Toronto Reference Library Blog

No time or energy to renovate before the holidays? Then revive your favourite furniture or transform your busy spaces with the help of the Business, Science and Technology Department's Do-it-Yourself collection.

Don't get rid of your cherished but scruffy armchairs. Reupholster them with the help of Dorothy Gates' The Essential Guide to Upholstery. This detailed guide to upholstering a broad range of furniture is particularly inspiring because of the beautiful photographs. Another great resource is Cherry Dobson's The Complete Guide to Upholstery: Stuffed with Step-by-Step Techniques for Profesional Results. Dobson describes small and large projects for both traditional and contemporary furniture and discusses buying secondhand furniture. Before choosing fabrics though, don't forget to browse the department's fascinating collection of textiles books.  

If your kitchen chairs have long been a safety hazard, put them back together with the help of professional restorers Ina Brosseau Marx and Allen Marx. Based on the authors’ thirty years of experience and teaching, Furniture Restoration: Step-by-Step Techniques and Tips for Professional Results, covers a huge range of furniture ailments from fractured members, missing parts and beetle damage. The authors’ conversational tone is easy to follow and includes more than 600 in-process photographs.

If you have energy left to tackle larger projects, try The Not so Big Remodeling: Tailoring your Home for the Way you Really Live  by Sarah Susanka. She has great ideas for entrances, kitchens and living rooms, areas where holiday guests tend to congregate.

And in the end if you just want to hire someone to do all this for you, come to the Information Desk on the third floor of the Toronto Reference Library and we will help you find an upholsterer or interior decorator in one of our hundreds of business directories.

No time or energy to renovate before the holidays? Then revive your favourite furniture or transform your busy spaces with the help of the Business, Science and Technology Department's Do-it-Yourself collection.

Don't get rid of your cherished but scruffy armchairs. Reupholster them with the help of Dorothy Gates' The Essential Guide to Upholstery. This detailed guide to upholstering a broad range of furniture is particularly inspiring because of the beautiful photographs. Another great resource is Cherry Dobson's The Complete Guide to Upholstery: Stuffed with Step-by-Step Techniques for Profesional Results. Dobson describes small and large projects for both traditional and contemporary furniture and discusses buying secondhand furniture. Before choosing fabrics though, don't forget to browse the department's fascinating collection of textiles books.  

If your kitchen chairs have long been a safety hazard, put them back together with the help of professional restorers Ina Brosseau Marx and Allen Marx. Based on the authors’ thirty years of experience and teaching, Furniture Restoration: Step-by-Step Techniques and Tips for Professional Results, covers a huge range of furniture ailments from fractured members, missing parts and beetle damage. The authors’ conversational tone is easy to follow and includes more than 600 in-process photographs.

If you have energy left to tackle larger projects, try The Not so Big Remodeling: Tailoring your Home for the Way you Really Live  by Sarah Susanka. She has great ideas for entrances, kitchens and living rooms, areas where holiday guests tend to congregate.

And in the end if you just want to hire someone to do all this for you, come to the Information Desk on the third floor of the Toronto Reference Library and we will help you find an upholsterer or interior decorator in one of our hundreds of business directories.