Business revitalizes modern and vintage furniture

For almost 20 years, Under Cover Upholstery, 3301 Hancock Drive, Ste. 4, has been stitching together plenty of business to keep owner Sabrina Stewart busy.

Stewart started her upholstery business about 20 years ago out of her house. She said she took an upholstery class at Austin Community College because she was "looking for something creative to do that involved furniture."

"I love working with fabric, and I really love taking something old and rundown and broken and making it new and exciting and beautiful," Stewart said. "It makes people happy."

Under Cover Upholstery has grown since its inception. Stewart said she began hiring additional staff about two years ago to help her keep up with growing demand. The business currently employs three upholsterers, including Stewart, and four seamstresses. Originally, the business employed Stewart and another person.

The business has always been driven by referrals from previous customers and will work on modern furniture as well as antique pieces, Stewart said.

"[The work] always changes, but it's always busy," she said. "There's

always work."

Under Cover Upholstery does work for both individuals and commercial businesses. Stewart said the shop has done upholstery work for area restaurants such as Uchi, Uchiko, Barlata Tapas Bar and Perla's Seafood & Oyster Bar, as well as local recording studio Arlyn Studios.

"It's really fun to work for the new restaurants," she said. "I really love doing that because [working for restaurants is] when all the style comes in, and you get to do some really beautiful restaurants."

But Stewart said working for individual clients also allows her to use her creativity and provides interesting work.

"I love doing things for people's homes and getting to see their homes," she said. "Everybody has different tastes and different styles, so it never gets boring. You're constantly seeing new and different fabrics and different ideas and creating different looks."

Stewart said it's the enjoyment she gets from her work that has kept the business going and held her interest in the craft.

"It's a fun thing to do," Stewart said. "I've been doing it so long, and I still have fun all the time. Sometimes I can't believe I get paid to make stuff. Of course it's hard work and dirty sometimes, but it's a great way to spend your day."

When to upholster

Upholstering furniture can be an arduous process. Sabrina Stewart, owner of Under Cover Upholstery, said the process of reupholstering a piece of furniture starts with stripping the piece down to its structure. The crew then adds support and repairs joints as needed and adds or replaces the padding, depending on its condition. Finally, the piece is recovered.

"We don't ever just take the fabric off and put new fabric on," Stewart said. "We always repair the structure of it so that it is like a new piece of furniture."

Because of the extensive process, Stewart said reupholstering is not always a cost-saving method.

"If you have a really good, quality piece of furniture, it makes sense to reupholster it because you're not going to be able to purchase that for the price of reupholstering it. Or if you have a really interesting piece or a sentimental piece, or if you just want to create your own look, [reupholstering makes sense]." Stewart said. "You don't really reupholster to save money, except when you have those very expensive pieces."

Under Cover Upholstery, 3301 Hancock Drive, Ste. 4, 512-371-7815, www.undercoveraustin.com, Hours: Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m.–5 p.m.