How to Price Upholstery Jobs

Most upholstery shops undercharge. The problem is rarely that they do not work hard enough; it is that they price based on what they think customers will pay rather than what the work actually costs. Getting pricing right starts with understanding your actual costs, not with guessing what the market will accept.

Calculating Your Actual Cost Per Hour

Before you can price correctly, you need to know your break-even hourly rate. This is not a guess; it is a calculation.

Start with your annual overhead: rent or shop costs, utilities, insurance, equipment maintenance, vehicle, and any employee costs. Add your personal draw or salary target. Divide the total by the number of billable hours you can realistically work in a year.

A one-person shop working 40 hours per week may bill 30 hours of productive upholstery time after accounting for admin, client communication, shopping, and other non-billable work. At 46 weeks per year (allowing for vacation and downtime), that is roughly 1,400 billable hours.

If your annual costs are $70,000, your break-even hourly rate is $50. That is the floor, not the ceiling. Your actual rate needs to include profit margin above break-even.

Marking Up Materials

Materials should be marked up, not passed through at cost. You carry inventory, manage sourcing, and take on the risk of ordering mistakes. A 50 to 100 percent markup on materials is standard in the industry depending on the material type.

Fabric purchased at wholesale and sold at retail plus a handling charge is a normal and legitimate pricing practice. Customers who push back on material pricing are often comparing to retail prices they found online without accounting for sourcing, cutting waste, and your time managing the order.

Pricing Specific Job Types

Dining chairs. These are the most predictable job type. A straightforward chair cushion re-cover is 30 to 60 minutes of labor depending on complexity. A chair with wrapped back panels and seat is typically 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Know your times for your common job types.

Sofas. A sofa re-cover is a major undertaking. Estimate the total yardage first, then the labor. A standard three-seat sofa with cushions typically takes 15 to 20 yards of fabric and 12 to 20 hours of labor depending on construction and complexity.

Tufting. Add significant labor time for tufted work. Diamonds, buttons, and alignment require skilled, slow work. Do not price tufted jobs at your standard rate per hour if your rate assumes straightforward work.

Communicating Price Increases

Material costs, particularly quality fabric, have increased significantly over the past several years. If your prices have not increased proportionally, your margin has been compressed.

Raise prices proactively rather than reactively. A modest annual increase that keeps pace with costs is far easier for customers to accept than a large increase that happens when you finally realize you cannot afford not to raise prices.

When a Job Is Not Worth Taking

Some jobs are not worth taking at the price a customer is willing to pay. A deeply damaged piece that will require extensive repair before upholstery work can begin, priced as if it were a standard re-cover, will lose you money and frustrate both parties.

It is legitimate to decline work that does not pencil out. Referring a customer to another shop or suggesting they consider a new piece is honest and professional. A shop that takes every job regardless of profitability is not sustainable.

StitchDesk's job management tools let you track actual time spent per job so you can measure whether your estimates are accurate and adjust your pricing when they are not. See also: upholstery estimate vs quote and building a winning upholstery quote.