Francis Tracy Upholstery

Francis Tracy Upholstery By appointment only

Francis Tracy Upholstery specialise in traditional and modern upholstery offering everythjng from a recover to a full repair and rebuild of chairs, headboards and upholstered furniture from their workshop newr Middle Wallop, Hampshire

16/05/2026

Apologies for the rather long reel but I have decided it is time to share a couple of mistakes I made when setting up my upholstery workshop.
The impact of what I am sharing here is still affecting how efficiently I can work, plays on my mind frequently and actually slows me up or even fills me with dread some days when I arrive at the workshop door.
I know some of you will have highly efficient workspaces but I also know some of you suffer from the same issues I have encountered from my naivety when I first took on my workshop space.
I am sure some of you will laugh at my approach, others will show compassion and sympathy but that is not the point of this post, my objective here is to help others thinking of setting up a small upholstery workshop.
Don’t let these rose tinted glasses fool you, step back, think about the space you have, how you want to use that space and how you can efficiently maximise your work space for the best productivity and most importantly for your own mental sanity.

Small Art Deco occasional chair given a new lease of life with a part rebuild and treated to Helter Skelter in Ivory. (...
05/05/2026

Small Art Deco occasional chair given a new lease of life with a part rebuild and treated to Helter Skelter in Ivory. (Swipe for the before picture).

Festival of Upholstery October 2nd & 3rd 2026. Are you going along?
05/05/2026

Festival of Upholstery October 2nd & 3rd 2026. Are you going along?

Spent the day at a wonderful lino-cut workshop hosted by Sally Newton over at creating images inspired by the local riv...
24/04/2026

Spent the day at a wonderful lino-cut workshop hosted by Sally Newton over at creating images inspired by the local river and riverside. I drew my initial inspiration from the fly fishing which takes place on the river Test, I know it’s not to everyone’s taste but it is an important part of the local rural economy contributing to the preservation of the rare chalk stream@habitat that winds its way through this part of Hampshire.

Browsing through a Sunday supplement I spotted an article suggesting female outfits to wear while away on a weekend brea...
22/04/2026

Browsing through a Sunday supplement I spotted an article suggesting female outfits to wear while away on a weekend break. A casual ensemble for my wife for a trip to the South Devon coast came in at a staggering £2990 without the beach towel.

This week I sent quotes to recover chairs asking between £595-695 per piece which covers my skilled labour and sundries but excludes top fabric which probably brings the costs of these projects to £700-1500 with a sensibly priced quality upholstery fabric, still around half the cost of that little weekend outfit for a coastal ramble.

Sadly all the quotes were rejected as too expensive to proceed.

So where am I going with all of this? Well today is Earth day 🌎 when, amongst other things, we need to highlight the need for a more sustainable future. So my dilemma? I have absolutely no idea of my clients budgets or expectations or if they can even afford to spend the best part of £3000 on an outfit for the weekend or even £700-1500 restoring a chair, but it all makes me realise how much we undervalue our skilled craftspeople when we openly tell them they are charging too much for a few days hard manual work and that it is more convenient to discard a piece of furniture in to landfill rather than bothering to have it restored. A piece of furniture that may have outlived generations and if reupholstered could also be handed to the next generation to enjoy helping to contribute to a more sustainable future. You could even choose natural or sustainability sourced fabrics from your upholsterer to work with for more eco credibility.

So when think about having upholstery work undertaken consider what you will be doing to help create a more sustainable future for the next generation and how you are supporting a centuries old sustainable craft that has kept many old chairs and sofas in use for generations rather than dismissing it to landfill as just too expensive to bother saving while at the same time being aware that you are likely supporting a small business while helping reduce waste on our planet.

Always a few lampshades being made here in the workshop using found and saved remnants. This time all of these shades we...
02/04/2026

Always a few lampshades being made here in the workshop using found and saved remnants. This time all of these shades were made using salvaged fabrics.

Quirky little project finished today. Apparently these were folding cinema chairs but I’m not entirely sure of their ori...
26/03/2026

Quirky little project finished today. Apparently these were folding cinema chairs but I’m not entirely sure of their origins. One seat was broken and almost snapped in half and a pivot hinge damaged in the process so the brief was to repair the broken seat if possible which I managed to do along with some help from a friend who machined the missing part for the hinge and in addition the client wanted some sort of shallow pads on each seat that would blend in with the current interior look of their pub which also meant the fabric had to meet Crib5 standards. We managed to source some bright colours from which complimented the existing interior decor. This set now just needs to be placed in there new spot close to the bar 🍻

17/03/2026

A quick view from the bench. A second Laura Ashley Cambridge armchair for a client looking to make up a matched pair. The first one was recovered some time ago and having found a secondhand matching chair it’s just a recover in the same fabric as before.

Spotted with a local house clearance company, an unusual piece of metamorphic furniture, a small table that changes in t...
17/03/2026

Spotted with a local house clearance company, an unusual piece of metamorphic furniture, a small table that changes in to a chair. From the style of the piece I would say it dates from the 1930s but I have to admit I’ve never seen an example like this before. As this is such an unusual piece it made me wonder how many other variants of metamorphic chairs there are. Has anyone had the opportunity to upholster unusual chairs like these? (Pictures from Salisbury)

You can’t judge a book by its cover is how the saying goes, the same is true for upholstery. Until you remove the covers...
27/02/2026

You can’t judge a book by its cover is how the saying goes, the same is true for upholstery. Until you remove the covers you have no real@idea what to expect underneath and this set of seven drop in seats are no exception. 3 have retained the original frame although riddled with woodworm and one only held together by the webbing and the fabric, another with some rather crude repairs using plywood and screws and the others having entirely new frames. A random approach to webbing each one from different types to tacks and staples for the fixing.

So an entire afternoon spent striping back to the frames, treating with woodworm solution and refluxing and repairing joints before the rebuilding work can begin, so much for a simple, straightforward, re-web and recover 😂

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Stockbridge

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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