Take as long as you need because you need to get comfortable with how the fabric looks on your furniture. This process can take a few hours, a few days, or just a few moments, there is no right or wrong amount of time to spend on this. What you are looking at is how the fabric was originally secured to the frame. You want to look at the fabric from all different angles, including turning the furniture over and looking at the bottom. You also want to remove the pillows and look under the seat pillow.

Tip two:
Before you begin taking your furniture apart, you want to take a few pictures of the original piece of furniture. Make sure that you take pictures of the furniture from a variety of different angles and distances. The reason for this is that it will give you the best look at how your furniture looked originally. This is important for later in case you run into trouble when trying to put the upholstery back on. Having pictures allows you to look at how the fabric originally went on, which can help you place things correctly when working on it.

Tip three:
Take notes on how the furniture is put together. You want to look at the skirt, the buttons, the welting, the seams, the pillows, etc. You want to look at everything that is on the furniture and jot down how it is help together or if there is anything special about how it looks. This will help you put the furniture back together the same way it was before you changed the fabric, so the only difference will be the fabric. You can also commit this stuff to memory if you trust your memory.

Tip four:
When you are taking off the old fabric, you do not want to simply rip and tear it off the furniture. You want to carefully remove all of the old fabric. The reason for this is that if you carefully remove the old fabric you can use it like a template for when you put the new fabric on, so it has to be left in one piece. Having a template from the old fabric makes your reupholstering job that much easier.

Tip five:
When you start removing the old fabric, you do not just want to start removing it from anywhere. Instead, you are going to want to search for the part of the fabric that should come off first. In most cases, the fabric that comes off first is the piece of fabric over the back of the furniture or along the bottom of the frame. When taking off the old fabric you want to have pieces of paper that are numbered with you. You will want to pin them to each section so you know what direction you will be heading in next. Along with numbering the paper, you also want to write down the section that the number pertains to, such as "back" or "left side arm."

Tip six:
You want to be careful to not disturb the padding, stuffing or batting. The only exception is if the piece of furniture is old or has had a lot of use because then you might need to replace some or all of it. If you do not need to replace it, you want to carefully smooth it out so you can remove all of the lumps or bunches.