How to Re-Upholster a Chair Seat

Update: This post was featured on Show Off Friday! 

If you read my post on Monday, then you know that I reupholstered one of my dining room chairs. Then I had an attack of doubt and wondered if it was the right choice of fabric. The chairs are sure to change in some way, but in the meantime, I thought that I would show you how easy it is to re-upholster a chair. These are the instructions for how to get a chair from looking like the one on the left to the one on the right.

The first task is to take the seat off the chair. Turn the chair upside down and there should be some screws for you to remove.

Once the seat is off, use a screwdriver and a pair of pliers to remove the staples from the bottom of the seat.

Be careful not to stab yourself with the screwdriver. I sacrificed my hand to show you what it would look like if you were not careful. Under no circumstances would I have been careless enough to do this by accident.

The staple removal took me a long time. Mostly this was because I was too stubborn and lazy to go downstairs to get a pair of pliers. Then, I realized that there was one in a drawer in the dining room two feet away from me. There went twenty minutes that I will never get back because I was lazy. While performing these inane tasks, it is always nice to have a friend around to keep you company.

However, keep an eye on that friend. Their whole intention might be to scatter the pile of staples that you have been amassing. Do not let that innocent look on her face deceive you. Mere seconds before I took this picture, her paw was poised to swat at the staples.

As you can see, the first time that I recovered these seats, long before this blog was born, I did not remove the vinyl that originally covered them. This caused them to make a farting sound occasionally when someone would sit down. This time, I was prepared to do the job properly.

You can see in this picture why the vinyl needed to be replaced. It was worn and torn. I cut off the torn parts and saved the rest. You never know when a project calling for some 1950’s vinyl will pop up.

The seat cushion was in pretty good condition, and I considered leaving it.

 

Then, I remembered that I was going to do this job properly and brought out the foam. I bought my foam at Joann Fabric, but this foam from Amazon is similar. I have had this foam since 2010 waiting for this project. There is nothing like procrastination. Use the seat as a template and a Sharpie marker to mark the lines you need to cut.

Lining one side up against the edge of the foam makes one less cut for you and creates less waste.

Electric knives are great for cutting foam, but I do not have one. Since this foam is only an inch thick a pair of scissors works well.

Here is the perfect cut.

Since the foam had been rolled for so long, I had a difficult time getting it to lay flat. I decided to use the old foam on top of it. It gives the seat extra cushion, which is never a bad thing in my opinion.

Next comes the low-loft batting. This hold all the layers together and smooths things out. I also bought mine at Joann Fabric, but here is a similar batting from Amazon. Lay the batting over the seat and cut. This cut does not have to be exact. Just make sure that you have a couple of extra inches along each side.

Then, flip everything over. You can see my sophisticated work space here. I have always liked working on the floor, but I must admit that it is getting harder to do as I get older.

You should staple the middle of the top and then the middle of the bottom. Then, staple the middle of the right side followed by the middle of the left side. Make sure that you are pulling the batting taut but not enough to tear it. After that put one staple on each corner, making sure to pull tight again.

Finally staple around the seat making sure that everything is flat and taut. The corners are the most difficult, but with a little practice you can get them tight as well.

Next, trim the batting just beyond the staples. Make sure the the screw holes are uncovered so that you do not have difficulty re-attaching your seats.

Here is the top side of the seat with the batting.

Next, you need to cut the fabric. If the material has a pattern, it is important to lay it out so that it is the way that you want it to appear on the seat. My fabric has a large pattern laid out in such a way that I had a lot of waste. This is unfortunate, but the chairs would not have looked as good if I had just cut the material willy nilly.

Make your cut. You could use a ruler for this. I just eyeballed it and cut without taking it off of the seat.

I also forgot to iron it before I started. Because I was afraid that I would not be able to get it lined back up the way I wanted, I used a steamer to get the wrinkles out. These little travel steamers are handy for tasks like this.

Staple the fabric on the back the same way that you stapled the batting.

Then, trim it as well. Again, make sure that the screw holes are unobstructed.

The cushion is ready to go on the seat. Hopefully, you have not lost the screws that you removed from the seat at the beginning of the project. I recommend that you put them in a jar. I guess it would have been ore helpful if I had recommended that at the beginning of this post.

Screw the seat back on and you are done. Or rather you are done as long as you do not decide to repaint your chairs. This is what happened to me. I think that the red clashes with the seat. I will be painting the chairs black.

Of course, it took me almost five years to recover the seats. How long do you think it will take me to repaint? In the meantime, I will enjoy them the way they are. They do look a lot better and are a lot more comfortable.

You might wonder why I switched to the plural. Well, I decided that I really love the fabric and Douglas did not think that it looked bad with the rug. Since we are the people that live here, I decided to go ahead and reupholster all of the seat cushions. Here are the improved dining room chairs.

When you are doing multiple chairs, I recommend that you do each step for all of the chairs at once. This will save a lot of time in the end. This was another tip that would have been more useful at the beginning of this post. Hopefully, you read all of the instructions before beginning.

Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.

Happy Homemaking!

P.S. This post contains affiliate links. If you use one of them to access Amazon and buy something, I receive a commission for referring you. It costs you nothing extra, but it helps compensate me for the time I spend on this blog.

P.P.S. I am linking this post to Furniture Feature Friday, Show and Tell Friday, Frugal Friday, Feathered Nest Friday, Show Off Friday and Flaunt it Friday,