Take plain white cushions and add pizzazz with prints, stripes or bold colors.
If the thought of reupholstering dining room chairs seems intimidating, pull up the dining room chairs and put away your fears. If you can pull a piece of fabric and press the top of a staple gun, you are more than half way there. Take on those chairs in grandma's attic, or take advantage of chairs in stores where the price is right -- but the cushions are wrong. Give your dining room chairs a brand new lease on life just by reupholstering the seat cushions.
Instructions
1. Measure the width, length and depth for each chair. Use this formula to determine how much fabric you will need. Add three times the depth to the length and the width. For example, if the existing cushion is 16 inches wide, 14 inches long and 2 inches deep you would add 6 inches to the width and 6 inches to the depth, and you would need a piece of fabric that is 22 inches wide, and 20 inches long for each chair. The extra inches will accommodate the depth and give you enough fabric to wrap around the sides and tuck the ends underneath the cushion for a professional finish.
2. Turn the chair on its side on the floor and use your screwdriver to remove the screws holding the seat cushion to the chair. Set the screws in a safe place or tape them to the sides of the chair so you won't lose them.
3. Keep the project simple by keeping the existing fabric on the chairs. Simply layer the new fabric over the old fabric.
4. Spread the new upholstery fabric on a tabletop or flat surface with the wrong side facing you. Center the cushion on top of the fabric with bottom of the seat cushion facing you.
5. Pull the fabric over the bottom of the cushion. Staple the fabric in the center on the left side, then staple the center on the right side. Follow by stapling at the center of the top, and then staple the bottom. Pull the fabric over the bottom of the cushion. Staple the fabric in the center on the left side, then staple the center on the right side. Follow by stapling at the center of the top, and then staple the bottom.
6. Tackle the corners -- which is the hardest part -- by thinking of the fabric as a piece of gift wrap paper. Fold and crease the corners of the fabric vertically, as if you're wrapping a gift box. Start with the top and staple the corner into place. Repeat the same process with the corner on the opposite side of the one you just finished. Do the same with the corners on the sides. Finish with the corners on the left and right by layering the fabric over the stapled corners for the top and bottom, and then making your final staples for the left and right sides of the cushion.
7. Turn over the cushion, and take a minute to admire your wonderful work. Put the cushion onto the chair. Take your screwdriver and screw the cushions back onto the chair frame.
Tags: fabric over, then staple, dining room chairs, room chairs, bottom cushion