Basic upholstery tools checklist

Starting traditional upholstery requires a mixture of hand tools, specialised equipment and materials. Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll need:

Essential Hand Tools

• Upholstery Tack Hammer – One side is magnetic for placing tacks, and the other side is for hammering them in.

• Fork tack lifter – Helps remove old staples and tacks without damaging the frame.

• Wooden Mallet – Useful for removing tacks wood to wood against the wooden end of a tack lifter

• Spade & staple tack lifter- if your project has nasty staples (my ‘S’ word) you will need these to help remove them

• Pliers – For pulling tacks and staples

• Webbing Stretcher – Used to stretch webbing tightly on chair seats. 

• Gloves- it can be quite hard on the hands when pulling twines tightly, so gardening style gloves with a bit of grip can help

• Scissors, thread snips & Shears – Heavy-duty ‘best’ fabric scissors, everyday scissors and small snips for precision.

• Measuring- Wooden rule & tape measure

• Magnet- helpful for picking up metal tacks

• Clamps – To hold frames in place while repairing or gluing.

• Chalk or Tailor’s Marking Pencil – For marking fabric before cutting.

There are some more specialist tools you will need to have in your toolkit too but I hope this helps you get started. My online tutorials will explain which tools you need for each skill stage. 

P.S. If you can’t wait to get started on your project and want to have all the tools ready CLICK HERE