Y'know...if it's leather, and white is suitable for your decor, I say go for it, since the price is right. Custom slipcovers can be pretty expensive too, so unless you can make them, or find some the right shape, they might not work out--especially since a certain amount of sliding and wiggling happens at a dining table. OTOH, white leather is pretty easy to clean. I can't tell you what all has been on my 20-year-old white leather sofa. It cleans up with a little diluted mild soap and water. For a thorough cleaning and conditioning you can use saddle soap. If the bottom cushion is loose (i.e., not attached) you can also easily make a William Morris fabric cover for that part. I find I get the best use either out of cheap crap that I can wear to death and then get rid of, or the really good stuff, "investment pieces", that I have forever. In between don't seem to be as good a bargain. They're shabby too long before they're actually dead.

hi there Lyban! Sorry to chime in so late in the day; I missed your post earlier. In my experience it would be almost impossible to upholster from the top down instead of bottom-up. The entire process depends on placing quite a bit of weight on the jute webbing, which is stretched tightly across the wooden frame, then softened by the springs. If you try to do it backwards, you can't achieve the same amount of tension and it will sag, plus it will likely put too much stress on the leather cover and stretch it out of shape. Hmmm. The thing is, the hard part about putting a leather cover on is the measurement and pulling to fit. In this case, that has already been done. I really don't think it would be too hard to carefully take off the cover and then rebuild the innards from the ground up. Since you've already cut out the webbing and springs, I'm afraid I don't see any other way to do it and make the chair comfortable and able to take any amount of weight. Be brave! :-) Of course you can just wait to get it done professionally, but it's honestly not that hard to do, and you can just follow the tack holes from the previous job when you put the leather back on. You will need to get new webbing (quite cheap) and a webbing stretcher which are both available at Joanne's Fabrics or online. The sites already listed by others give you some good pointers, and here's a good beginner's book I can recommend with very easy-to-follow instructions and great illustrations: Here is a link that might be useful: Simply Upholstery Step-by-Step

I bought it completely on gut instinct. It's been impossible to find a settee this shape and size in person. I barely saw the fabric, just the shape. It doesn't have the flared out arms of the WS piece, but at almost 6ft long and 48" high, it's a great scale. Another thing is, the sette is still at the store. It wouldn't fit in my van, so add another $30 for delivery I have a leather hide that is large enough for the cushion, and way too many choices of fabrics in the basement waiting for a purpose. I had an estimate of $500 to recover in COM. I could do a slipcover for the same price, so unless I keep it completely as-is, it's going to cost about $1200. I have no idea as to construction of the structure. Can you tell I'm slowly talking myself into/out of it? I'd hate myself for letting it get away if I'm still searching in 6 months, but spending $1200 on disposable furniture would be worse.!

You say the chair is in the keeping room and likely to get a lot of use. Does the back of the chair back up to a wall or does it float and is therefore visible? I ask because Crewel isn't the best fabric to upholster with because of it's low abrasion resistance. I just looked at the Schumacher site, which would have crewel's in the price range you're looking in, and the Martindale rub test results are a very low 3,000 double rubs before the fabric wears through. A typical heavy cotton upholstery fabric rates +/- 31,000 dr. If you want the crewel and are willing to mix fabrics you'd be much better off from a wear standpoint to put the velvet on the seat and the crewel on the back. FWIW, I have a pair of HIckory Chair MW chairs c.1985 that I've reupholstered twice and am about to redo yet again - this time for color and fabric style, not because they're worn out. I also have two MW chairs that I picked up at a resale shop, also in the 1980's. They were an incredible find. I paid less than $200 ea and they are a far superior quality chair to my Hickory Chair branded chairs. I'm about to reupholster those chairs because the Greef fabric that I put on them has a floating yarn in the stripes that has completely worn through at the edge of the seat. I didn't pay much attention to the Martindale or Wyzenbeek numbers when I chose the upholstery. The labor cost with the upholsterer I've checked with is $250/ea without nail heads. Nail heads significantly up the cost.