Lessons from the Masters: Dave Kreiter of In-Out Upholstery

As a newcomer to the upholstery trade, I have had the great luxury of getting to know folks who’ve been in the business for about as long as I’ve been alive. As many of these upholsterers are starting to slow down their business and ease into retirement, I wanted to learn more about their experiences, thoughts on the trade, and their advice for a new upholsterer such as myself before they decide to lay down the staple gun for good.

For my third installment in this series, I sat down with Dave Kreiter of In-Out Upholstery.  Contact Dave at (319) 338-3092 or find out more at davekreiter.com

Dave in front of his tool wall.

Dave is semi-retired and if his is any indication of what the life of a semi-retired upholsterer looks like, then I’m in the right business.  I visited Dave in the shop behind his house where he does his upholstery work and where one sees evidence of his many other interests and hobbies: there is a drum set at the entrance, his paintings adorn the walls, and he has at least one of the books he has written on hand. Dave works on furniture for a few hours a day, enough to be a pleasure to work at and to bring in some extra income.

Dave got into the upholstery business in 1972 and like many of the other upholsterers I’ve talked to, he fell into the business through coincidence.  The father of the woman Dave was dating at the time was an upholsterer and asked Dave to help him run the shop.  This arrangement lasted for about 5-6 months and Dave was able to pick up some of the basics during this time, though he still “didn’t even know how to sew”.  Later, a friend approached him about starting an upholstery business together.  Though he didn’t feel very experienced, he went for it and together they taught themselves how to recover furniture. After about three years when his friend lost interest, Dave bought him out and continued the business.  

For Dave, the draw of furniture upholstery isn’t necessarily a passion for fabric or furniture, but that it allows him to work for himself and make a living and has “always allowed [him] to pursue other hobbies.”  Dave strikes me as someone who is a life-long learner and enjoys trying new things; this is evident in his hobbies as well as his upholstery work.  Dave has mostly been self-taught and even after more than four decades of experience, he is still learning and trying new upholstering methods. He still gets jobs in “that there is something new about it that [he’s] never seen before” and he continues to experiment with how he does the work.

The sign outside Dave's shop reveals that upholstery is just one of his many interests.

On the topic of the past and future of the business, Dave said that when he started out, he knew an upholsterer who was still “spitting tacks” (referring to a method used before staple guns when an upholsterer would hold tacks in his or her mouth, then ‘spit’ them out one by one onto a magnetic tack hammer and drive the tack into the frame), but other than that move from tacks to staples, little has changed in furniture upholstery. There are of course newer, synthetic materials out there which often make the work easier, but generally the techniques are the same.  Looking ahead for the trade, Dave acknowledges that there are some threats in the present and the future.  The profession itself has died out to some degree -- where there used to be many upholsterers in this area a few decades ago, now there are just a handful.  Additionally, with the prevalence of more cheaply made furniture, its usually more expensive to recover a piece of furniture than to buy new.  On the upside, he thinks that many folks are becoming more environmentally-minded and choose to refurbish furniture rather than send it to the dump, saying that “people are thinking twice now about the idea of just throwing something away.”

I often despair about my upholstery skills and how long it takes me to do a seemingly simple job, but Dave’s advice for a new upholsterer has helped me buck up in times of self-doubt.  Though “you can learn the techniques really quickly,” building skills is a long game -- it took Dave about five years until he felt that he was experienced enough that the work he was putting out was consistently high quality. For him it just took practice to reach that point -- practice, and not being afraid to reach out: “if you don’t know how to do something, just get help . . .there is nothing wrong with that.”

Working on some chair seats.

When I told Dave about my theory of upholstery as an incubator for essential life lessons, he was right there with me and had some poignant observations and lessons of his own to contribute.  Among them, the recognition that  “no matter how long you do it, you’re going to make mistakes . . .  one life lesson its really taught me is that there is nothing wrong with failure because mistakes are just part of it.” Fortunately, in upholstery mistakes can be taken out and corrected; I often repeat to myself the adage “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” (and sometimes it does take a few tries). Thats why focus and patience are also big lessons I take from upholstery, as does Dave saying that “you can’t do this job if you’re not patient.”  Dave also helped me see that, like most things in life,  learning this business is a process.  One has to view even the shaky early stages as part of the road to a larger goal and as opportunities to learn more and to experiment. Ultimately, if you are generous to yourself and give yourself the space and time to develop, all while being present in the process, you will not only reach your goal, but exceed it.  

Lessons from the Masters: Lynn Woodruff of Woody's Trim Shop

As a newcomer to the upholstery trade, I have had the great luxury of getting to know folks who’ve been in the business for about as long as I’ve been alive. As many of these upholsterers are starting to slow down their business and ease into retirement, I wanted to learn more about their experiences, thoughts on the trade, and their advice for a burgeoning upholsterer such as myself before they decide to lay down the staple gun for good.

For my second installment in this series, I sat down with Lynn Woodruff of Woody's Trim Shop in Kalona.

Lynn Woodruff with one of his cars.  Find Lynn at Woody's Trim Shop at 1162 Larch Ave in Kalona, IA or contact him at (319) 330-4797).

Lynn’s upholstery experience ranges across the country and through decades.  He’s practiced both furniture and auto upholstery, worked for himself and for others, and after 49 years in the trade, is in fact a master upholsterer.  Lynn moved to Montana in 1966, and after a brief stint as a ranch hand, he found a job working under an experienced upholsterer specializing in auto upholstery. Upholstery is a portable skill and Lynn proved that out by practicing upholstery in Missouri, California and Connecticut over the next several decades. Locally, Lynn worked for Borst Furniture in Cedar Rapids for 17 years before opening his current shop where he does vehicle upholstery.

Lynn at the sewing machine.

While many upholsterers either do primarily furniture or primarily vehicles, Lynn has had experience with both. He prefers working on cars, and that is what he does now at Woody's Trim Shop. For Lynn, “furniture is pretty much all the same”; after all, every piece of furniture has a seat, a back, and cushions (and he “hate[s] doing cushions”), but cars are all different.  Installing new upholstery in a car gives him a freer hand and is more interesting than upholstering furniture.  One disadvantage to cars however, is that the work is heavier and harder on the body; climbing around in a car and taking out old seats is rough on the joints, particularly the knees.  Furniture is easier; though when I ask what kind of work-related health problems I can look forward to, even working primarily with furniture he says at the least I'll be getting arthritis.

Bench seat before and after

When asked about what has changed in upholstery over the years and what he sees for the future, Lynn seems to agree with the sentiments I’ve heard so far: namely, that furniture has become lower in quality, but even so, there will always be a need for upholsterers.  One of the reasons that Lynn turned away from upholstering furniture was that he saw it getting made more cheaply over time. Instead of hard wood frames with doweled joints, he saw plywood frames stapled together. At the same time, he says that even though “anything where you are working with your hands is becoming a dying art . . . I think there will always be a call for [custom upholstery]”.

Custom upholstered seats and door panels in one of Lynn's cars

I’m  inspired by the seriousness with which Lynn approaches his work: when work comes in, he wants to do it the right way, which likely isn’t the cheaper or easier way.  He prefers to give a job its due, and thus his tufted backs are folded and seats are tucked and rolled. This attitude shows through in his advice for a new upholsterer; Lynn says that “if you’re going to do it, do it full-heartedly.”  Finding an experienced upholsterer to work under is a must, as is just getting experience: “you can read a book on how to do something, but until you actually do it, and make your own mistakes and try to figure out how to correct them, thats the way you’re going to learn.”  

While taking apart a cushion or seat to correct a mistake (sometimes for the third or fourth time), I’ve ruminated on the lessons I learn while practicing upholstery that spill over to every-day life. Lynn’s guidance for prevailing and prospering in upholstery can also be read as a way to thrive in life. Take it from a master upholsterer: becoming successful means having the desire to do things the right way, being the best that you can be, having patience, and striving to learn something new every day.

Lessons from the Masters: Ray Bender of Kalona Upholstery

As a newcomer to the upholstery trade, I have had the great luxury of getting to know folks who’ve been in the business for about as long as I’ve been alive. As many of these upholsterers are starting to slow down their business and ease into retirement, I wanted to learn more about their experiences, thoughts on the trade, and their advice for a burgeoning upholsterer such as myself before they decide to lay down the staple gun for good.

For my first installment in this series, I sat down with the man who introduced me to this business, my dad, Ray Bender.

Ray Bender of Kalona Upholstery and Supply.  Find out more about Kalona Upholstery at www.kalonaupholstery.com or by calling (319) 656-3466.

Ray has been in the business for about 28 years and a desire to be self-employed was what drove his first foray into furniture upholstery.  In the early 1970s he was living in rural Maryland and came across an ad in a magazine promising that the reader could ‘make money and win friends’ by mastering the art of furniture upholstery through the Modern Upholstery Institute correspondence school. Ray signed up for the course and began receiving lessons through the mail. Once he completed a lesson, he would take a test and mail in his answers and then receive the next. Tools and materials for each lesson were provided by the Institute and he gradually worked his way from covering a book to fully upholstering various types of furniture. It took Ray about 1.5 years from when he started the course to when he did his first paying job for a customer. He sold off the business after a move to Iowa and spent several years in the auto body business, but came back to furniture upholstery and opened Kalona Upholstery and Supply in the 90s.

The Modern Upholstery Institute price list.

One of the first lessons in the course

Another lesson

While a lot has changed in the world since the 1970s, in Ray’s view, the trade of furniture upholstery has remained largely the same.  Though some of the furniture that comes through the shop is now made of cheaper materials (such as plywood, chipboard and poor quality foam), the higher-end furniture is still made in the same tradition as in the 1970s (or even a hundred years ago), utilizing solid wood frames, and 8-way tied coil springs.  He says that, “if there’s any huge change from years ago, its that there are foam cushions now as opposed to spring cushions . .  but I think the basics are the same and have been the same for a long time.”

Looking towards the future, though the  manufacturing process has changed due to new technologies, Ray doesn't anticipate much changing in the furniture reupholstery trade.  In fact, this is one of the things that first attracted him to upholstery; he “knew that [he’d] always know how to do it, because the old stuff was out there, and the new stuff still used the same methods.” In response to my queries on the so-called ‘culture of disposability’ and whether that poses a threat to the future of the trade, Ray wasn’t too worried, saying that in his experience, there will always be a segment of the population who want quality items that will last.

Ray at work in his shop. 

Ray has given me a lot of good advice over the past year regarding the craft of furniture upholstery as well as running a business.  When pressed for just one key nugget of advice he’d give to a new upholsterer, he said that “as far as the actual work goes, pay attention to the details, because thats what separates the good from the average.”  For Ray, providing custom upholstery that is crafted by hand means taking the time to make a finished product that, when possible, is better than what was done at the factory.

At the end of our interview, Ray shared with me a saying that has inspired him, and now is inspiring me:

If you work with your hands, you’re a laborer.

If you work with your hands and your head, you’re a craftsman.

If you work with your hands, your head, and your heart, you’re an artist.

Says Ray, “I try to be an artist.”