Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design, by Amanda Brown, (Storey Publishing, $35) does just what it promises: shows you how to upholster furniture and design rooms.
Brown, owner of Spruce, a hip upholstery shop in Austin, Texas, opens the 400-page book by showing and explaining in detail how she decorated her living room, including why she chose the five types of vintage furniture that she reupholstered: a Louis chair, a wingback chair, a pair of slipper chairs, a boxy low-back sofa and a tufted ottoman/coffee table.
She spends the remainder of the book using easy-to-follow photographs to illustrate how she upholstered each piece. Chapters cover ways to estimate fabric yardage, tie springs for both tight and loose seats, attach skirts, create boxed seats, diamond tufting, double-welt cording and many other skills.
If you’re the handy, industrious type, this book is for you. But after reading the lists of supplies and number of steps to merely install webbing and hand-tie the coils eight ways in a chair, I’m pretty sure I’ll just pay an upholsterer when the need arises.
— By Cynthia Billhartz Gregorian
Kansas City Star