Traditional upholstery is appropriate for older chairs - from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - and uses natural organic materials such as horsehair or coir (coconut) fibre, hessian or linen, and tacks for fixing, and employs sophisticated stitching techniques to make firm stitched edges. It is labour intensive, but involves real skill and is a treat to do. Modern upholstery is usually more appropriate for post-second world war chairs and uses synthetic foam as a stuffing, and staples for fixing, and is normally much quicker to do than traditional upholstery. Reupholstering modern chairs is not always easy though, because they were usually mass produced so the manufacturers often used moulds for the foam fillings whereas we have to cut and shape them, and they had plenty of opportunity to get the templates for the covers right. We only have one go!
