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How to Reupholster a Chair Seat

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.

Suzanne

Wednesday 20th of May 2020

WHAT BRAND AND COLOR PAINT PLS? STUNNING!

ELENA M JOHNSON

Wednesday 2nd of July 2014

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

Ninja Mommres

Wednesday 19th of March 2014

This is gorgeous and looks like a whack of fun! Thanks for sharing this! I am totally going to try it out! I love the detailed instructions!

Paige

Wednesday 30th of October 2013

This was super helpful as I am covering a chair right now!

Heidi@OneCreativeMommy

Tuesday 29th of October 2013

The color on this chair is so fun! Love it, Christine!

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