Here's How To Get Your Sofas At Home Upholstered For Less Than INR 1,000

If you have a cane sofa or a complete set with removable cushions, then you can give it a chic makeover for less with fabric from Ramachandrapuram and stitching done by any of the Haryana/Punjab handloom shops around town who always have an in-house tailor.

I have a cane sofa set and I don’t like the synthetic fabric that most of the upholstery shops provide. If at all I find something nice (like in Fabindia) it’s way too expensive for me to have more than one set of covers. Therefore, Ramachandrapuram and the local Haryana handloom shop came to my rescue in this department. 

For those on a budget but who want their living room to look warm, cosy and something straight off of Pinterest. Who wouldn’t want that, especially without burning a hole in their pockets? Ramachandrapuram is a fabric hub in Bangalore. A lot of shops sell fabric by the kilo there. A lot of it is export surplus, so you get interesting, funky and modern prints in thick fabrics that work very well for upholstery. I have a 3+1+1 seater, with cushions only on the seat. I measured it and realised I need less than 4 metres of fabric for these cushions.

Once I pick the fabric, I give my existing cushion cover to the Haryana handloom shop tailor and they stitched it to perfection. Since the fabric I buy is cotton, I like to tell him to stitch it loose — in case of shrinkage! I have been very happy with this little furnishing hack of mine. My fabric usually costs me between INR 400 and INR 800, depending on the weight of it, as I only buy the ones on sale in kilos.

The cost of stitching at the upholstery shop is INR 100 per cushion so it costs me all of INR 500. Having a pet dog at home, fur shedding is a big issue. But thanks to the cost, now I have more than two pairs of cushion covers at a time. So I can keep changing them often.

Take proper measurements of your cushion length so that you know exactly how much fabric you need. A little more doesn’t do any harm. Ramachandrapuram is a moody place. The stuff keeps rotating so you might not get nice prints all the time. But on a lucky day, it could be flooded with just the kind of fabric that suits upholstery. So don’t lose heart at times when you don’t find anything. But when you do, just buy in bulk and keep it. Especially since you are unlikely to find the same thing twice!