Strip a chair to its frame and rebuild it. A small trade where the good ones are never short of work.
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The median pay is about $46,340 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $31,690 at the lower end to about $63,770 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
Up to 2 years after high school, on the usual route.
$500 to $9,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no license to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Limited demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$46,340
Bottom tenth
$31,690
Top tenth
$63,770
The national median is $46,340 a year. The bottom tenth earn $31,690 or less and the top tenth $63,770 or more (2025 federal wage survey). That figure covers everyone doing the trade, from a factory production line to a one-person custom workroom.
$31,690 to $37,340
What the bottom tenth to bottom quarter of upholsterers earn, 2025
Helpers in a shop or furniture plant start by cutting, stripping old covers and sewing simple panels. Nobody hands a beginner a customer's antique sofa.
$63,360 a year
The median in Rhode Island, the highest of any state
Hawaii is next at $57,390 and Washington state at $55,970. The lowest is Nebraska, at $29,960. State medians from the 2025 federal wage survey, which counts employees, not owners of workrooms who price by the piece.
Roughly, all in
$500 to $9,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Plenty of upholsterers never take a class and learn entirely on the job, so the low end is a starter kit of hand tools and a staple gun at $500 to $1,200, working on a shop's machines. That route depends on finding a shop willing to teach you, which is the harder half. The high end is a community college certificate at $2,000 to $6,000 for a two or three quarter program at in state rates, plus tools and a modest industrial walking foot sewing machine of your own, which runs $1,500 to $4,000. Short workforce courses exist too, such as a 15 week course in North Carolina with most materials included.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) even for a short certificate: a Pell Grant can cover most of a community college program. Plenty of upholsterers never take a class and learn entirely on the job instead.
Hourly in a shop
Steady, with someone else chasing the customers.
Piece rate in a furniture plant
Paid per unit finished. Fast hands earn more, and your back pays for it.
By the job, self-employed
Quote per piece plus fabric. Many experienced upholsterers end up here.
Contract work for designers
Interior designers need a reliable workroom and will pay to keep one.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Nobody is going to test or license you. You are judged on the last chair you finished.
Finish high school
Grade 12
Sewing, woodshop and art classes all count here. So does anything that teaches patience with detail.
Learn the basics
3 months to 1 year
Either a community college certificate, like the two and three quarter upholstery certificates at Clover Park Technical College in Washington state, or a job as a shop helper.
Work under someone good
1 to 3 years
Stripping, frame repair, springs, foam, patterning, sewing, finishing. Each stage takes months to get clean.
Build a portfolio
Ongoing
Photograph every piece before and after. This is your whole reputation, and it is how designers find you.
Go out on your own
Optional
Most upholsterers eventually run a workroom. That means quoting, buying fabric, and handling customers as much as sewing.
Sewing or textiles
An industrial machine is different, but the instincts transfer.
Woodshop
Frames break. Being able to glue, dowel and clamp a joint saves the job.
Art and design
Fabric choice, pattern matching and proportion are design decisions.
Business or accounting
Most people in this trade end up self-employed and quoting their own work.
No state licenses upholsterers and anybody can hang out a sign. What is regulated is the filling. Several states require upholstered furniture sold to the public to carry a law tag showing what is inside, and federal and state flammability standards apply to the foam and fabric you use. The National Upholstery Association publishes guidance on those standards. If you sell finished furniture rather than just redoing a customer's own piece, read the rules for your state before you start.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Automotive and hot rod trim
Seats, headliners and door cards for restorations. Owners of classic cars will wait for good work.
Marine canvas and boat interiors
Weather-resistant work at coastal and lakeside yards, often booked out a season ahead.
Aircraft interiors
Tightly regulated, and done by a small number of certified shops.
Antique restoration
Horsehair, coil springs and hand-tied work. Slow, skilled, and charged accordingly.
An eye for fabric
Knowing which weave will survive a family sofa saves you callbacks.
Photography
Good before and after photos sell more work than any advertisement.
A van
Furniture has to get to your shop and back.
Spanish
Useful in furniture plants and with customers in many parts of the country.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start by ripping the old cover off a chair, pulling several hundred staples and tacks, and finding out what the frame really looks like. Repair what is broken, replace webbing and foam, cut and sew the new cover, then stretch and staple it on. Music on, radio loud, hands busy. In between, a customer calls about fabric and a designer drops off two dining chairs.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
About 22,700 people work as upholsterers (2025). The federal projection is a decline to 2035, yet about 1,700 openings a year still come up as people retire or leave.
High Point, North Carolina, holds a furniture trade market every spring and fall, with more than 11.5 million square feet of showroom space.
When O*NET (Occupational Information Network) surveyed people in this job, 56% said a new hire needs a high school diploma and 44% said less than that.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Personal, food and outdoor trades first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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