Soft furnishing systems
built seat by seat.
TUFT
SofsandVivs LLC runs a small upholstery loft at 6423 S Westridge St, Murray - 84107-7748, United States (US), where tufted footstools, cushion covers and bench seats are designed, cut, stuffed and stitched beside one another. We treat soft furnishings the way a systems house treats integrated hardware: measured, fitted, documented and rebuilt when needed. See how the workshop operating model is arranged on our services page.
Book a loft consultation for your room →- Loft hours
- Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00, Saturday by appointment
- Direct line
- +12315632566
- Commission intake
- orders@sofsandvivs.buzz
Stitch rail rows
Six jobs that run across the same bench
Every commission in the loft passes over one long rail, and the shelf below the rail holds the six kinds of work we take on. They share tools, they share the swatch wall, and they share the same habit of writing down a fitting before a single staple goes in. Each shelf below links to the fuller brief on the services page.
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A footstool is a compact piece of integrated systems design: frame, webbing, foam, wadding and top fabric all have to agree before the dimpled buttons are pulled home. We build from a client sketch or from a measured sample, and the top gets diamond, square or channel tufting depending on how the room reads.
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Loose cushions take the most wear and hide the most improvisation, so we sew replacements with generous seam allowance and a hidden zip closure that can be opened for washing. Piping, flange edges and bolster shapes are all drafted from the insert rather than guessed from the old cover.
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Dining benches, window seats and mudroom boxes come in with crushed foam and tired fabric and leave with a new deck, a fresh wrap and a top that sits level across its full span. We photograph the tear-down so the client sees what was under the cover and what we replaced.
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Clients borrow up to twelve cut swatches for a week so a fabric can be checked against afternoon light, wall paint and the floor before a decision is made. The loan ledger records every return, and a swatch that comes back frayed simply goes to the offcut bin.
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Bench pads, stool tops and chair seats are cut to a profile with a clean edge and a chosen firmness, and tired inserts are opened, measured and refilled rather than replaced wholesale. The cut is traced on the blocking table so the second piece matches the first.
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One evening each month the loft stays open for repairs on pieces that carry family history, from a split seat on a grandmother chair to a torn bolster on a first apartment sofa. The work is documented with photographs and written notes, and nothing is re-covered beyond what the client asks.
SofsandVivs LLC opens its spring commission window for tufted stools, bench seats and sewn cushion sets, and the cutting table is booked in the order that drawings reach the loft, so early sketches tend to travel further down the rail.
Behind the bench
A workshop arranged like a system, not a showroom
SofsandVivs LLC occupies a working loft rather than a retail floor. The space is laid out in a line that mirrors the way soft furnishings are actually assembled: the bolt rack stands beside the cutting table, the cutting table feeds the sewing bay, and the sewing bay empties onto the fitting bench where the finished piece is checked for level before it leaves. Visitors who walk in expecting to pick a fabric from a wall of sample books usually end up standing at the frame instead, watching a button get pulled into foam.
That arrangement is deliberate. Upholstery is a systems problem disguised as a craft. A stool that rocks has a frame problem, not a fabric problem. A bench seat that sags after a season has a deck problem. A cushion that keeps losing its shape has an insert problem. Our habit is to find the layer that failed before choosing a covering, and the services we offer follow that logic rather than a price list. The work in the loft is described in detail on the services page, and every commission starts with the same short conversation about which layer is actually tired.
Why a Murray loft
The loft at 6423 S Westridge St, Murray - 84107-7748, United States (US) gives us a loading door, a long north wall for fabric and enough daylight to judge a color honestly. Murray sits close enough to the mountains that afternoon sun comes in flat and cool, which is a fair test for any moss green or honey stitch we put on a seat. Clients drive in from the surrounding neighborhoods with a footstool in the trunk or a photo of a bench on a phone, and the piece is measured on the bench within the same visit.
How a commission moves
A commission begins with a measured drawing, moves to a swatch loan, then to a cut and a sew, and ends with a fitting check on the bench. Each step is written on a job card that stays with the piece, and the card follows the work from the bolt rack to the stitch rail and back. We do not accept a job that cannot be fitted in person, because a footstool built to a photograph and a footstool built to a seat are rarely the same object.
Clients who need a piece sooner than the current queue can usually be placed on a short return visit, and the loft keeps a small number of finished stools available for immediate pickup. Details on timing, materials and pickup are handled on the contact page, and the full service list with its process overview sits on the services page.
Materials and standards
What goes into a seat that holds
We stock a working range rather than an infinite catalogue: a moss green tufted wool, a burlap-toned linen, a honey stitch chenille and a small run of deep plum wadding. The bolt rack is capped at a reasonable number of rolls because a fabric that sits too long in a loft starts to take on the smell of the room, and we would rather sell through a roll and reorder than keep a museum of discontinued cloth.
Frames and foundations
Stool frames are built from kiln-dried hardwood, joined with glue and screws rather than staples alone, and the corners are blocked so the legs cannot splay under a lean. Bench seats get a new deck of webbing or plywood depending on span, and the deck is always photographed before the foam goes down. Heirloom pieces are handled with more restraint: if the original webbing is sound, it stays, and the repair is limited to the failed layer.
Foam and wadding
Foam is cut on a blocking table with a sharp blade and a straight edge, and the cut is checked against the frame before it is wrapped. Wadding goes between foam and fabric on every tufted top so the buttons pull a soft dimple instead of a hard crater. The plum wadding chips we keep in a basket at the corner of the bench are the only place that color appears in the loft, and they are there because the chips are easy to spot when they fall on a linen floor.
Sewing and finishing
Covers are sewn on a walking-foot machine, which keeps a heavy fabric from shifting under the needle. Seams are pressed as they are sewn, zips are set in a hidden placket, and piping is cut on the bias so it curves around a bolster without puckering. Before a cover goes onto an insert it is tried flat on the table, and any seam that pulls is opened and reset rather than forced. The stitch rail at the end of the bench carries the heavier needles used for tufting and for repairing tightly woven heirloom cloth.
Working with clients
Most clients arrive with a room in mind and a piece that no longer fits it. Some want a tufted stool to match a reading chair, some want cushion covers that survive a household with dogs, and some want a bench seat rebuilt because the frame is good and the top is gone. All three conversations start the same way, with measurements and a question about how the piece is actually used. The loft keeps a simple record of every commission, including the fabric, the fill and the fitting date, so a repair years later can start from what was known then.
For a first visit, bring the piece if it fits in a car, or bring its measurements and a photo of the room. We will lay out swatches on the cutting table, talk through the layers, and give a written estimate before any work begins.