Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Reupholster Dining Room Chairs With Fabric

Dining room chair seats can be reupholstered frequently


The dining room chair is one item that can help update your decor. Reupholstering the pad on your chairs can be done frequently, if you like to change your home decor often. The process can take place at home in your own dining room because it's not messy. Or you can do the work in your own shop or garage. Much money can be saved by doing it yourself. And when you are covering chair pads only, it also doesn't require a lot of time to accomplish a new look.


Instructions


1. Turn your dining room chair upside down and sit the pad on another chair, or on a table. From the under side, use the screw driver to unscrew each of the four screws that attach the chair pad to the chair. Remove them and lay them safely aside for later use.


2. Lay the loose chair pad on a table upside down. Remove all of the old staples with a staple remover. Now determine if the fabric needs to be removed or can be left on. If it has an odor, or has holes in it, remove the old fabric. Leave the old batting (filler material) on.


3. Buy new fabric for the chair pads, or use fabric from any piece of cloth or clothing you have at home. It's a good way to repurpose clothing or quilts. Try to use a durable fabric if possible.


4. Use a measuring tape to measure the width, length and depth of the chair pad. Add the depth (thickness) to the width and length. Then add 10 inches to the width and length. Mark your fabric with pins as you are measuring the fabric. Cut your fabric pieces for how many chairs you have to cover. Now cut your batting to the same size as your fabric.


5. Lay a piece of the fabric upside down on a table. Then place a piece of the batting on the material. Place your chair seat upside down on the center of the batting. Pull the material and batting up and over one side of the chair pad. Turn one inch of fabric under to finish the edge. Then turn one inch under again. Pull snugly and staple in the center of the side you are working on. Pull up the fabric on either side of the staple and pull firmly and staple. Now do the opposite side the same. Pull snugly when getting ready to staple. Go to the third side and do the same. The last side will be the one that you pull firmly to tighten the fabric. Don't pull too tightly or the fabric will pucker. Let the fabric lay smooth and snug on the chair pad. The four corners are last. From one corner, fold under the fabric into a "frame" corner fold. When the two sides meet, staple across the two pieces of fabric. This makes a perfect point. Then turn under one inch, and one inch again. Pull and staple both sides of the corner to continue the finished edges. When all four corners are done, go back and add staples where needed so they are about a half inch apart all the way around the fabric.


6. Lay the chair pad in a well ventilated place like an open garage or a work shop, after it has been reupholstered. Buy a fabric stain resistant finishing spray. Apply this to the fabric and allow to dry thoroughly.


7. Turn the chair upside down and sit it on the upside down chair pad. Use a screw driver and put all four screws back into the four corner holes. Screw them back into the chair pad. Turn the chair over and you have a new piece for your home decor.

Tags: upside down, room chair, width length, your fabric, again Pull, back into, chair pads