Most people start looking for reupholstery in Plano, TX after the same small moment: a cushion that no longer springs back, a seam that finally gave out, or a fabric that has outlasted three paint colors and one dog. The sofa still feels solid when you sit down hard, which is the clue worth paying attention to. If the frame is sound, the fabric and padding are the cheap, replaceable part of the piece, and a skilled upholsterer can give you what is effectively a new sofa on the old bones.
We are a family-owned shop, founded by John in 1980 and passed to his son Simon, working out of 2425 Parker Rd. in Carrollton. Our Dallas-Fort Worth upholstery services cover sofas, club chairs, wingbacks, dining chairs, ottomans, and banquettes. This guide walks through how we decide whether a piece is worth reupholstering, what the work involves, what it costs in 2026, and how the process runs from the first photo to the day it comes home.
Why Plano Homeowners Reupholster Rather Than Replace
Plano is a city of two very different housing eras. East of Central Expressway you find the brick ranch and split-level homes from the 1960s and 1970s, where families often inherited furniture built when kiln-dried hardwood frames were standard. Near Old Downtown Plano, where the American Planning Association recognizes the historic downtown for its 1890s-era streetscape, you find bungalows and townhomes with a lot of character and a lot of older furniture. Both reward restoration.
The math is simple. Many new sofas sold today are built on kiln-dried pine or engineered-wood frames with stapled corner blocks, and they often start showing frame fatigue within a few years. An older sofa with doweled, glued, and screwed hardwood joints can take new foam, new webbing or springs, and new fabric and then last another couple of decades. Sentimental value counts too. A chair that sat in a grandmother’s living room is not something you can reorder from a catalog, and when a piece does not pencil out on dollars alone, that is often a perfectly good reason to do the job anyway.
What We Check in the Frame Before Anything Else
Before quoting a job, we ask for photos and look at the piece for the same few things every time. This is what separates a reupholstery job that holds up from one that has to be redone in five years.
- Joint tightness. Push on the arms and back. A frame that racks or creaks needs re-gluing and doweling before any fabric goes on. We handle that structural work in the same shop.
- Suspension. Sagging webbing or broken springs can make a sofa feel worn out when the foam is actually fine. Replacing suspension is routine work during a full reupholstery.
- Exposed wood. Legs, arm caps, and trim often need refinishing to match the new fabric. Because we are a refinishing shop first, we can strip and refinish those parts in-house rather than sending you elsewhere.
- Cushion construction. Loose cushions with zipper covers are easy to renew. Cushions where the fabric is sewn into the body are a different story, which we cover below.
If a frame fails this check, for example a particleboard core that has split, we will tell you plainly. Structural repair of particleboard or MDF cores is not something we do, and a candid answer is better for you than a job that does not last.
What a Full Reupholstery Job Actually Includes
Reupholstery is not just swapping the cover. On a typical sofa or club chair, the work runs in this order:
- Fabric selection and deposit. This comes first, before pickup, so the material is already at the shop when we are ready to start. We work from swatch books (Greenhouse Fabrics), not bolts on a shelf, and a selected fabric is ordered and arrives in roughly a week.
- Pickup or drop-off. You can bring the piece to our shop, or we can pick up and deliver across DFW. Pickup and delivery starts around $250 round trip, depending on location and size, and is quoted up front in your estimate.
- Strip to the frame. Old fabric, padding, and tacks come off so we can see exactly what we are working with, including any hidden damage.
- Frame repair and refinishing. Loose joints are re-glued and doweled. Exposed wood is refinished if needed.
- Rebuild. New webbing or springs where required, new foam and batting, then pattern-cut and sewn fabric, fitted tightly with straight seams and matched patterns.
- Final inspection and return. We check seams, welting, tension, and fit before the piece leaves the shop.
We occasionally subcontract upholstery when the shop is especially busy, and all refinishing and frame repair stays in-house. Either way, the piece is inspected at our shop before it comes home.
Choosing Fabric That Fits How You Live
Fabric is where most of the personality, and a large share of the cost, lives. A quick rule: match the fabric to the room, not just the color palette.
Reading a Martindale rating
The Martindale test rubs a fabric sample against a standard abrasive until the yarns show wear, and the cycle count is the rating. Higher is tougher. Our guidance for homes is straightforward: choose 30,000 rubs or higher for a sofa that sees regular use, and 50,000 or higher for a family room, a media room, or any heavy-traffic space. For commercial jobs, we start at 100,000 rubs and go up from there. Be wary of anything much lower, however pretty it looks on a swatch.
Households with kids, pets, or sun
If you have young kids or dogs, tightly woven performance fabrics and performance chenilles are worth the conversation. Homes with big west-facing windows also see serious UV, which fades dyed fabrics and weakens fibers over a few summers, so a solution-dyed fiber can pay for itself. Velvet looks wonderful and can be very durable when the pile and backing are right. We covered those choices in our guide to velvet reupholstery choices, and the same advice applies here.
Bringing your own fabric
Found a fabric you love at a design showroom or online? We can work with customer-supplied material (COM) for a handling fee of $35 per yard. Check yardage with us first. Large patterns, stripes, and plaids need extra yardage for matching, and the pattern repeat can change how much you need by 15 to 25 percent. Our fabric options page explains how ordering from our swatch books works.
What Reupholstery Costs in 2026
Price depends on the size of the piece, how much frame work it needs, and the fabric. These are honest starting points, not guarantees, and your free photo estimate sets the real number.
- Three-seat sofa: labor starts at $1,500, and fabric typically adds roughly another $1,200, so a complete job usually starts around $2,500.
- Club or wingback chair: labor runs $650 to $900 for a skirted, rolled-arm club chair, with fabric adding roughly $700 on top.
- Dining chair seats: considerably less per piece than a sofa or club chair, which makes a set of six very manageable.
- Customer-supplied fabric: $35 per yard handling.
Want to see how those numbers break down? Our post on reupholstery cost and the frame, foam, and fabric math walks through a full example. As a rule of thumb, reupholstering a quality piece costs about what a mid-range new sofa costs, but you keep a hardwood frame instead of a disposable one.
How Long It Takes
Reupholstery typically runs 6 to 12 weeks, depending on the shop’s workload at the time. Spring and the weeks before the holidays are the busiest. If you want a sofa back before Thanksgiving, start in early fall. Time for the fabric order (about a week) is built into the schedule because we order it at the deposit stage, before your piece is picked up. That way the clock does not stop while we wait on a bolt.
Loose Cushions, Attached Cushions, and Foam
If only the cushions are tired, ask about our cushion and foam replacement service. It works on loose cushions with removable, zippered covers, and we use standard polyurethane HR foam. For cushion-only jobs we prefer that you drop the cushions off at the shop, since they are easy to carry and it saves you the pickup fee.
Attached cushions, where the fabric is sewn into the body of the piece, are a different matter. Replacing the foam means taking the cover apart, which is the same labor as a full reupholstery, so we steer those pieces toward full reupholstery. You end up with new foam, new fabric, and a frame we have inspected.
What a Good Reupholstery Candidate Looks Like
The best candidates share a few traits. The frame is heavy for its size, the joints are tight or easy to re-glue, and the shape is one you still like sitting in. Classic rolled-arm sofas, tuxedo arms, camelback silhouettes, wingbacks, and mid-century lounge chairs all tend to be worth the investment because the proportions were right to begin with and the fabric is the only thing that has aged.
If you are in Plano and wondering whether your piece qualifies, a few photos are enough to start. Show us the underside, a corner where the fabric meets the wood, and any place that sags. From there we can talk through fabric selection, which happens before pickup. Bring a room photo, paint chip, or rug sample to the conversation and we will pull swatch books that suit your light, since a fabric reads very differently in a bright Plano sunroom than it does under showroom lighting. Our focus is fabric upholstery and the wood underneath it, on furniture meant to stay in the family for another generation.
Why the Wood Matters as Much as the Fabric
A reupholstered piece looks wrong if the exposed wood is scratched, faded, or a different shade from the room. Because we refinish furniture for a living, we can bring arms, legs, and show-wood trim back in a residential lacquer finish while the piece is already in the shop. Color matching is done on the actual piece, and a finish cannot go lighter than the natural wood allows, so we set expectations before any stain goes on. If a dining set needs both new seats and refreshed frames, our furniture refinishing guide covers what that side of the process looks like.
How to Get Started With Your Project
The easiest route is our online estimate. Send a few clear photos of the front, side, back, and any damage, along with rough dimensions and any fabric ideas. We reply with a price range and a timeline. The photo-based online estimate is free. If you prefer to see us first, our shop location and hours are a short drive away, and we are happy to talk through your piece in person.
For background on how fabric durability ratings are explained to the general public, the Martindale score explainer is a plain-language read. And if you are curious about the city your furniture has been living in, this local history of the city is a good look at how a railroad stop became one of the metroplex’s largest cities.
Reupholstery in Plano: Frequently Asked Questions
How much does reupholstery cost in Plano, TX?
A three-seat sofa starts around $2,500 complete, with labor from $1,500 and roughly $1,200 in fabric. A club or wingback chair is $650 to $900 in labor plus about $700 in fabric. Your free online estimate gives the exact figure.
How long does reupholstery take?
Plan on 6 to 12 weeks depending on how busy the shop is. Fabric is selected and ordered at the deposit stage, before pickup, so it is already on hand when work begins.
Do you pick up furniture in Plano?
Yes. We offer pickup and delivery across the metroplex, starting around $250 round trip depending on location and the size of the job. You can also drop pieces off at our shop, which we prefer for cushion-only work.
What fabric rating should I choose for a family sofa?
We recommend 30,000 Martindale rubs or higher for regular use, and 50,000 or higher for heavy-traffic rooms. We pick from Greenhouse Fabrics swatch books, or you can supply your own fabric for $35 per yard.
Is it worth reupholstering an older sofa?
If the frame is solid hardwood with tight joints, usually yes. We can re-glue and dowel loose joints during the job. If the frame is a split particleboard core, we will tell you honestly that it is not worth it.
Serving Plano and the Surrounding DFW Cities
We serve Plano homeowners, plus neighbors in Frisco, Allen, McKinney, Richardson, Carrollton, and Dallas, along with the rest of the metroplex through pickup and delivery. Our workshop is at 2425 Parker Rd. Bldg. 5 in Carrollton.
Ready to Give Your Furniture a Second Life?
A good frame is worth keeping. With the right fabric, new padding, and a refreshed finish, it will look the way you want and hold up for years. Plano homeowners can request a free online estimate with a few photos, or call us at 214-731-3060 to talk through your piece.