Can I Reupholster This Chair Myself?
Can I Reupholster This Chair Myself?
A Beginners Guide To Do-It-Yourself Upholstery
This is a Beginner’s Guide to Do-It-Yourself Upholstery. Because, not every chair is a good candidate for reupholstering. Especially when you’re bound and determined to do it yourself.
Here’s Why:
- Some upholstery projects require precision measurements and sewing skills.
- Upholstery fabric is expensive -If you’ve never purchased Home Decor fabrics, or Outdoor fabrics then you’re in for some sticker shock.
- Large chairs require a lot of that expensive fabric.
- If you’re using prints, then getting each piece facing the right way can require even more of that expensive fabric
- Mistakes can be expensive.
- Even when you’ve measured and sewed and tucked your chair often looks more like an ill-fitting slip cover.
In short, there’s a reason why custom upholstery is expensive.
But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t reupholster chairs–you totally should but you need to choose the right chairs.
What to look for in a chair to reupholster:
- Removable Seat (the upholstered part)
- The seat is the only thing that’s fabric.
That’s it. I tried to come up with a more comprehensive list, but those are definitely the only kinds of chairs a beginner should reupholster–and probably the only chairs anyone should do unless you’re trained and have the cool upholstery equipment.
It’s super simple to reupholster chairs. As long as they meet the requirements above.
STEP 1: Measure the seat. Add a minimum of 3 inches on each side. So if your chair seat is 24″x28″, you’ll need 27″x31″ pieces of fabric for each seat.
STEP 2: Determine how much fabric you’ll need. I wish that people at the fabric store were better at helping you with this so I could just send you there. But it’s pretty easy once you understand fabric.
Always use home decor fabric. Everything else is really too thin to look good on a chair (except faux fur–that would look cool too.)
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Home decor fabric is a minimum of 54″ wide – great news because most kitchen chairs with upholstered seats are between 22-24″ wide. This means that you can usually get two seats on each width of fabric. Then it’s just a matter of determining the yards needed based on the number of chairs you’re recovering
Step 3: Cut the fabric into squares.
Step 4: Remove the seats from the chair and lay it in the center on the fabric, seat side down. Pull one side of the fabric up over the edge of the seat and use an industrial (construction) stapler attach. Repeat for each side, pulling tight and tucking the the edges to create clean corners.
That’s it! Reattach the seats to the chairs and you’re ready to take a load off.
This type of upholstery project is a dream for beginners. Here are a few tips to help you:
- Don’t remove the old fabric from the chair unless it has an oily stain that will leak through your new fabric.
- If you’re reupholstering dark seats with a lighter fabric, buy a cheaper white fabric to put over the seat first, followed by your final fabric. This keeps the darker seat from showing through.
- You can reupholster your chairs multiple times.
- If you’re a garage sale hunter, or love Offer Up like I do then keep an eye out for great chairs that only need some great fabric to transform them.
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