don't think we could say that about 70 year-old foam from today's furniture. My couches are relatively inexpensive and we've had them three years and I can tell they won't make it in their current fabric and arm padding for ten.

I'm wondering how much you all are paying for reupholstery because when I was given a rough price on a sofa when I was having a couple of chairs done, the price was outrageous. It would definetly buy a nice new sofa. I'd love to have my old one recovered, but it's hard to make the decision when I could update the arm style if I purchased new for essentially the same price.

Breezy, a good upholsterer can usually update the arm style for you on an existing sofa. It's very expensive to reupholster, but if you try to buy a new sofa or chair at the re-covered price you can end up with something that is significantly lower in quality than your original piece.

Our 8 ft sofa cost almost $2000 to reupholster (it was a bargain, we had other things being dine at the same time). The fabric cost was about $600; it was a solid green thick pile heavy chenille looking material I purchased at Forsyth's in Atlanta. The work took about 10 days. The advantage to having this done was that I would not be able to buy a comparable sofa for $10k, and also that it was already in the room and "fit" style wise and size wise so that nothing else would have to be changed as a result of bringing in another sofa. So reupholstering was a cost savings.

So funny about This End Up furniture!!! It is indestructible. (It survived numerous hurricanes on the coast of NC and floated around the ground floor when flooded! and yet it weighs a ton) I got all that my parents bought in the late 70's. When I want to get rid of it, I'm going to advertise it as a complete apartment of furniture. We have a sofa, 2 love seats (one is a sofa bed), a desk and chair, a dining table and 6 chairs, a coffee table, a library table, and several end tables. Some lucky person is going to get their household completely set up for one low price and then they will be having this same discussion years from now :)

On the other hand I am storing my parents MCM furniture for my daughter. Those 2 sofas and chair have been reupholstered once and still look great after almost 60 years.

We reupholster often as we taught ourselves how to do so.
If I told you how often we redo our stuff, you would not believe us.
We often replace the cushions and retie the springs when needed.
The only thing we didn't reupholster was our leather sofa
in the den, we just bought another one, but removed the
leather and reupholstered a chair with it.
Our living room sofa we reupholstered twice.
Fortunately for me, my main man is always open to doing things.

Our fist major furniture purchase was in 1976 for our first apartment. The sofa got replaced the year the movie "Girl Interrupted" came out. Our fabric was exactly the same as that shown on the sofa in the pshyciatrist's office (remember the flashback to the 70's and the girl's therapy appointments?) That was IT for me! Time to either reupholster or get rid of it. We donated it to charity and bought a wonderful Flexsteel sofa, which I expect to have forever.

The end tables are still in great shape and I have no intention of getting rid of them. We bought the best quality and it was so worth it. Now when I walk into the furniture store we purchased the items from, I spin around and walk out sputtering, "who can afford this place"? Lol, times change....kids, college, etc~

Great thread as I'm presently trying it figure out if it's worth trying to get our EA "Preston" sofa reupholstered. We bought it 20 years ago, and it's as comfortable today as it was back them. I fell in love with its beautiful profile (especially the button trim), and I also loved that it wasn't a loose-back. It desperately needs to be reupholstered, though. EA still makes the sofa, but EA is *not* what it used to be (and I thought it "wasn't what it used to be" back in '92!). I saw one in the store recently and there was no comparison qualitywise. Didn't bother to look at the pricetag, but it had to be more than the cost of reupholstering, right?

FWIW, my late MIL bought her "good quality" sofa in 1962 and had it reupholstered several times over the years in off-white linen. When she died last year we donated it to a charity. I'm sure somebody is enjoying it today.

Here is a link that might be useful: EA Preston sofa

I'm sure I'm not the only one who falls closer to the opposite end of the "never replace furniture" spectrum. I haven't gone a year without buying at least a couple of new pieces of upholstery. I am kind of a furniture snob, so I buy good quality made in the USA only, but I get tired of things pretty quickly. I'm in the industry, so I see so many new products and designs. I sell some on Craigslist (usually making a little profit in the process) or simply move to other rooms. I buy new and used. It's just furniture. I don't feel an emotional attachement.
I am not a big fan on vintage or antique furniture style or comfort. Re-upholstery has gotten so outrageously expensive. I know it's labor intensive skilled labor and a shame to see another industry lost, but often it doesn't make financial sense. I don't just toss my old furniture in the landfill. BTW, there is still a furniture-making industry that employs thousands of American workers. They need our business too!

Angc, I figure I am doing my part to help jobs because I'm having one piece reupholstered, and then we're buying a sofa made in NC. Just need to decide which one.

I've never considered myself a furniture snob, but I wouldn't sell my George Smith sofa on craigslist. I'd rather keep it for myself. :)