In this video, Upholstery Leather, Vinyl & Decorator Tacks Explained, Dave talks about how older pieces of furniture appear to be leather, but are in fact a high quality vinyl. This high quality upholstery vinyl looks and feels like that of genuine leather.
It's also very important to be skilled at applying the decorative upholstery tacks to your furniture. One little misstep can cause you to scratch and puncture the vinyl. It is impossible to repair and you would need to start from the very beginning of your upholstery project with new upholstery vinyl.
Lots of times on these older pieces of furniture we look at them and they look like they're made out of leather and have a real leather feel to them. But back in the day, fabric manufacturers made a vinyl that actually didn't even have a backing on it. It was just the skin and that's how a lot of these older chairs where done. For this upholstery project Jacobs Custom Living used a red vinyl, but there again, if you feel it, it has a leathery feel to it.
You have to be careful, especially when you use decorator tacks like this all the way around an upholstered piece of furniture. It is really easy to scuff the upholstery vinyl or punch a hole in it, and there's no fixing it.
The upholstery craftsman has to be very careful as he's putting in these particular decorative tacks. These tacks are what's called a French natural. They're half inch head, a half inch shank.
It's kind of funny that even in decorator tacks there's a difference in quality. I've seen tacks from the Box stores that are so flimsy that the heads pop right off. Jacobs Custom Living could never use upholstery tacks to do a project like this little red chair. We have to use a quality, decorative tack and that's what these are.
The skill that is required to achieve the look, function and durability of an upholstered piece like this red chair is why you choose Jacobs Custom Living.
This is why you choose Jacobs Custom Living. We love what we do.
Learn more about why you should re upholster your furniture here.
We also specialize in auto upholstery. Learn more here.