Micaela Sharp

Micaela Sharp is a professional upholsterer, interior designer and broadcaster who has built her career around the art of reupholstery — turning tired armchairs into family heirlooms and championing sustainability over disposability. The carpentry and sewing skills passed down by her grandparents underpin a practice that runs from bespoke furniture to fully designed room schemes.

Sustainable designer and modern upholstery expert. TV presenter and interior design judge.

Course

A Complete Guide to Modern Upholstery

Discover how to use fabric to transform your furniture with sustainable designer and upholsterer Micaela Sharp. In this course Micaela will guide you through every step of the process from start to finish, teaching you the different upholstery styles, what to look out for when choosing furniture, how to select, measure and pattern cut fabric, and key upholstery techniques including stripping back, piping, webbing and box cushion sewing. Through three increasingly challenging projects - a bespoke make-your-own headboard, a loose cushioned chair and a mid-century armchair - you will gain the confidence and mastery needed to tackle your own upholstery projects.

68 Lessons

Included with membership

Lesson plan — 68 lessons

01 An introduction to upholstery

01 Meet Micaela
02 Different Upholstery styles

02 Where to begin

03 How to choose fabric
04 Sourcing furniture on location - Atomic
05 Sourcing furniture on location - Bright Sparks
06 Sourcing fabric on location - Sanderson

03 Project 1: Making a headboard

07 Part 1 - Where to begin
08 Part 2 - Designing your headboard
09 Part 3 - The essential toolkit
10 Part 4 - Materials
11 Part 5 - Create the template
12 Part 6 - Transferring the shape to the wood
13 Part 7 - Constructing your headboard
14 Part 8 - Cutting the fabric
15 Part 9 - Pinning pieces of fabric together
16 Part 10 - Cutting the piping
17 Part 11 - Cutting the borders
18 Part 12 - Sewing the fabric and piping
19 Part 13 - Adding your first staples
20 Part 14 - Top section
21 Part 15 - Concave section
22 Part 16 - Side sections
23 Part 17 - Adding the piping
24 Part 18 - Adding the borders
25 Part 19 - Adding the polyester
26 Part 20 - The finished headboard

04 Project 2: Making a box cushion

27 Part 1 - Where to begin
28 Part 2 - The essential toolkit
29 Part 3 - Materials
30 Part 4 - Disassembling your chair
31 Part 5 - Creating the template
32 Part 6 - Using your template to cut the new fabric
33 Part 7 - Cutting the piping
34 Part 8 - Sewing the piping
35 Part 9 - Sewing the piping to your cushion cover
36 Part 10 - Sewing the zip
37 Part 11 - Sewing the borders
38 Part 12 - Bottom section
39 Part 13 - Sewing the corners
40 Part 14 - Cutting the foam
41 Part 15 - Wrapping the foam
42 Part 16 - The finished box cushion

05 Project 3: Re-upholstering a mid-century box chair

43 Part 1 - Where to begin
44 Part 2 - The essential toolkit
45 Part 3 - Materials
46 Part 4 - Before we start
47 Part 5 - Preparing your chair
48 Part 6 - Stripping your chair
49 Part 7 - Removing the outside back
50 Part 8 - The frame of the chair
51 Part 9 - Cutting the fabric
52 Part 10 - Sewing the cover
53 Part 11 - Upholstering the frame
54 Part 12 - Adding the hessian
55 Part 13 - Adding the foam
56 Part 14 - Attaching your Dacron
57 Part 15 - Attaching your seat platform
58 Part 16 - Adding Dacron to the inside back
59 Part 17 - Covering the inside back
60 Part 18 - Finishing the inside back
61 Part 19 - Webbing the arms
62 Part 20 - Covering the arms
63 Part 21 - Webbing and covering the outside back
64 Part 22 - Stitching the chair
65 Part 23 - Hand sewing the front
66 Part 24 - Covering the base
67 Part 25 - The finished chair

06 Summary

68 Summary

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“I am currently taking Micaela Sharp's Complete Guide to Modern Upholstery and it is wonderful. Micaela breaks down three upholstery projects that are easy enough for beginners to follow but offer many useful tips that a person of intermediate upholstery skills like myself gains a lot of knowledge throughout the course as well.”

Jessica Nicosia

“I have subscribed to access all the courses so have watched one on interior design and this one with Butter Wakefield who specialises in small garden design. She has a lovely personality and comes across as being a ve...”

Louise Brown Apr 10, 2026

“I love CreateAcademy. I came in for the gardening and floristry courses, but am also watching an interior design one at present. And the photography course is an absolute must, best I've ever done.”

Wellesley Apr 1, 2026

“What a great investment, I have learned such a lot from the first three courses. My evenings have gone from not being able to find anything that captured my imagination on TV to learning and expanding my knowledge on ...”

sojojo Mar 30, 2026

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