My Dog Ate My Sofa, What Should I Do?
I wrote in a past article that we had a new puppy and that I was sure I would need to find out how to repair pet damage on furniture. Well our puppy is getting past that age of eating everything without eating any our our furniture, yes I’m bragging. However I felt compelled to research and write this article since past pets had created extensive damage to my furniture.
I wasn’t suprised that there wasn’t much information out there regarding repairing partially damaged furniture. I talked with some re-upholstery companies who seemed to be the best source of information. Their advice dealt with a hole chewed or clawed badly fabric covering the sofa or chair. Universally they suggested that extra fabric was abundant on nearly all pieces of upholstered furniture. One exception is seat cushions which I’ve covered in a prior article. Sofas usually have cushions of like material that can be used to repair damaged locations. One even told me that a client wanted a pillow permanently attached to her sofa, covering an area that was eaten by her very large dog. I thought this was a very easy way to cover damage in the back cushion or back part of a seat cushion. Likewise the back of sofas will nearly always have material that can be used.
If a sofa rest against a wall, salvaged material frolm the back will near be seen. A complementary material can be inset into the rear of the sofa to cover the area removed. If the material covering an arm is destroyed, material from the back will likely be able to recover the entire arm. The old arm fabric makes a perfect template for constructing the new cover.
I won’t pretend that I’m a skilled upholsterer or that I can even sew, but with todays products and the construction of today’s furniture I feel most repairs can be made by the do it yourself crowd. The fabric on most arms is streched over foam material and stapled in place. The face and side materials of an arm typically have a sewn seam and occasionally some cord (or pipping material) to highlight a seam. Or a covering plate of material is used to conceal streched material beneath the plate. Again using the old material as a template it is not difficult to recreate the pattern with the salvaged material.
In nearly all cases the backs of upholstered furniture provides an abundant source of nearly unused, perfectly matching material for you repair. Either covering the entire back or a portion of the back with a complimentary fabric gives you a one of a kind piece of furniture.
Damage to wood legs an arms falls under one of three categories; destroyed beyond all recognition, disfigured, and marked up with teeth or claw marks. Absent a historic claw foot on a piece of furniture most damage that is severe can be repaired by replacing the leg with a replica of the leg. Furniture legs almost always come in two’s or more and even a turned legs can be used recreated using another leg as a template.
If the damage isn’t too bad, on short legs I would do what I could to disguise the damage but then I would leave it alone. On taller legs like a dining room chair I would use wood filler, sand and stain to match. For minor damage read the article on using touch up pens.