Profession upholsterer
Upholsterers provide objects such as furniture, panels, orthopaedic devices, fixtures or vehicle parts with padding or soft covering. They can install, repair or replace the upholstery of objects with materials such as fabrics, leather, suede or cotton. Upholsterers install the webbings and springs necessary to cover the material.
Would you like to know what kind of career and professions suit you best? Take our free Holland code career test and find out.
Personality Type
- Realistic / Enterprising
Knowledge
- Upholstery fillings
Materials used to fill soft furniture like upholstered chairs or mattresses must have several properties such as resilience, lightness, high-bulk properties. They can be fillings of animal origin such as feathers, of vegetal origin such as cotton wool or of synthetic fibers.
- Textile materials
Have a good understanding of the properties of different textile materials.
- Types of spring
Types of metal springs such as leaf, coil, torsion, clock, tension and extension spring.
- Upholstery tools
Set of tools used for upholstering furniture, walls and floors such as staple gun, foam cutter, staple remover.
Skills
- Sew textile-based articles
Sew different products based on textiles and wearing apparel articles. Combine good hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity, and physical and mental stamina.
- Provide customized upholstery
Install custom upholstery, according to the customer's individual requests and preferences.
- Fasten components
Fasten components together according to blueprints and technical plans in order to create subassemblies or finished products.
- Perform upholstery repair
Repair/restore damaged upholstery for a wide range of vehicles; use materials such as fabric, leather, plastic or vinyl.
- Create patterns for textile products
Create a two-dimensional model used to cut the material for textile products such as tents and bags, or for individual pieces needed for upholstery work.
- Sew pieces of fabric
Operate basic or specialised sewing machines whether domestic or industrial ones, sewing pieces of fabric, vinyl or leather in order to manufacture or repair wearing apparels, making sure the threads are selected according to specifications.
- Install spring suspension
Nail down the springs to the wooden frame of a chair or other piece of furniture to be upholstered. In the case of mattresses, check the structure holding the springs for defects and fix the layers of protective fabrics to cover the spring suspension.