Upholstery & reupholstery
in Donvale

The houses in Donvale tend to be larger than in a lot of the suburbs we work in, on bigger blocks with more room to furnish, and the upholstery jobs that come out of them are larger to match. Where a lot of suburbs send us one chair or one lounge at a time, Donvale more often sends us the whole room.

A typical example is a job we see again and again from the area: two three-seater lounges and their matching ottomans, all recovered together in the same fabric run so the finished suite still reads as one set rather than three separate pieces done at different times.

That scale suits how our workshop is set up. With upholstery, machining and French polishing all under one roof, we can take on several large pieces at once without a Donvale job queuing behind smaller ones from elsewhere.

A recent pattern of work from Donvale is a pair of three-seater lounges and their ottomans, all sent in together and recovered in the one fabric so nothing is left slightly off from the rest of the set. Doing it as one job rather than three separate ones means the fabric is bought and cut together, which matters more than people expect: dye lots and pattern repeats can shift slightly between runs, and a suite done all at once avoids that entirely.

Bigger jobs like this also mean bigger frame work. Larger three-seaters carry more load across a wider span, so the webbing, springs and frame joints all get a closer look before anything is recovered, because a suite this size is not something you want to be redoing in a few years.

It is the kind of project that rewards planning the whole job before cutting a single piece of fabric, which is exactly how we approach a multi-piece Donvale job from the first quote.

Larger lounges carry more weight over a longer span, so the first thing we check on a Donvale piece is the frame and the support underneath it, joints, webbing and springs, before any decision is made about foam or fabric. Where the frame calls for it we use nine-way hand-tied springs, and where webbing suits the piece better, we web it properly rather than patch over what is there.

For the seat itself we use Dunlop HR35 foam, cut to bring a bigger seat back to the height and support it had when new, either 200 density for something firm or 165 for softer, and backed by Dunlop's ten-year warranty.

When a job spans multiple pieces, like a pair of lounges and ottomans, we recommend fabric rated for at least 25,000 Martindale rubs for everyday family use, or 30,000 and above if pets are part of the household. More on that in our pet-friendly and kid-proof fabric guide.

Upholstery, machining and French polishing are all done in the one Eltham North workshop, which matters most on a larger Donvale job where a frame repair, new springs and a polished timber leg might all be needed on the same piece. Three trades, one roof: a restorer and French polisher who has been at it fifty years, a machinist with thirty behind him, and an upholsterer with twenty-two, close to a hundred years of combined experience across the workshop.

We stand behind every hardwood frame we build with a thirty-year guarantee, and carry full insurance regardless of how large the job is. If you would like to see the workshop and look at fabric options for a multi-piece job in person, you are welcome to visit, it is a residential address so please call ahead.

Our price covers stripping every piece to its frame, repairing joints and replacing webbing and springs where needed, new Dunlop foam throughout, and fabric cut and matched across the whole suite rather than piece by piece. That is why our number can land above or below another quote for the same set: we are pricing the actual work rather than competing on the smallest total, and quality materials at a mid-tier price is the result. A number well under wholesale material cost on a suite this size almost always means a step has been skipped.