Every house has one chair that gets sat in on purpose. Not the one that looks right by the window. The one with the dent that fits a specific person. This La-Z-Boy was that chair. It came in wearing a dusty rose fabric with a matching headrest cover still draped over the back, two buttons, boxy padded arms, a pleated skirt to the floor, and a pair of turned wood posts standing either side of the back like bedposts. The owner described it simply as a mid-century La-Z-Boy recliner.

If you are searching for recliner reupholstery Lebanon PA, the odds are good your chair looks the way this one did: structurally fine, mechanically fine, and worn out everywhere a body touches it. That is the kind of job our furniture upholstery service is built around, and Lebanon is about fifteen minutes west of our bench in Myerstown.

Recliner Reupholstery Lebanon PA: What Came Through the Door

The first photo we took of it is blurry, which is honest. It was shot the morning the chair arrived, before anyone had looked closely. Look closely now. The fabric is a dusty rose with a texture gone flat and shiny across the arms. The back carries two buttons, low and wide apart. The headrest cover sits over the crest like a shawl. The arms are padded boxes with square fronts, and the skirt is pleated all the way around.

Then there are the posts. Two turned spindles of light wood, one each side of the back, running from the arm up past the crest and capped with a short rest that curves forward. They give the chair its era, and they were sound, just a little dull. The frame was tight. The mechanism worked. The parts that are hard to replace were fine, and the parts that are easy to replace were worn out.

That is the pattern in nearly every recliner worth rebuilding, and it is why we talk so many people out of replacing them. We made the whole case in Restore or Replace? The Honest Case for Fixing Good Furniture. A recliner like this outlives sofas. Living rooms get redone around it two or three times and the chair stays.

Inside the Rebuild: Frame, Arms, Springs, Steel

Down to the Frame

Stripping a recliner is a disassembly job before it is an upholstery job. The back, seat, arms and footrest all mount to a steel mechanism and come off in an order that has to be reversed exactly, so we mark every panel and photograph every stage. With the cover, foam and burlap off, the chair stood on the blue blanket as a wood frame: two turned posts, a curved crest rail, sinuous springs up the back, and the black steel of the mechanism under the seat deck.

New Arms From Fresh Plywood

The arms were the one surprise. Outside, tired but whole. Underneath, the curved panels that give a padded arm its shape had worn through and softened until new padding would have had nothing solid to sit on. So we built new ones: pale curved plywood, cut to the original profile and screwed to the arm frames, wrapping the front corners of the chair. On a recliner the arms are where you push off to get up, and the owner's hands already knew the shape.

Sinuous Springs and the Steel Below

The back is sprung on sinuous wire, the flat zigzag steel that gives a recliner back its flex. We checked every run for set, re-clipped where fasteners had loosened, and left it doing its job. Below it sits the mechanism. It was cleaned, every pivot checked and lubricated, and nothing replaced. La-Z-Boy built its name on this hardware, and on a chair that still rocks straight and reclines without a catch there is no reason to touch the geometry. The new cover is fitted around the steel with clearance at every moving joint.

Six Buttons on a Biscuit Back

The original back had two buttons. The rebuilt back has six, in two columns of three, pulled deep enough that the tweed between them rises into soft square biscuits. Each button is tied off at a marked station on the frame, and the fabric is worked by hand from one to the next so the folds run the same direction and depth. Over new high density foam and polyester batting, the back has a crown again.

A Skirt That Has to Move

A box pleated skirt has to hang straight when the chair is still and stay out of the way when it rocks back and the footrest swings out. Here the main skirt sits just clear of the floor, and the footrest carries its own matching pleated flap that hangs cleanly off the front edge when extended, nothing dragging.

Why Tweed on a Recliner

The cover is a heathered tweed in gray-green, flecked with sage, charcoal and a little cream. Recliners wear at the arm tops, the seat front and the headrest, and a flat solid shows every spot within a year. A heavy textured weave with several colors in the yarn hides the ordinary wear of living for years. It was sewn on walking foot Consew machines with bonded polyester thread.

Spec	Detail
PIECE	Mid-century La-Z-Boy recliner, turned wood posts, padded arms, box pleated skirt
CONDITION IN	Dusty rose cover worn flat, loose headrest cover, two button back, arm panels worn through
SCOPE	Full strip, new arm panels, mechanism serviced, new foam and cover
ARMS	New curved plywood panels cut to the original profile
FOUNDATION	Sinuous springs retained, checked for set and re-clipped
MECHANISM	Original steel mechanism cleaned and lubricated, nothing replaced
PADDING	High density foam, polyester batting wrap
COVER	Gray-green heathered tweed, six button biscuit tufted back, pleated skirt on body and footrest
SEWING	Walking foot Consew machines, bonded polyester thread

Options for Recliner Rebuilds in Lebanon PA and Across the County

Lebanon is our county seat, about fifteen minutes west of the shop on 422. We are based in Myerstown and we regularly serve Lebanon and beyond: chairs from the brick rows off Cumberland Street, farmhouses between Annville and Palmyra, older homes in Cornwall and down toward Schaefferstown. Most recliner reupholstery Lebanon PA jobs start with a few phone photos. You can also call or text 717-383-6917 and talk to Alex directly.

On a recliner the choices are yours:

• Cover: textured tweeds like this one, performance fabrics for pets and grandchildren, vinyl and leather, or a quieter solid, from the sample books in our showroom fabric library
• Back: keep the original button layout, go to a fuller tufted back as we did here, or ask for a smooth or channeled back
• Rebuild depth: a full strip with new arm panels and a serviced mechanism, or a lighter refresh where the foundation is sound
• Skirt: keep the pleated skirt and footrest flap, or finish the chair clean legged
• Comfort and wood: a firmer or softer seat, posts cleaned and waxed or refinished

Every recliner is different once the cover comes off, so we do not quote from a list. Each job is quoted individually after we inspect the chair, at the shop or from your photos.