For Christmas, I received a beautiful sewing table – it is a neat little cabinet that folds out to a wonderful generous workspace, with lots of lovely storage compartments and an automatic hydraulic lift for my sewing machine. (Thanks Mom!)
I found this pretty chair for my new workspace at a clearance furniture showroom for a great price, but I am not into the white suede seat – it’s just too neutral for me – I am a color girl. So while we were snowed in at Christmas time, I was inspired by a pretty piece of home dec fabric I found in my stash, leftovers from a messenger bag I made last year, to recover the seat – this whole project took about ten minutes, and I am delighted with the results, so I’m happy to show you how simple it is to change the look of your dining room chairs.
This is a sewing-free project, so you will just need a few basic tools – a screwdriver, a loaded staple gun, and scissors.
First, you will need to figure out how your seat is attached to the chair frame. Most are like mine – attached with screws that come from underneath the seat. Flip your chair over and figure out where it is attached. When you find your screws, unscrew them and pry off the seat. Mine came off very easily.
Once you have taken the seat off, lay it on top of your fabric – you will need a piece of fabric that is larger than your chair by the thickness of the seat (mine was only about an inch and a half thick) plus about another inch and a half for wrapping around the back. Using this as a guide, cut out your fabric, using your chair seat as a pattern, and adding
the amount you need to cover height and the back.
Next, you will begin on the front of your seat to staple the fabric in place. Fold the edge over once by about a half inch, then hold snugly against the underside of the seat – staple it in place. If you have a friend around, it is much easier to have one person hold the fabric in place, and the other person stapling. When you have finished the front edge, move on to the back edge – pull the fabric taut across the chair seat, fold under again, and staple the back edge along the underside of the seat.
The corners are a bit tricky – you will need to pull tight and make a series of folds to allow the corners to be snug on the seat. Staple in place, then begin to work on the side edges, folding and stapling as before. Be sure not to cover over where your screw holes are– you will need them to re-attach your seat.
When you have finished, staple any loose sections, then screw your seat back into place and turn chair over – Voila! You have a lovely new chair!
I loved doing this simple project – I couldn’t get over how lickety-split it was, and how great it looks. We found our dining set on Craigslist for 25 bucks, and the only flaw is the ugly bedraggled chair seats. I plan to recover all four seats, and will be sure to make it a blog post – they will be a more intensive project, as they will need new foam and batting, as well as new upholstery, so if your chairs are in a sorry state, keep an eye out for the more intensive recovered dining room chair post.
If you have a real upholstery project you aren't sure how to tackle, we offer great classes in upholstery at PacFab stores!
~ Anna-Beth
I have an old dining room chair from which I've removed several layers of 'covers' to find a horsehair pad (which has since been discarded) and a woven seat (which is inset into the chair frame). I'd like to cover a more modern-day pad with some upholstery fabric I found at the Issaquah store (just before it closed). I live in Everett ... will there be a recovered dining chair class at the Everett store anytime soon?
Posted by: Gail Bartlett | January 15, 2009 at 06:03 PM