Building furniture to be upholstered

[mr_skittle]

My latest project is an upholstered bench seat for a kitchen nook sort of area. I have absolutely no experience with upholstery so I'm learning as I go. I am working with a local upholstery shop and the old-time that runs it is a wealth of knowledge. I'm also consuming as much info online as I can. Building the framework for upholstered furniture is a totally different deal than building the solid wood furniture I'm used to. I'm really surprised how beefy all the framing needs to be. I'm told there is little to no place for plywood, and everything should be full 4/4 hardwood. 

So are there any woodnetters out there with upholstery experience? I could use a few pointers as I put together the frame for this project. I plan to install the seat springs and back webbing myself and then pass it on to the upholstery shop to finish it up. But before I get there, I need to make sure the frame is built correctly.

[atgcpaul]

Building the framework for upholstered furniture is a totally different deal than building the solid wood furniture I'm used to. I'm really surprised how beefy all the framing needs to be. I'm told there is little to no place for plywood, and everything should be full 4/4 hardwood. 

That's interesting to know because I have thought about making something to be upholstered, too.  Is there a preference for the type of hardwood?  I would think something not too hard like oak or maple as I would imagine tacks and staples would be difficult to attach.  At the same time, it would seem to be a total waste to build it fully out of walnut only to cover up most of it.

Please keep us informed of what you learn.

[hcbph]

Having done restoration/repair for a number of shops for a lot of years, I have dealt with a lot of older upholstered furniture so that's my point of reference.  I've seen a bunch of different woods used in the frames of these pieces of furniture (primarily setees, couches and chairs).  Some are things like walnut around the perimeter where the wood is exposed after upholstering while internal pieces may be something like birch or softer maple.  Other pieces where the full frame is wrapped with upholstery, many are made from maple or other similar woods.  Few pieces have had oak or ash in the framing, mainly because (my guess) so many that I've seen have had splits developed along the lines of the grain.  Joints were typically doweled with at least a pair of 3/8" or 1/2" or larger dowels at the joints if space permits, while very few used M&T joints as most of those broke over time. 
Some of my guesses on the various methods of construction on things like dowels: it has a little 'give' if the piece is racked a little while moving or using the piece is less likely to break on the joints.  The internal/unseen wood was lesser quality woods to allow for nails/tacks to be driven in easily yet hold the webbing or strings without pulling out and why use good wood where it's not seen?  The outer frame was hard wood to maintain the integrity of the furniture piece.  Little oak or ash was used because of the number of pieces I've seen that cracked on the legs or dowel joints over time.
Around here, there was a lot of walnut furniture perimeter made from about 1880-1930 time frame.  It was the style of the time.   It doesn't hold up as well in the nailing areas as maple does IMO so I have had to do more repairs in the nailing areas than maple frames have needed. 
That's my observations, take it as just that: observations.  Hope that helps.  Good luck.

[mr_skittle]

Having done restoration/repair for a number of shops for a lot of years, I have dealt with a lot of older upholstered furniture so that's my point of reference.  I've seen a bunch of different woods used in the frames of these pieces of furniture (primarily setees, couches and chairs).  Some are things like walnut around the perimeter where the wood is exposed after upholstering while internal pieces may be something like birch or softer maple.  Other pieces where the full frame is wrapped with upholstery, many are made from maple or other similar woods.  Few pieces have had oak or ash in the framing, mainly because (my guess) so many that I've seen have had splits developed along the lines of the grain.  Joints were typically doweled with at least a pair of 3/8" or 1/2" or larger dowels at the joints if space permits, while very few used M&T joints as most of those broke over time. 
Some of my guesses on the various methods of construction on things like dowels: it has a little 'give' if the piece is racked a little while moving or using the piece is less likely to break on the joints.  The internal/unseen wood was lesser quality woods to allow for nails/tacks to be driven in easily yet hold the webbing or strings without pulling out and why use good wood where it's not seen?  The outer frame was hard wood to maintain the integrity of the furniture piece.  Little oak or ash was used because of the number of pieces I've seen that cracked on the legs or dowel joints over time.
Around here, there was a lot of walnut furniture perimeter made from about 1880-1930 time frame.  It was the style of the time.   It doesn't hold up as well in the nailing areas as maple does IMO so I have had to do more repairs in the nailing areas than maple frames have needed. 
That's my observations, take it as just that: observations.  Hope that helps.  Good luck.

From what I've learned so far, all of you're observations are spot on. 

Select lumber is for the apron and legs, and common boards for the covered parts. The guy I'm working with insists that every part needs to be made of the best possible lumber (he swears by birch and maple), but I take that as more of personal preference. Joinery is all pretty simple with dowelled butt joints. I've also seen them both screwed and dowelled. I'd agree that the dowels allow furniture to 'wiggle' a little. If the fabric stays relatively tight, those big dowels will keep a piece together for a long time, even if the glue fails. The guy I'm working with has a sweet old machine that bores the two holes at once with a pair of horizontal drill bits. Another thing I noticed is that corners or angles don't have to be perfect, like on the back of a bench or an L-shaped bench. In fact in the corner of a bench you have a compound angle because of the 45 of the corner and the 15-degree angle of the backrest. With some careful layout and bandsaw work, you can call it good. Not every surface has to perfect true. Many of the surfaces just need to hold staples or different types of fasteners.