Tool 1 of the Get Paid Kit · For upholsterers

Upholsterer hourly rate calculator

This free calculator works out the hourly rate a freelance upholsterer should charge, starting from the income you need — then builds the per-piece prices clients actually pay out of real bench hours. Nobody books “an hour of upholstery”; they book a chair reborn, quoted from photographs before the piece reaches the workshop. With the honest presets below the rate lands near $68 an hour, $548 for a full day — and the conversions that price is built from: a dining chair is about three hours at the bench, $204 of labour before fabric, and a three-seat sofa runs about sixteen hours, $1,088 — with fabric and foam always billed as their own lines on top.

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The pricing reality for freelance upholsterers

Upholstery is bought per piece and earned at the bench, and the two only agree if the piece price was built from the hours in the first place. Inside one quoted chair sit the strip-down nobody sees, the frame repairs nobody predicted, and the bench time itself — and the quote was given from photographs, before the piece arrived and confessed what the last upholsterer did to it. A price copied from the workshop across town carries all of that whether it covers it or not. Price the bench hour first, and the piece price becomes an assembly: so many hours at the bench, at a rate that adds up.

This is a workshop trade, and the workshop rides on every piece. Rent, machines and a van big enough for a sofa are fixed costs that arrive monthly whether the bench is busy or silent. The work itself is steady rather than seasonal, but it queues: good upholsterers run waiting lists, and the queue hides the true cost of the slow pieces. The presets below use a 65% billable share: the hours at the bench bill, and quoting, measuring and collecting take theirs first.

The numbers below are starting presets, not a survey: a $48,000 target income, $12,600 a year of expenses — workshop rent leads, with machines and tools, consumables, the van and delivery, insurance, booking and marketing — a 22% tax estimate, four weeks of vacation, a 40-hour week and 65% billable time. Fabric and foam are deliberately not in that expenses figure: they are billed to each piece as their own lines, as the maths section explains. With those starting numbers the calculator lands near $68 an hour.

Your numbers — upholsterer presets

Your recommended rate

$0 / hour
$0Day rate (8 hours)
0Billable hours per year
Income + expenses needed$0
Grossed up for tax$0
With profit margin$0
Working weeks0
Total working hours0
Billable hours0

Your rate is saved on this device only, so the Proposal Generator can show it when you price a project.

Easy to miss

Costs upholsterers forget to put in the rate

  • The strip-down. Every re-cover begins with removing the last one — hundreds of staples and tacks, an hour or more of unglamorous labour before your own work can start. Quotes given from photographs almost never price it, so the rate does.
  • What the frame hides. The broken rail, the woodworm, the previous re-cover glued over rotten foam — discovered mid-job, after the price is fixed. When the quote honestly cannot move, it is the rate’s margin that pays for the surprise, which is what the margin is for.
  • Consumables. Thread, tacks, staples, glue, webbing and wadding offcuts — the small stock consumed by every piece and billed on almost none. Tiny per chair, constant across the year, and exactly the shape of cost that disappears from pricing.
  • Collection and delivery. Two journeys for every piece, in a van a sofa fits in, up whatever stairs the client has. A “workshop price” quietly includes a removals service, and its fuel and time belong in the rate.
  • Machinery upkeep. The industrial sewing machine’s servicing, the compressor, the staple guns, needles and blades. Workshop machines wear slowly and expensively, and the bill arrives whether the order book planned for it or not.
The maths

How this calculator works

Start with the hours you can genuinely sell. Take 52 weeks, subtract your vacation weeks, multiply by your hours per week, then multiply by your billable percentage. With the upholsterer presets — four weeks off, 40 hours a week, 65% billable — that is 1,248 billable hours a year: the hours at the bench that clients can pay for, once quoting, measuring and the van have taken theirs.

Next, work out what those hours must bring in. Add your desired income and your annual business expenses together — $60,600 on the presets — gross the total up for tax by dividing by one minus your tax rate — at a 22% estimate, divide by 0.78 to get $77,692 — then add your profit margin to reach $85,462 and divide by your billable hours. That final number, $68, is the rate below which the year stops adding up.

Now translate the hour into the per-piece prices clients actually pay. A dining chair is about three hours at the bench — strip, repair, rebuild, cover — three hours at $68 is $204 of labour. An armchair runs about eight hours, $544. A three-seat sofa at about sixteen hours is $1,088. Fabric, foam and any client-chosen trims sit on top of every one of those figures as their own lines: the client picks the fabric, the fabric’s price is the client’s, and burying it in the labour figure would hide both numbers from both of you.

Disclaimer: This is a planning estimate, not tax advice. Tax rates, deductions and allowances vary by country, state and business structure. Enter the rate you expect to pay, and check significant decisions with a qualified accountant.
Next: build a proposal with this rate Use the general rate calculator
Questions

Upholsterer rate questions

Because the piece price is built out of bench hours whether you count them or not: the strip-down, the frame work, the covering itself. The hourly rate is how you check a price you inherited — from the workshop you trained in, or from what chairs “usually cost” in your town — against your own rent, your own queue and your own costs. Upholsterers who skip the check often find their busiest year was their worst paid, and the per-piece prices, not the workload, were the reason.
Because the bench is not the whole week. For every hour covering a chair there is quoting from photographs, a measuring visit, the collection and the delivery, and the client choosing fabrics at the pace clients choose fabrics. Sixty-five percent is a realistic start for a solo workshop. A bench booked solid weeks ahead with deliveries batched honestly runs higher; set the number that matches your diary, not your best month.
No — fabric is the client’s choice, and its price runs from modest to more than your labour on the same chair. Bill the fabric, foam and trims as their own lines, at cost plus a margin for ordering, checking and standing behind them — or have the client supply them, with the understanding that faults in supplied fabric are theirs. The hourly rate carries the labour and the workshop: the rent, the machines and the consumables no single piece can be billed for.

Rates differ by trade — the same maths runs with different presets for graphic designer rates, freelance writer rates, web developer rates, marketing consultant rates, photographer rates, video editor rates, virtual assistant rates, social media manager rates, bookkeeper rates, translator rates, business coach rates, illustrator rates, copywriter rates, UX designer rates, SEO consultant rates, data analyst rates, motion designer rates, technical writer rates, podcast editor rates, email marketer rates, life coach rates, proofreader rates, event planner rates, voice actor rates, online tutor rates, personal trainer rates, interior designer rates, music producer rates, grant writer rates, UX researcher rates, book editor rates, transcriptionist rates, presentation designer rates, brand strategist rates, video producer rates, art director rates, WordPress developer rates, mobile app developer rates, 3D artist rates, game developer rates, Shopify developer rates, online business manager rates, podcast producer rates, data entry specialist rates, UX writer rates, copy editor rates, wedding photographer rates, resume writer rates, data scientist rates, instructional designer rates, business analyst rates, email designer rates, interpreter rates, audiobook narrator rates, landscape designer rates, wedding planner rates, wedding videographer rates, personal chef rates, dog trainer rates, music teacher rates, florist rates, cake baker rates, tour guide rates, pet groomer rates, house painter rates, handyman rates, locksmith rates, home organizer rates, pressure washer rates, carpet cleaner rates, chimney sweep rates, pool cleaner rates, window cleaner rates, tattoo artist rates, massage therapist rates, barber rates, makeup artist rates, hairstylist rates, nail technician rates, tailor rates, house cleaner rates, electrician rates, plumber rates, pest control technician rates, ppc specialist rates, content strategist rates, wedding DJ rates, dog walker rates, audio engineer rates, caterer rates, mover rates, appliance repair technician rates, nanny rates, piano tuner rates, garage door technician rates, bicycle mechanic rates, house sitter rates, jeweller rates, cobbler rates, blacksmith rates, sign writer rates, farrier rates, mobile car detailer rates, genealogist rates, saddler rates, arborist rates, travel agent rates, watch repairer rates, doula rates, sleep consultant rates, home stager rates, wedding officiant rates, college admissions consultant rates, mobile notary rates, personal shopper rates, welder rates, carpenter rates, glazier rates, plasterer rates, tiler rates, roofer rates, bricklayer rates, HVAC technician rates, dressmaker rates, concrete finisher rates, drywall installer rates, flooring installer rates, gardener rates, fence installer rates, gutter installer rates, solar installer rates, stonemason rates, deck builder rates, insulation installer rates, cabinet maker rates, paving installer rates, furniture restorer rates, blind installer rates, driving instructor rates, picture framer rates, aerial installer rates, car mechanic rates, clock repairer rates, oven cleaner rates, smart home installer rates, alarm installer rates, drain cleaner rates, curtain installer rates, irrigation installer rates, shutter installer rates, artificial grass installer rates, fireplace installer rates, bathtub refinisher rates, snow removal professional rates, landscape lighting installer rates and radon mitigation specialist rates, or start from the general freelance hourly rate calculator.