[cnvh]

Okay, so my weekend isn't starting off on the right foot... I've been frantically coordinating a surprise party for my mom's 60th birthday (tomorrow), parents are staying at my house tonight and they brought their two dogs, as usual. One of the dogs is under a year old, and she's Little Miss Destruct-o. She's fine when people are home, but if she's left alone, sometimes she behaves herself, but sometimes she shreds things. So whenever we leave, we put Demon Puppy in a large wire dog crate to keep her out of trouble.

We went out shopping this afternoon and put her in the crate, which was "parked" in a corner next to our sofa. Got home a few hours later, let her out, and a little while after that, I noticed that the sofa was really squished against the crate, to the point where the crate wall was actually bowed in. Went in for a closer look-- and discovered that Demon Dog must've attempted to bring some of the sofa inside the crate with her-- she chewed 2 softball-sized holes in the arm cushion, from INSIDE her crate.

The fabric's not just torn-- she actually chewed big holes out of it, so I can't just stitch it together... it's going to need to be reupholstered. :grit:

So I've been looking online trying to get info on how to go about having this repaired. (Parents are horrified and offered to pay for whatever it costs to fix it.) Most of what I've found locally seems to be geared more towards vehicle upholstery, not furniture upholstery. Do people usually specialize in one or the other, or is an upholsterer an upholsterer?

We bought the sofa at Ashley Furniture about 4 years ago, so I'll probably stop by there once this party is over and see if they do repairs, or know where to direct me, but I'd like to know roughly how much $$ these things cost before they go charging me an arm and a leg.

So, does anyone have a CLUE what this might cost to fix? The fabric is microfiber, in a pretty common solid color (sage green).

 

[whiterock]

Ashley offers an ins. when you buy, i bought it for my leather sofas i bought 2 years ago, knowing my demon grandson's ability to destroy. They do have folks that come out to do repairs.

 

[gone-a-milkin]

You could certainly ask the vehicle upholsterers. Take a sample of the fabric to be matched in and see if they can match it. Our upholsterer friends will do most any type of work. Most of the stuff they do is automotive, but that is just because there is a bigger market for that type of work.

An upholsterer is an upholsterer, in my experience.

p.s. that dog needs a REAL dog crate!

 

[cnvh]

p.s. that dog needs a REAL dog crate!

Haha... The crate worked fine... unfortunately we put it next to the sofa, not even thinking that she would decide to eat the sofa THROUGH the crate.

My boss has a demon-dog that actually "drives" its crate around the room to get close to stuff she wants to gnaw on-- apparently the dog must fling itself against the crate and bump it across the floor. I guess I should consider myself lucky that my parents' dog isn't THAT bad! (Although I'm trying to think of something she could've chewed that would've been worse than the sofa... I'm not coming up with much!)

 

[Rocky Fields]

I hear doghide makes a viable substitute for armrest material...

RF

 

[Wolf mom]

When my wolf-dog was a puppy, he chewed the leather arm of my love seat. (BIG CHUNKS! including the stuffing)

What I did - not expensive & looks great!

I took apart the cushions and had arm sleeves made for the couch and the loveseat from the leather off the cushions. (Absolutely no way to match the color of the leather)
Saving the leather sides of the cushions along with the zippers ( I did not take them apart) I bought tapestry material that blended with the color of the couch and had cushion covers made incorporating the leather from the sides of the cushions.

HAving some material left over, I made extra pillows for the couch. Looks like a "New" couch & loveseat set as you'll see some leather sets made with tapestry material on the cushions these days.

Sometimes trying to match upholstery material, especially when it's not new, just doesn't work, even if it's cleaned.

Good luck. Think out of the box. If you think you have to reupholster the whole thing you might as well buy new due to the cost.