Dining Room Chair Makeover

Are you redecorating on a budget? One great way to add pizzazz to any room is to reupholster your chairs. If you don’t even own a pair of chairs, ask for hand-me-downs from relatives or scour charity shops and garage sales. Older is often better when it comes to furniture, especially if it’s handmade and real wood. It will last 20 years, not 2, so why not save it and turn it into your own masterpiece.

Materials
Chairs
Upholstery fabric
Staple gun
Staples
Foam padding for seat
Scissors
Screw driver
Pliers
Safety goggles

Warning – wear safety goggles at all times when removing staples and using the staple gun.

Instructions

1. Remove seat from chair by unscrewing screws.

2. Depending on what is currently covering the chair, you may want to remove it. These chairs had the original padding and fabric plus a layer of plastic. The plastic had to be removed.

3. If you would like to recover what’s already on the seat, skip to Step 9.

4. To remove the a seat covering, use a screwdriver to loosen the staples and pull them out with a pair of pliers.

5. Once you’ve removed some of the staples, try pulling the fabric and ripping out a few staples at a time. Remove all staples and the desired layers of fabric and padding.

6. If you plan to add or change the padding of the seat, measure pad to the chair and cut to the same shape.

7. If your pad if too thick, cut it in half using a knife or a pair of scissors. With the latter, the cut might not be perfectly smooth, but it may be a lot safer than using a knife. If cut edges are jagged, place that side against the chair frame rather than the top of the seat. No one will ever know.

8. Extremely Crafty Tip – Wear a glove when cutting seat pad as scissors may rub against thumb.

9. To cover the seat with fabric, first make a seat sandwich. Lay the fabric on the floor right side down, atop it place the padding and atop that the seat right side down. Make sure the fabric will cover the layers on all sides. Leave plenty for overlap.

10. Extremely Crafty Tip – Assess fabric before cutting. If you would like a motif, for example, a flower, to be located on the middle of the seat, position as such before cutting.

11. Cut fabric.

12. Now, the really fun part – stapling.

13. Extremely Crafty Tip – Load the staple gun with staples while holding upside down.

14. Use the staple gun to staple the fabric to the wooden underside of the chair.

15. Extremely Crafty Tip – Pull the fabric taut with even firmness so it stretches across the seat. Staple the middle of each side first to secure then staple the corners.

16. After the first few staples, turn over to ensure fabric is pulled tight enough across the seat and is not twisted. If there’s a tuck in the fabric, remove staples and redo.

17. Even corners are achieved by pulling the fabric so it gathers rather than by folding in a tuck.

18. Once the fabric has been fully secured to the seat, turn over and admire.

19. Clean chair frame with a damp cloth and allow to dry.

20. Place seat on frame and screw in place.

21. Now you see how easy the first one is, the rest of the set will be a snap.

Extremely Crafty – Creating Happiness through Craft