Upholstery round sofa salon

[Marc Rainaldo]

Hello all, another big project: upholstery of the round sofa in the salon.

1 thing when you buy a used boat from 1994 is that you have to put a lot of work in it. The risk that al cushions are worn out is big. But with a little effort (read a lot) you can make everything new. This is the first time we do all the upholstery our self. We learned a lot and made some mistakes. When we do it ever again It would be a better job. But overall we are very happy with the result.

First job is to dismount the complete sofa. That was a real pain in the arse job because we didn’t install it and didn’t knew where all the screws were. Caution is a must.

First you have to remove the small cover at the bottom to access the wing nuts.
At some places there are screws between the upper and lower cushions.

At this point I thought to myself: What have I started....

now it’s time for removing thousands of staples.

 

[Marc Rainaldo]

 

[Marc Rainaldo]

We have chosen to use the old fabric as a mold.
My father worked in the confection and now at 83 years of age he helped us with sewing.
He ironed all the old fabric and I cut every piece from new vinyl. By cutting every piece identical we made a big mistake.
At the last picture I explain what we did wrong.

the picture above shows the new vinyl. When we put all parts together in the boat we saw that we made a mistake.
I cut all pieces from the old fabric in the new vinyl.
Over the years some pieces were worn out more then an other piece. After iron the old parts the sides were different and we didn’t payed any attention to that. The side molds have to be the same on all parts of the sofa. When you ever do this upholstery your self: take 1 mold from a side and use that for all sofa parts. When we discovered our mistake I checked the side pieces from the old fabric and sometimes they had a difference of 2cm!!!

 

[Marc Rainaldo]

We used rvs maples. When we building up every part of the sofa we had hard time with the round parts.
The vinyl we used was a bit hard with less stretch.
I think when used a more stretching vinyl you have less fold and rimpels.

 

[Marc Rainaldo]

The sit cushions we made from scratch. This job my wife and me did together without help from my father.
We chosed for flat cushions made from new foam.
We made this with a small sewing machine. Unfortunately the machine couldn’t make trough so we have to finish the cushions on another sewing machine

 

[Marc Rainaldo]

Luckily we can use the sewing machine in the shop at our marina. We took all the foam out and made the last adjustments, also we put a layer wool mat on top of the foam.

It looks great and It sits great so we are very happy.
We had luck that the foam in the backseats were in excellent shape that reduces the cost. Overall we spent €1500,00 and a lot af blood, sweat and tears.

 

[Riptide III]

Beautiful job! Thank you for all the pictures.

 

[1956olds]

That is what i want to do with ours,have already done the v berth area and the newer flat screen enclosure with vinyl.Now for that 12 ft long couch. Mabey this next winter if i can get in the storage building ever again.

 

[bahamabreisus]

Marc, we did ours years ago. Those pictures look way too familiar. Looks great.

 

[Espos4]

Looks great. Yes, you need to be careful using the original pieces for templates. The material has been stretched and may not lay flat. When you force it flat, it becomes too big.

You can use them for templates but must take the “stretch” into account and cut accordingly.

I thought my winter project was ambitious but yours is a big one!

 

[MrsTintSquad]

It looks beautiful!!!!
Really great work! My hubby and I also have a sewing machine on the boat and ended up booting a cabinet on our 290 and opening the seating up in the V. Your photos look oh so familiar to our house this past winter!!! And Sea Ray doesn’t play around with the staples do they? ;-) Definitely worth it though! Enjoy!

Luckily we can use the sewing machine in the shop at our marina. We took all the foam out and made the last adjustments, also we put a layer wool mat on top of the foam.
View attachment 82073 View attachment 82074 View attachment 82076

It looks great and It sits great so we are very happy.
We had luck that the foam in the backseats were in excellent shape that reduces the cost. Overall we spent €1500,00 and a lot af blood, sweat and tears.

 

[Highliner]

I've done enough boat apoholstery and canvas to understand how much work this must have been. It looks great. I'm sure you're glad to have the project finished.