Change the upholstery on your dining room chairs to give the set an updated look.
Upholstered dining chairs serve as accent pieces in dining room decor. If you change the color scheme in your dining room, the chairs may no longer coordinate with the decor. Luckily, it's easy to replace chair upholstery. When you choose fabric to reupholster dining chairs, look for fabric that is easy to clean. It's also a good idea to buy enough extra fabric to replace one chair's upholstery in case something is spilled on it. That way you won't need to replace the upholstery for the entire set.
Instructions
1. Turn one of the upholstered dining chairs upside down. Remove the four screws on the underside of the seat that hold the seat in place. Put the screws in a safe location.
2. Pull off the cardboard or paper, if any, covering the bottom of the chair seat. Save the cardboard or paper to reuse if it's in good shape.
3. Remove the staples holding the old upholstery on the chair, using a pair of pliers.
4. Lay the new upholstery fabric on a flat surface. Place the old fabric on top of it. Align any stripes or plaids. Use tailor's chalk or a pencil to trace around the old fabric onto the new fabric. Cut out the fabric with a pair of sharp scissors.
5. Examine the old padding on the chair. If it's in , reuse it. If it's not in good shape, replace it with batting that is a similar thickness. Cut the batting to the same dimensions as the old padding.
6. Place the upholstery fabric right side down on a work surface. Turn the chair seat and padding upside down on top of the fabric, centering the seat on the fabric.
7. Pull the fabric for the front edge of the seat up and over the batting and the wooden seat. Staple it in place on the bottom of the seat with a staple gun. Don't use staples longer than the seat is thick, or the staples may poke through the top of the seat.
8. Pull up the fabric for the back edge of the seat. Staple it in place. Do the same for the fabric for the right and left sides of the seat.
9. Fold the corner of the upholstery fabric on one corner of the seat so it makes a nice-looking corner. To do so, fold the material as if you were wrapping a present or fold the material so the corner is mitered. Trim any bulk fabric before folding to create a neater corner. Staple the corner fabric in place. Repeat for each corner, folding the fabric the same way each time.
10. Place additional staples as necessary to hold the upholstery taut on all sides of the seat.
11. Reattach the cardboard or paper you removed in Step 2. Cut new paper or cardboard if needed. Staple the cardboard or paper so it covers the raw edges of the fabric.
12. Put the chair seat back onto the chair. Replace the screws you removed in Step 1. You may have to poke the screws through the fabric. Set the finished chair back on its legs.
13. Repeat the above steps for the remaining chairs in the dining room set.
Tags: cardboard paper, dining room, chair seat, dining chairs, good shape, upholstery fabric