Francis Tracy Upholstery

Francis Tracy Upholstery By appointment only

Francis Tracy Upholstery specialise in traditional and modern upholstery offering everythjng from a recover to a full repair and rebuild of chairs, headboards and upholstered furniture from their workshop newr Middle Wallop, Hampshire

Quick view from the bench, a pile of traditionally made drop in seats to repair and recover. One down 6 to go!
12/06/2026

Quick view from the bench, a pile of traditionally made drop in seats to repair and recover. One down 6 to go!

Off to a new home. Our client needed a second Laura Ashley Cambridge armchair to match one we recovered for them a while...
09/06/2026

Off to a new home. Our client needed a second Laura Ashley Cambridge armchair to match one we recovered for them a while ago. A suitable chair was sourced online (swipe for the before pictures) and recovered in Linwood Bryher to match the chair we finished for them previously. The legs were marked so these were rubbed down and refinished and the new cushion pads bring a nice plumpness to the seat to complete the makeover.

Called in at Knightshayes Court yesterday, an amazing Gothic Revival country house designed by William Burges. Unfortuna...
03/06/2026

Called in at Knightshayes Court yesterday, an amazing Gothic Revival country house designed by William Burges. Unfortunately the commissioning family did not follow through with the Burges designs for the interior instead opting for decorator John Dibblee Crace to complete the interiors. By the time much of the work was completed the Gothic Revival style had gone out of fashion and much of the original architecture was covered or painted over. With extensive drawings and documentation available to the National Trust who acquired the house in 1909 (one of their earliest acquisitions), they have been able to restore and recreate large parts of the building and have even decorated one room entirely as Burges had envisioned. Furnished throughout with family furniture from the last owners, Heathcoat-Amory, notable items include a stunning billiard room bench and a pair of Glastonbury chairs alongside a rather attractive Chesterfield sofa that oozes faded grandeur as well as a large collection of Arts and Crafts ceramics.

16/05/2026

Apologies for the rather long reel but I have decided it is time to share a couple of mistakes I made when setting up my upholstery workshop.
The impact of what I am sharing here is still affecting how efficiently I can work, plays on my mind frequently and actually slows me up or even fills me with dread some days when I arrive at the workshop door.
I know some of you will have highly efficient workspaces but I also know some of you suffer from the same issues I have encountered from my naivety when I first took on my workshop space.
I am sure some of you will laugh at my approach, others will show compassion and sympathy but that is not the point of this post, my objective here is to help others thinking of setting up a small upholstery workshop.
Don’t let these rose tinted glasses fool you, step back, think about the space you have, how you want to use that space and how you can efficiently maximise your work space for the best productivity and most importantly for your own mental sanity.

Small Art Deco occasional chair given a new lease of life with a part rebuild and treated to Helter Skelter in Ivory. (...
05/05/2026

Small Art Deco occasional chair given a new lease of life with a part rebuild and treated to Helter Skelter in Ivory. (Swipe for the before picture).

Festival of Upholstery October 2nd & 3rd 2026. Are you going along?
05/05/2026

Festival of Upholstery October 2nd & 3rd 2026. Are you going along?

Spent the day at a wonderful lino-cut workshop hosted by Sally Newton over at creating images inspired by the local riv...
24/04/2026

Spent the day at a wonderful lino-cut workshop hosted by Sally Newton over at creating images inspired by the local river and riverside. I drew my initial inspiration from the fly fishing which takes place on the river Test, I know it’s not to everyone’s taste but it is an important part of the local rural economy contributing to the preservation of the rare chalk stream@habitat that winds its way through this part of Hampshire.

Browsing through a Sunday supplement I spotted an article suggesting female outfits to wear while away on a weekend brea...
22/04/2026

Browsing through a Sunday supplement I spotted an article suggesting female outfits to wear while away on a weekend break. A casual ensemble for my wife for a trip to the South Devon coast came in at a staggering £2990 without the beach towel.

This week I sent quotes to recover chairs asking between £595-695 per piece which covers my skilled labour and sundries but excludes top fabric which probably brings the costs of these projects to £700-1500 with a sensibly priced quality upholstery fabric, still around half the cost of that little weekend outfit for a coastal ramble.

Sadly all the quotes were rejected as too expensive to proceed.

So where am I going with all of this? Well today is Earth day 🌎 when, amongst other things, we need to highlight the need for a more sustainable future. So my dilemma? I have absolutely no idea of my clients budgets or expectations or if they can even afford to spend the best part of £3000 on an outfit for the weekend or even £700-1500 restoring a chair, but it all makes me realise how much we undervalue our skilled craftspeople when we openly tell them they are charging too much for a few days hard manual work and that it is more convenient to discard a piece of furniture in to landfill rather than bothering to have it restored. A piece of furniture that may have outlived generations and if reupholstered could also be handed to the next generation to enjoy helping to contribute to a more sustainable future. You could even choose natural or sustainability sourced fabrics from your upholsterer to work with for more eco credibility.

So when think about having upholstery work undertaken consider what you will be doing to help create a more sustainable future for the next generation and how you are supporting a centuries old sustainable craft that has kept many old chairs and sofas in use for generations rather than dismissing it to landfill as just too expensive to bother saving while at the same time being aware that you are likely supporting a small business while helping reduce waste on our planet.

Always a few lampshades being made here in the workshop using found and saved remnants. This time all of these shades we...
02/04/2026

Always a few lampshades being made here in the workshop using found and saved remnants. This time all of these shades were made using salvaged fabrics.

Quirky little project finished today. Apparently these were folding cinema chairs but I’m not entirely sure of their ori...
26/03/2026

Quirky little project finished today. Apparently these were folding cinema chairs but I’m not entirely sure of their origins. One seat was broken and almost snapped in half and a pivot hinge damaged in the process so the brief was to repair the broken seat if possible which I managed to do along with some help from a friend who machined the missing part for the hinge and in addition the client wanted some sort of shallow pads on each seat that would blend in with the current interior look of their pub which also meant the fabric had to meet Crib5 standards. We managed to source some bright colours from which complimented the existing interior decor. This set now just needs to be placed in there new spot close to the bar 🍻

Address

Stockbridge

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

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