The person searching for an upholsterer is standing in front of a piece of furniture they do not want to throw out. Their mother’s armchair, a good sofa with a sagging seat and a cat-shredded arm, six dining chairs with seats gone shiny, a window seat that needs cushions. They search “reupholstery Dublin” or “sofa recovering cost” and the first question is always the same: is it worth doing, or should we just buy new? Websites for upholsterers in Dublin that answer that honestly, show the before and after, and explain how to get an estimate from a photo get the job. The ones with a logo and a phone number leave the customer guessing.
Worth doing, or not
Answer the big question on the first screen. A well-made frame, hardwood, sprung, glued and dowelled, is nearly always worth re-covering and will outlast a cheap new sofa. A flat-pack frame usually is not, and you should say so, because the customer who is told the truth about their bargain sofa comes back with their grandmother’s chair. A short plain section on what makes a piece worth the work, with a rough idea of how the price compares with buying new, gets you the right customers and spares you the wrong estimates.
Photo, measurements, fabric, date
Most upholstery can be estimated from a photo. Tell people exactly what to send: a picture of the whole piece from the front and the side, one of the damage, and the rough width and depth, by WhatsApp. You reply with an estimate, a range for fabric by grade, and when you could take it in.
Then fabric: whether they choose from your books, come to the workshop, or supply their own, and what you need to know about their own fabric (metreage, and whether it is an upholstery-weight cloth). Writing that process down once, in order, turns an anxious enquiry into a booked job.
The stripped frame and the finished chair
Before and after is the obvious gallery, same chair, same angle, same light. But the photo that sells upholstery is the one in the middle: the frame stripped to the wood, new webbing and springs going in, the padding built up. It shows the customer what they are paying for, which is not a cover but a rebuild.
Then the details: piping, deep buttoning, a tidy underside, a pair of dining chairs with the old and new side by side. An antique chair rebuilt properly is also the kind of photo an antique dealer notices, and dealers are good repeat customers.
Pubs, restaurants and the banquette
Commercial work is where the big invoices are. Pub snugs and bench seating, restaurant booths, hotel chairs, church kneelers, barber and salon chairs, boat and caravan cushions. Those customers want to know you can do a room of seating to a deadline, often overnight or in the January quiet, in a contract-grade fabric, and that you have done it before. A page for commercial work with a few finished rooms, and a form asking for the number of seats and the date they need it by, brings in that trade without mixing it up with the armchairs.
Weeks, not days
Upholstery takes time: the fabric has to be ordered, the piece collected, stripped, rebuilt, covered and delivered. Say your current lead time on the page and keep it honest from your phone, especially in October and November when everyone wants the sofa back before Christmas.
Say that fabric is paid for up front, or a deposit taken when the job is booked, with the balance on delivery. Nobody minds a deposit that is explained; they mind one that appears. The guide to taking deposits online in Ireland has the fair wording.
What we need from you
Twelve to twenty before, during and after photos. Your list of what you do, domestic and commercial. How you estimate and what to send. Your fabric options and own-fabric rules. Your lead time and deposit policy. Whether you collect and deliver, and where. Ten minutes, in the workshop if you are in Dublin.
Plan and price
Essentials at €499 to set up and €50 a month, VAT on top, no contract, gives an upholsterer the gallery, the estimate instructions, the enquiry form and the Google listing, with a monthly report of enquiries. Complete makes sense if you want a chat box that explains the fabric process at night and hands the photo to your WhatsApp, or card payment links for deposits. Both plans are on the pricing page. Outside Dublin, the first chat is by phone or video and the rest works the same.