First off let me acknowledge that never in a million-billion years did I think I would be writing on todays subject … reupholstering chairs. I mean, architects are all about hammers, power tools and blenders … not fabric. Even as I write this, I can only imagine that there are interior decorators all over the world choking on their red wine.
An Architect talking about reupholstering chairs?! Ludicrous! Impossible!
Well, I am breaking from tradition to say that yes – this weekend I reupholstered my dining room chairs and you know what? It was so easy even a… well, let’s just say someone who drinks a lot of red wine could do it.
.
This is actually the second time I’ve recovered these chairs and no, not because I didn’t do it right the first time. This process is very simple and since I have a lot of neutrals in my house, this is one area where I can make a change to my color scheme for a whopping grand total of around $50. The first step (other than buying the 2.5 yards of upholstery fabric for $20 a square yard) was to remove the seats from the chairs. Estimated time spent = 10 minutes
.
This is what the chairs looked like once the seats were removed. Yep – that’s what a seat less chair looks like, very “woody”.
.
This is a close up look at the fabric my wife and I selected … and I have to admit it wasn’t an easy decision because I had some rules. When we went into the fabric store [shudder] I told my wife that acceptable colors would be reds, oranges, golds, some yellows – but no greens or blues and try to stay away from any more browns. I also didn’t want stripes or solid colors … because we do have a kid who occasionally forgets the role of a napkin.
5 laps up and down every single aisle in the store, we had settled on the pattern and colors you see above. [nailed it] Estimated time spent = 45 minutes
.
The next step was to remove the old seat covers which was actually the most time-consuming part of the entire project. Last time I recovered these seats, I must have used a billion staples. Once the old fabric has been removed, use the old covers as templates for the new covers. Estimated time spent = 1 hour 10 minutes
.
The secret to doing any job correctly is to have the proper tools – which in this case is a staple gun and 5/16″ staples. If you don’t own a staple gun you should go get one. A good staple gun is one of my “Top Ten Tools in your Tool bag”. I’ve had this one for like 10 years and it still delivers like a champ.
.
The next step is to start attaching the fabric to the seat – I work my way around starting at the middle with a staple – rotate – and continue, leaving the corners loose. once I have evenly attached the fabric on all for sides, it’s time to focus on the corners
.
Here is a close up look at the corners and how I arranged my staples. I’m quite sure there is some fancy French word for what this corner technique is called but I have no idea what it is.
.
Using your index finger (I am using the more advanced “stacked finger” technique perfected by Shaolin Monks) just fold the corner material back towards the seat on the diagonal. When you fold it properly, you get a nice even squared edge corner. (see next picture).
.
This would be my nice [mostly] squared corner. Being consistent with how the fabric pies down in the corners will keep the seat siting squarely on the chair.
.
I don’t know if this is a crucial step but I marked the seat bottoms to the chair they came from on the slight chance that they were slightly different or out of square from one seat to the next.
.
And violà! The finished product. Estimated time spent = 8 minutes per chair x 6 chairs = 48 minutes
So $50 and 3 hours later I had transformed my old dining room chairs into something fresh and fabulous. You say “crafty”, I say “handy”. Either way, this is a simple, low-cost project that literally anybody could do.
So get to work reupholstering those old chairs! (and good luck)
.
.