Deep buttoning: what it is and what a buttoned piece asks for
Deep buttoning is upholstery with the buttons sunk into the filling and the cloth folded between them in a diamond pattern. You know it from a Chesterfield, a hotel headboard, the seat of a vintage car. But not everything with buttons is deep buttoned, and a well-made piece can be told from an imitation at a glance. This is what defines it, where it comes from and what to decide before ordering a piece.
By Royal Stitch · Published
Illustrative imageWhat it is, and what it isn’t
In deep buttoning, each button is tied through the filling and pulls the cloth inwards. Between one button and the next, the spare cloth folds into the diamonds. The filling is left in pads that swell between the buttons, and that is what gives it its relief.
A button sewn onto taut cloth, without sinking the filling or folding the fabric, is decoration rather than deep buttoning. The difference shows from the side: real deep buttoning has depth.
How deep is “deep”
The New Zealand Qualifications Authority, which sets the official training for the trade there, has a whole unit standard on deep buttoning. To pass it, a trainee must show deep buttoning to a depth of 50 millimetres or more, on at least two chairs or a settee, assessed on the job.
It is one of the few references that put a number on something the trade usually learns by eye. It helps both sides mean the same thing when ordering: a barely marked button is not the same as one that truly sinks into the filling.
How it is done
The same unit sets the work out step by step. The foam or wadding panel is prepared, the cover is positioned, it is pleated to the job specification, the buttons are fitted and secured, and any defects are put right. And it sets a condition on the pleats: they must be even, and face downwards.
Those two details — evenness and direction — are among the first things worth checking on a finished piece.
Sunk button
Tied through the filling; it pulls the cloth inwards.
Pleat
The spare cloth between buttons, even and facing down.
Depth
New Zealand’s official training counts it as deep from 50 millimetres.
Where it comes from
The National Trust, the UK charity that looks after historic houses open to the public, counts heavily stuffed furniture — button-back armchairs, sofas and ottomans — among the hallmarks of the Victorian interior.
Cars have a parallel history. Heritage Crafts, the UK body that champions traditional crafts, lists deep buttoning among the techniques of coach trimming, the trade that began in horse-drawn carriages and moved on to the motor car.
What it asks of the piece
Deep buttoning takes more cloth than plain upholstery, because the fabric runs down to each button and back up again. And not every cloth folds the same way: one button pattern can sit cleanly in one fabric and look strained in another. That is why it is tried on a sample, in the chosen cloth, before the whole piece is covered.
The buttons are usually covered in the same cloth, though they can be in another, or in leather. That too is easier to judge on the sample.
What to decide before you order
With these answered, the commission starts clear:
- Depth
- True deep buttoning, or a barely marked button?
- Pattern
- How far apart are the buttons? Across the whole piece, or only the back?
- Pleats
- Even and facing down, as the trade requires?
- Cloth
- Has the buttoning been tried on a sample of that cloth?
- Buttons
- Covered in the same cloth, another one, or leather?
The service
A piece that calls for deep buttoning?
Sofas, armchairs and headboards upholstered to order for Costa del Sol villas, commissioned by owners or by their interior design studio. The service page explains how the work is done.
Sources
What defines deep buttoning comes from the trade’s official training in New Zealand; its history, from the National Trust and Heritage Crafts. Each source was found by searching the publisher’s own site.