Upholstering couch and benches in 2005 25 ft.

[Janmc]

I am wanting to reupholster my sofa and dining benches. I think that I can do most of it myself, and then have the actual bench cushions done professionally. I think the couch should be fairly easy, as I have done some recovering before. It looks as though it should be mainly pulling and stapling, and minimal sewing. The thing I am a little worried about is the dining bench itself. Has anyone recovered these? Suggestions, hints, thoughts? I am looking at a leather look microfiber....

[eliyahu]

ok, now here's a suggestion in general.


get used to sewing with the new fabric by making a lot of extra pieces, some with weird shapes to make sure that it's performing well. start with making throw pillows, maybe make a door liner and graduate to curtain stays. Then move on to the big pieces so you won't waste large pieces of fabric.

[silversled]

We just finished doing the dinette as you describe: a professional did the cushions and we did all the hard back re-upholstery. It was not that hard. We purchased a 'fine gauge' staple gun for the job (for which I recommend ear plugs!).

I recommend good fabric for the dinette. CF Stinson has a great site for helping coordinating fabric for your project ideas:
CF Stinson- Purveyors of Innovative Textiles
Really great fabric but they want good money for it too.

Here is my results... Before and After (picture is more blue than reality):




The covered buttons are still a problem because you have to purchase 144 to replace 6 buttons.

Good Luck.

[silversled]

Re-doing the bench is pretty easy (we did it on the pictures above). Similar to Legos. There are several long wood screws that attach the bench to the trailer and with them removed the entire bench comes out in one piece. After you get it out of the trailer you can take all the pieces apart. You just have to keep track of the pieces and which screws go where.

You will need a fine gauge staple gun for the work. Also get yourself a good nail puller tool. I think there are 20 pounds of staples holding the fabric on the benches. Gave myself tendonitis pulling staples. There are a ton.

The most challenging part logistically were the covered buttons. You can get the materials for covered buttons at any sewing store with a button back but the ones on my trailer were backed with a nail (which they don't sell just anywhere). I ended up ordering an entire box because I got tired to looking for 6 in the size I wanted!!

Good Luck!

[Silver Otter]

Bless all of you who can do it yourself. We hired Arlene Fowler for all the upholstery and curtains. She did a great job and we couldn't be happier. Fowler RV Interiors - Home

[Advodna]

We recently redid the bench and lounge on our 2005 25' CCD and took the same route you're considering. We pulled and stapled the fabric over the wood sections and had the cushions professionally done with machine washable, zippered covers in a microfiber-like material. Our first time doing upholstery but was pretty straightforward, especially with the help of a couple YouTube videos on pleating the edges.

Of course, ours was a little easier being the CCD which didn't require fabric on the bench seat portion, but for other CCD owners, we replaced the weird lumbar roll bench cushions with flat ones more like those in the new CCD trailers. We also added some nice foam rolled arms to the lounge which are much more comfortable than the squared off stock couch.

Before:


After:


Rolled Foam Arms:


Full renovation thread at Adventures of Dave and Ann: 2005 Airstream International CCD 25’ Modifications for anyone interested.

[Akronguy]

Looks nice. I did not want to mess up the couch and we found someone in Amish country that will redo it for around 250 dollars.

[vwgurl]

We will be getting our 2004 31 ' classic next week. Has anyone out there replaced a Goucho with a regular sleeper sofa? I think it might be more comfortable when we travel with our son and daughter-in-law and 2 small grandchildren- I think there are things on floor(battery box.) that have to be maneuvered around?

[eliyahu]

I ended up replacing my gaucho with a futon.

The gaucho made a full size bed while the futon is a queen--I had to shave a bit off the futon frame to make it fit.

Due to the electrical parts that are in the front of the trailer, I raised the futon seat about 8". After this, it fits in very nicely and looks very nice.

I would have kept the original but it was very uncomfortable, the frame was broken and it didn't seem that I had gained anything with it.

Eli

[Hopeismine]

@eliyahu how did you raise the futon? Did you build a box on the floor that it sits on?

[eliyahu]

I bought a futon that the mechanism was built in a way that it's all contained on the base. (I have seen them without such a mechanism where the bed slides in a groove on the arm base and back....this one has a spring mechanism to control it.) With this mechanism, by good fortune, the arm has a lower bar and a higher bar. I drilled some new holes on the higher bar and placed the mechanism on it. That was all it took to set the new height.

Then, because the new futon is a queen size rather than the full size of the previous, I had to shave off a fair amount of the arm in the back to help it to fit into the space (with the curve of the Airstream). I shaved off as much as I could and smoothed it down, and cut the tips off the front of the arms and voila'

Good luck!

[Alden Miller]

I redid our dinette, it was straightforward to do. Finding all the screws that held it in place was the hardest part.

Sailrite.com has lots of how to videos that may make you reconsider farming the cushions out. For me reupholstering the cushions was the easiest part.

-Alden