Earthlite^® manufactures expensive, top-of-the-line massage tables. If you want to be picky, there is one flaw in some of their designs; it's the material used to make the cover. It's called Ultraleather^®. Ultraleather^® is a pliable material that looks and feels like glove leather. It's manufactured from polyurethane, not vinyl.

We don't like Ultraleather^® for this sort of application. We've seen it peel like a bad sunburn when it's scratched or compromised. It can also lose shape much faster than the soft, high-end vinyls we use for massage and chiropractic equipment. Even worse, Ultraleather^® costs an arm and a leg.

Damaged Fabric Peeling

Padded Scrim Layer

Designing New Cover

After New Cover

Olympus high performance vinyl is a much better alternative for massage, chiropractic and other healthcare uses. It's a soft, extremely durable PVC. It's also mildew, UV and stain resistant. There are tons of colors available; this one is sand.

Before designing the cover, we wrapped the cushion material in a padded scrim to enhance comfort and durability. Fitting the cover is a little trickier using our high performance PVC. It's not as elastic as Ultraleather^®, so it's important to accurately pattern the new cover before trimming it to size.

Once installed, the new cover is indistinguishable from the original. It'll also last a lot longer.

Chiropratic adjustment tables come in all shapes and sizes. The exam bench does double-duty as a diagnostic tool and adjustment platform. Because it's used so often, the exam bench wears out fast. Even the toughest vinyl won't last forever in a busy chiropractic office.

A chiropractor doesn't want to be without an exam bench, so quick turnaround and quality workmanship are important. Fortunately, reupholstering this sort of equipment can be done in a day or so.

Since a patient usually lies face down on the bench during an exam, the vinyl often wears out in the same place. While the damaged section may be limited, you have to replace the whole thing or the result won't be satisfactory.

We start with the padding. Polyurethane foam goes flat with frequent use. It's best to replace the padding every couple of years. This foam is still in pretty good shape, so we use steam to plump it. Steam restores the foam to its original shape.

With the padding back to normal, we size the upholstery fabric. Anything less than commercial grade vinyl won't do. It's important to properly fit the new upholstery because vinyl can sag and wrinkle unless it's pulled taught during the application process. Fitting the curves -- especially inside curves -- requires years of experience.

In less than a day, the newly upholstered exam bench is on its way back to the clinic. We'll probably see it again in seven or eight months.

Here's something you don't see very often; a medical exam chair with biscuit patterns sewn into the upholstery. It looks kind of stylish, but it's incredibly impractical. Exam chairs and tables need to be kept clean. The gutters surrounding each biscuit not only collect microscopic debris, they're hard to clean.

The chair needed a new cover. Instead of reprising the pattern, we recommended a smooth, easily maintainable surface.

The vinyl we used to upholster the exam chair is called Soave Haze. It's manufactured for medical, office, automotive and home use. With a rating of 150 thousand double rubs, Soave Haze is extremely durable. At the same time, it doesn't have that stiff feel often associated with heavy duty vinyl. It's soft as leather, and the subtle pattern stamped into the fabric looks great.

In addition to being more practical, upholstering the exam chair without the biscuit pattern is less expensive.

Even the most durable vinyl on a chiropractic table eventually wears out.

There's nothing fancy about a padded, rectangular table, so it's tempting to go online or visit a fabric store, order a roll of vinyl and recover the table in-house. Here's an example of why that's a terrible idea.

The pics on the left show a chiropractic table upholstered by a do-it-yourselfer. As you can see, it's badly wrinkled and the corners are a mess. What you can't see is even worse – the sloppy upholstery screwed-up the padding. The polyurethane was so badly stretched and compressed we had to toss the old foam and start all over.

What sort of message does the do-it-yourself upholstery send? Does it inspire confidence? Would you feel more comfortable walking into a clinic using the table on the left or the one on the right? Enough said.

One of the more challenging tasks in our craft is upholstering a concave or extremely cupped surface. It's not the sort of project we see every day, but when furniture with a severely rounded surface does come through our door, Upholstery Seattle takes special care to upholster it properly. This curved restaurant booth is a great example of how its done.

The first thing we do is order a specially shaped slab of polyurethane foam. It's pre-cut to match the foam it replaces. There's little room for error, so we measure carefully and work closely with our foam suppliers. When the foam arrives, we turn our attention to the critical piece of fabric on a concave surface, the cushion top. This section is cut to precisely match the curve in the foam. If it's not just right, the fabric will pucker and wrinkle.

Using the curved fabric as an anchor, we sew the other sections in place, then slip the upholstery over the foam like a glove.

As you can see, the fit is a little loose at first. There's also a big gap between the fabric and the cupped surface (bottom row, left). This is where years of experience counts. We tug the upholstery so it's flush with the foam, then staple it to the base. This has to be done with just the right amount of tension; too much and the fabric tears, not enough and it wrinkles.

A judicious application of steam erases all but the tiniest flaws. After steaming the fabric, we bake it under the afternoon sun for a couple of hours. This shrinks the gap between the fabric and foam resulting in a perfect fit. In the end, the restaraunt booth turns out just right!

It's not a Captain's Chair from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. And it's definitely not the latest Decepticon Transformer about to unravel. This is one of those massive, "a little dab'll do ya" barber chairs from the Eisenhower era. Check out the ash tray built into the arm! Then lean in close and maybe catch a whiff of Brylcreem or Vitalis.

As you can see, from these pics it hasn't aged well.

Just moving this barber chair required a monumental effort. It tips the scale north of two hundred pounds!

Restoring the chair was pretty straightforward once we replaced the deck padding and chair back with new polyurethane foam and Dacron wrap. The "industrial strength" vinyl selected by the owner (far right) was a bit brighter than the original cover, but perfect for this application.

Next thing you know, Don Draper or Roger Sterling will swing by for a hot towel, shave and light trim.

When a chair or sofa needs new upholstery it usually needs new foam padding. Polyurethane foam deteriorates over time. It can disintegrate, bunch-up and lose it's bounce. In rare cases, a chair's fabric will wear out before the foam goes bad. Instead of throwing out perfectly good foam, we "bring it back to life".

Here's an example of a foam pad deformed after years of use (far left). As you can see, a groove has formed in the polyurethane. Left alone, the foam will never return to its original shape.

But, a simple trick will often restore it. Using a fabric steamer, we gently apply steam to sections where the foam's been compressed. The steam does double-duty; it moisturises the polyurethane, then opens and reinflates the tiny cells inside the foam. When the cells expand, the foam pad takes on its original shape and resiliency. The old foam is almost as good as new.

Sunbrella® fabric is a great choice for curtains because Sunbrella® maintains its color and shape even when constantly exposed to direct sunlight. It's also UV resistant, stain resistant, water resistant, mildew resistant, and breathable.

Because this Sunbrella® Spectrum Dijon fabric is 100% solution dyed acrylic, its fibers are a little stiffer than you'll find in most fabrics. If you're not careful, this sort of fabric can unravel. To avoid frayed edges, we put away the scissors and use special cutting techniques and instruments.

A hot knife is the best way to cut this fabric. A hot knife is similar to one of those "wood burning pens" you may have used as a youngster. Electric current heats-up a steel tip on the business end of the hot knife. As the tip slides across the fabric, it cuts and heat seals the edges. The "cauterized" edges prevent the fabric from unraveling or losing its shape.

There is a right way and a wrong way to repair damaged vinyl. While it's possible to repair the tear itself, results are never satisfactory. For one thing, it's difficult to match the fabric's grain pattern. And even the best adhesive leaves behind a subtle "scar". What's more, the repair will never be as strong as the original vinyl; it can come apart anytime.

Instead of repairing the tear, the experts at Upholstery Seattle recommend replacing the section of vinyl associated with the damage. A pleasure boat's torn sundeck shows how successful this approach can be. After stripping the vinyl from the sundeck's base, we remove the damaged panel all the way to the seam.

Then we select a vinyl that matches the color, grain and durability of the original panel. Sewing the new vinyl in place and reattaching the cover to the base are the final steps. As you can see, it's a perfect match!

The important thing to remember is replacing the entire panel is only slightly more expensive that attempting to repair the tear. And it's a bargain when you consider that a repair will last longer and look better when you replace the entire panel.