How to Reupholster a Chair Seat

ByChristine @ theDIYdreamer

Learn how to reupholster a chair seat. Make an old chair useful again by reupholstering the seat.

How to reupholster a chair

My great-aunt gave me an old chair last year that I just couldn’t say no to.

The chair needed a lot of work and I could tell that she tried to fix it up but it ended up being too much work for her.

I knew that I wanted it to be Gabrielle’s desk chair, but we haven’t started her Purple room yet (I’ll explain why in another post) so I ended up storing the chair in my basement.

Lucky for me, I was contacted by Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores to review the new EXCLUSIVE vibrant collection of indoor and outdoor home decor fabrics that were created along with HGTV HOME.

As soon as I received the fabric, I knew EXACTLY what I was going to do with it.  Before, I show you what I made.. take a look at what I received.

HGTV Home Fabric
how to reupholster

1 Yard of – HGTV HOME Urban Bloom Berry
1 Yard of – HGTV HOME Checkered Past Berry
HGTV Lip Cord Mulberry Trim
And an HGTV magazine!

I instantly fell in LOVE with the HGTV HOME Urban Blossoms fabric!

It was perfect to reupholster the seat of the chair my aunt gave me.

With the touch of purple within the flowers on the fabric, I knew that painting the chair purple would give the seat the perfect punch. (Here’s the how to paint a chair tutorial.)

This post also contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

how to reupholster

How to Reupholster a Chair Seat

Supplies:

Instructions:

Step 1: Remove the staples from the chair seat using a flat screwdriver, this will remove the fabric.

Dispose the old fabric and old padding (in my case it was straw hehe).

How to reupholster

Step 2: Place the wooden seat onto the foam. We placed it flush on one side, like that we only had to cut on three sides.

Step 3: Use a utility knife to cut the foam contouring the seat. If your blade isn’t long enough, keep making passes with your knife. (We made two passes).

Upholster

Step 4: Place the foam on your fabric exactly where you want it. We played around with it until we found the perfect spot. (We wanted a particular flower to show on the seat.) 

Step 5: Cut the fabric around the seat leaving at least 6″ to 7″ around each side.

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Step 6: Place the wooden seat back on the foam and wrap the fabric over it.

Step 7:  Pull the fabric tight and staple it onto the wooden seat. (Don’t staple the corners, you need enough room to work. ) It’s better to have a few staples and add some later than have too many and not be able to work with your fabric.

Step 8 (optional): Hammer down the staples if your stapler wasn’t able to staple all the way through the wood.

Step 9: Fold the corners of the fabric until you reach the desired look and then staple them. (Hammer down the staples if needed).

Step 10: Cut off the extra fabric.

how to reupholster

Voilà, finished!

Reupholstered Chair Seat

Upholster

Doesn’t the seat and the purple chair go fabulous together?

I love its bold look.

Did you enjoy this how to reupholster tutorial?

Hope you are having a FABULOUS day!

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P.S. I’ll be linking to these Parties.

Disclosure: Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores sent me fabric from the new HGTV HOME line in order to create this project. The opinions in this post are 100% my own.

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42 Comments

  2. Hi Christine!

    I’m so glad to put up this tutorial… I recovered some old chairs recently and friends have been asking me how I did it. Unfortunately, I did it all before I started my blog and didn’t think at all to take pictures. But now, when I post pics of my colourful new kitchen chairs, I’ll be able to direct them to your wonderful tutorial (if that’s ok with you of course)!!!

    Je suis certaine que Gabrielle aimera bien sa nouvelle chaise… si jolie!

    Natalie

  4. So beautiful! , WOW! what a transformation! the color of the chair and the fabric is so well coordinated! :-) great job Christine!!!

  14. that fabric is amazing and I LOVE the purple chair… beautiful.. a set of those in my place would be lovely… can I order four? :o)

  15. Stopping by from the Pinworthy Projects Party. I absolutely LOVE your finished chair. The fun purple and that fabric look great together. :)

  17. What a vibrant chair! Love the fabric you chose! Would be thrilled for you to come join my link party and follow along!

  19. Wow! I don’t think I ever would have attempted reupholstering but your tutorial makes it look super easy. Love the fabric too :) Thanks so much for sharing! Maybe I will tackle it. Krista @ A Handful of Everything

  25. I love the colors as well. The solid purple paint looks great with the patterned fabric. I was about to replace my kitchen chairs with complete new ones, but now I want to just paint and reupholster them! Pinning this so I can do it.

  26. I’m getting ready to do this to my dining room chairs – thanks for the directions – yours are beautiful!

  28. Your chair is just adorable! I love working on old furniture, especially chairs. I am always digging through the remnant bin at my local fabric store for great pieces to add to my chair makeovers. The fabric you chose is darling and the purple is very whimsical. A nice twist on an old chair!

  29. Awesome post!

    I would love for you to share this and link up to my TGIF Link Party! The party is open every Friday and closes at midnight on Wednesday night. Who knows, you just might be featured next week!

    I

  30. This came out so cute. Thanks so much for sharing with Wednesday’s Adorned From Above Blog Hop.
    Have a great week.
    Debi and Charly

  32. So cute! I LOVE the bold color you chose! I don’t have any chairs to reupholster, but after seeing this, I am definitely going to keep an eye out for one to make over! Thanks for the inspiration!!!

  33. Thanks so much for this! As I type I’m sitting on a chair that very much needs to be repainted and reupholstered. Is there a post about how to repaint a chair? I’m going to need that one first! :)

  35. Thank you so much for this! I got a old dining room set from my grandmother and the chairs are in desperate need of a make over! The back is that chicken coop looking material so I’m hoping painting them won’t look too bad

  41. What a beautiful shade of purple, my absolute favorite color!! I LIVE IN PURPLE. I have a chair that I’ve been wanting to paint, it doesn’t have a pad though so I may add one. Can you please tell me what brand and color you used? I hope it comes in a glossy finish. Thank you in advance.
    ELENA JOHNSON

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