How to Upholster Black Cambric Dust Cover to Sofa, Chair or Furniture or Box Springs
One of the last steps of any upholstery project is stapling on a dust cover or black cambric to the bottom of the piece. Cambric is a synthetic polypropylene material that is very light and has a light stretch to it allow you make a nice tight finish.
It is very flexible and easy to work with but in today's post we want to share a few quick steps to stapling on black cambric to the bottom of a chair.
Application: Most of the time cambric is used to prevent dust from getting up inside furniture, however cambric is used for your box springs, headboards, or we have even seen some customers use it to conceal wires for their entertainment center. It has many uses!
*This is my own box spring after several moves, I re-upholstered it using our 60" x 80" Queen or Full sized cambric, quite the difference!
Tools & Supplies:
Black Cambric: Depending on the size of your furniture or project, we sell cambric in 36", 40" and 60" widths.
Staple Gun: For our project we used a BEA pneumatic staple gun in our shop, but I would only recommend getting a pneumatic staple gun if you plan on doing many projects, but if you can afford it they are worth the investment. Otherwise a hand stapler will work just fine.
Staples: upholstery staples, we used a 3/8" crown x 1/2" long, if you are stapling dust cover that has thick fabric wrapped around under the bottom you are stapling through you may consider something longer. *Double check your staples will fit your staple gun before you buy them!
INSTALLATION STEPS:
1. Measure the bottom of your frame and find the widest point if it is not square and add 3-4", do the same for the other direction. You want a little room to work with because we fold the excess underneath which creates a smooth finish!
2. Starting at top side fold the cambric under and line it up just inside the edge of the frame, making sure to cover any other staples from stapling on the patterned fabric and put 3 staples in the middle of the frame around 1" apart.
3. Next move to the bottom or the opposite side of where you started and repeat the same process in step 2. Fold the cambric under and give it a light pull putting 3 staples in to hold it in the middle.
4. Once you have stapled down each side in the middle you will start working your way out to the corners, pulling down and out as you go, to remove wrinkles. Remember to fold any excess underneath, stapling every 1-2". You will likely need to keep re-folding as you go because as you start pulling the cambric tight it may push out the fabric from when you originally folded it.
5. Once you have stapled all the way to each corner you should be finished. This technique gives you the best chance to get all the wrinkles out and have a nice tight dust cover.
Now let's get more technical in different setups, you may have pieces like the following:
Curved Furniture: The process is practically the same, you cut the cambric to cover the area, pick a side to start, move to the opposite side and staple down. When you hit the curves the beauty of the flexible cambric is you can fold the fabric under a few inches at a time following the exact curve!
Screw on Feet: If your furniture as threaded bolt feet that screw on and off just take cambric and cover up the threaded receiving t-nut, once you have applied the steps above and stapled down all sides of the cambric, make a small incision around the t-nut and staple around that hole to hold the fabric in place. Using this method allows a nice clean finish without impacting the screw on feet.
Built in Feet: Follow the same process above and since most feet are in the corners, once you get to the corner you will need to make small cuts to the cambric dust cover forming it around the feet. Then staple to the shape of the cambric, it will take some additional time but will turn out great!
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