Upholstery and Fabrics - Cover couch in leather? Can this be done?

I have a very well made couch and it has a grade 35 upholstery on it now. I would like to have it re-done in leather. Who does this type of work? Does every upholstery firm capable of using a rawhide leather if I picked one out?

The back of the couch is all torn up and the colors of now are not very pretty. Any suggestions?

Probably only an upholsterer can do that job. There will most likely be an upcharge for leather usually starting at 25% or more depending on the difficulty of working with a certain fabric. I think you need to find and ask an upholsterer if it's possible to use rawhide as I really don't know.

I live in a large city, so calling each company too much trouble. I wonder if the place that sells the rawhides knows who is doing this. I see ppl in there buying them for their couch. It smells so wonderful in there. Thanks for you help. Maybe someone else will know, or has done this before will answer.

I don;t know a lot about leather but I don;t think rawhide would be a good leather to use. It is what it says; raw.

for upholstery you would something like this:http://www.buckskinleather.com/upholst.htm

this is the same website but their rawhide selection:http://www.buckskinleather.com/rawhide.htm

you definately want a finished leather for upholstery

leather is a common material for upholstery so I would imagine any upholsterer would be capable of applying it. It may be a cimplw cruise throught the yellow pages to find an upholsterer that specializes in it though. I would suggest an upholsterer experienced in leather.

Thank you for letting me know there is a difference. I would have never thought about it. I also appreciate the website. Wonderful information. I love this site.

Sorry, I was unaware you didn't know there was a difference. Most any upholster should be able to do this with regular leather but there will still most likely be an upcharge. I have never come across anyone that upholstered using rawhide so thus my answer :)

i think you'd be money ahead to just purchase a new leather sofa. around here, it's way more expensive to have something reupholstered than to just buy new. purchasing cut yardage fabric or a piece of leather and then paying the labor for reupholstery is akin to custom work = $$$. whereas leather sofas in stores have been mass produced, and therefore would be less expensive purchased that way. get some estimates on reupholstery first & compare to quality readymade leather sofas before proceeding.

Yes I was thinking the same thing. I have three couches. One is a cheap leather couch and showiing some wear, the other is pin tucked solid as a rock burgundy leather couch - will last forever and has nothing wrong with it, and this one with fabric has a 35 grade which is great, but my cat had a party with it.l It looks fine except the back. The problem is the colors are the deep green, burgundy, navy colors that are so dated. It is a Bernhardt sofa with hand ties underneath, and it is so comfortable.

So if I want the quality of tied springs, Bernardt and want it in leater brand new what are those prices like Would it still be cheaper to buy new then have it re-done?

Call at least three upholsterers to get a quote on upholstering the sofa. Then, you can do some price comparisons to determine if your best bet is to purchase a new sofa or reupholster. You can view the Bernhardt Collection and locate retailers in your area at www.bernhardt.com