Description
Soft Layered Felt 750g for Traditional Upholstery
This 750g soft layered upholstery felt is a comfortable, workable padding material for traditional furniture repair, restoration and upholstery build-ups.
Supplied 27″ wide on a 12 metre roll, the layered felt is particularly useful over horse hair and other traditional fillings on chair and sofa seats, backs and arms.
Unlike firm needled felt, which is designed primarily for structure and protection, soft layered felt is intended to add comfort, smooth coarse fillings and create a more even surface beneath the finishing upholstery layers.
Product Specification
- Width: 27″
- Roll length: 12 metres
- Weight: 750g
- Material: Soft layered felt made from recycled materials
- Application: Comfort padding, smoothing and traditional upholstery
- Suitable for: Seats, backs, arms, chairs, sofas and furniture restoration
What Is Soft Layered Upholstery Felt Used For?
Soft layered felt is used higher in an upholstery build-up where comfort, smoothing and surface preparation are more important than structural support.
It provides a consistent padding layer over firmer or coarser materials and helps create a cleaner surface before the final upholstery covering is fitted.
Typical applications include:
- Padding over horse hair
- Padding over coir and traditional fillings
- Chair seat padding
- Sofa and armchair restoration
- Back padding
- Arm padding
- Furniture repair and refurbishment
- Traditional upholstery
- Antique furniture restoration
- Smoothing uneven filling layers
- Final comfort layers beneath upholstery fabric
Soft Layered Felt for Use Over Horse Hair
One of the main uses for 750g soft layered felt is as a padding layer over traditional hair fillings.
Hair & Coir provides resilience, shape and body within traditional furniture, but these materials are naturally coarser than the softer finishing layers above.
Soft layered felt helps cover and smooth the hair, creating a more comfortable and consistent upholstery surface.
It can help reduce the feel of coarse fibres beneath the final fabric and creates a useful transition between the traditional filling and the finishing upholstery layers.
Why Choose 750g Soft Layered Felt?
Soft Padding with Useful Body
At 750g, this layered felt provides a useful balance between softness and substance.
It is substantial enough to provide meaningful padding over hair and traditional fillings while remaining flexible enough to shape around seats, backs, arms and curved furniture sections.
Helps Smooth Traditional Fillings
Hair, coir and loose upholstery fillings can create an uneven surface during furniture restoration.
A layer of soft felt helps smooth those variations and provides a more consistent base before the remaining upholstery layers are fitted.
Easier to Shape Than Firm Felt
Soft layered felt is more forgiving than dense needled platform felt.
This makes it particularly useful around curved chair backs, sofa arms, seat edges and other shaped furniture areas where the material needs to follow the furniture profile.
Made from Recycled Materials
The felt is manufactured from recycled materials, making it a practical workshop padding material for furniture repair, restoration and regular upholstery work.
Soft Felt for Seats, Backs and Arms
Seat Padding
Soft layered felt can be used above traditional fillings to add comfort and smooth the seat surface before the final upholstery layers are applied.
Back Padding
Chair and sofa backs often benefit from a softer, more flexible padding material that can follow the contours of the furniture.
750g layered felt is well suited to this type of shaping work.
Arm Padding
Furniture arms can involve curves, edges and changes in thickness.
Soft felt can be shaped around these areas to create a smoother and more comfortable finished profile beneath the upholstery fabric.
Soft Layered Felt with Rag Flock
Soft layered felt works well alongside Rag Flock Loose Felt in traditional furniture restoration.
Rag flock can be used to pack out hollows, rebuild shape and add filling exactly where it is required.
Once the underlying profile has been created, soft layered felt can provide a more consistent padding layer across the surface.
The two materials therefore perform complementary jobs:
Rag flock builds and adjusts the shape.
Soft layered felt smooths and cushions the surface above.
Soft Layered Felt with Skin Wadding
Skin Wadding is another softer traditional upholstery material, but it performs a slightly different role.
Skin wadding is particularly useful for covering horse hair and helping prevent coarse fibres from working through the upholstery layers.
750g soft layered felt provides a more substantial comfort and smoothing layer.
Depending on the original furniture construction, both materials may be used within the same traditional upholstery build-up.
Soft Layered Felt or Firm Needled Felt?
Soft layered and firm needled felt should not be treated as interchangeable products.
Choose soft layered felt when you need:
- Comfort
- Surface smoothing
- Padding over hair
- Softer seat, back or arm layers
- Traditional upholstery finishing
- A material that follows curved furniture profiles
Choose firm needled felt when you need:
- Structure
- Spring protection
- Platform padding
- Coverage over webbing
- A dense protective layer
For structural padding options, browse Upholstery Felts.
Soft Layered Felt or Polyester Wadding?
Soft layered felt and Polyester Wadding both provide softness, but they are generally used differently.
Polyester wadding is light and lofty and is commonly bonded around modern foam cushions to soften edges and create a fuller cushion finish.
Soft layered felt is denser and is particularly suited to traditional furniture build-ups, padding over hair and smoothing upholstery surfaces.
For modern foam cushion wrapping, polyester wadding is normally the better choice.
For traditional seat, back and arm padding, layered felt is often more appropriate.
Upholstery Needles and Twines for Traditional Work
Traditional furniture restoration frequently involves hand stitching and shaping as the different upholstery layers are built up.
Livedale’s Upholstery Needles, Pins & Skewers range includes specialist straight, curved and regulator needles for hand upholstery and furniture restoration.
For edge stitching, securing traditional padding layers and other hand-upholstery work, browse Upholstery Twines.
These tools are particularly relevant when restoring traditionally upholstered furniture where the shape is built and controlled by hand rather than simply covered with modern foam.
Soft Layered Felt with Hessian
Traditional upholstery commonly incorporates Hessian & Lining Cloths as part of the support and foundation layers.
Hessian generally sits lower in the furniture build-up, while softer felt is used above the structural and coarse filling layers to improve comfort and smooth the surface.
The exact layering depends on the furniture design and original upholstery method.
Typical Traditional Upholstery Build-Up
Traditional furniture construction varies, but a seat may contain layers such as:
Furniture frame → webbing or springs → hessian → firm padding or hair/coir → soft layered felt → finishing layers → upholstery fabric
Rag flock, skin wadding and other specialist fillings may also be incorporated depending on the furniture construction.
When restoring older furniture, photograph and record the upholstery layers during dismantling so the original sequence and profile can be recreated where appropriate.
750g Soft Felt for Upholsterers and Furniture Restoration
750g soft layered felt is suitable for professional upholsterers, furniture restoration workshops and experienced customers carrying out traditional furniture repairs.
Its combination of softness, body and flexibility makes it particularly useful for chair and sofa seats, backs, arms and areas where traditional fillings need to be covered and smoothed before the final upholstery layers are fitted.
Browse alternative soft and firm materials within Upholstery Felts.
For traditional resilient fillings, browse Hair & Coir.
For foundation materials, visit Hessian & Lining Cloths.
For specialist hand-upholstery tools, browse Upholstery Needles, Pins & Skewers and Upholstery Twines.
For help choosing the correct felt or filling for your furniture restoration project, contact Livedale.
