Upholster Dining Room Chairs At Home

Give your old dining room chairs new life by reupholstering them.

Shabby dining room chairs make an unsightly and uninviting space for your dinner guests. Instead of getting rid of the chairs, reupholster them using new, jazzy fabric that fits the theme of your dining room. A little fabric can go a long way in transforming your dining room space. Upholstery fabric is made to be durable; do not choose any other type of fabric because it will not wear as well as upholstery fabric.

Instructions

1. Spread out a cloth tarp on the cleared floor. Lay your chairs carefully on the tarp so that the back of the seat faces you.

2. Unscrew all of the seat cushions from the chair with a screwdriver. Place the screws in a safe place.

3. Spread out your fabric on a flat table so that the right side or printed side of the fabric is face down on the table, and the wrong side of the fabric faces you. Place the chair cushion with the finished side down onto the fabric.

4. Cut around the cushion leaving about 5 to 7 inches of fabric on each side of the cushion.

5. Pull the top border of the fabric over the back side of the cushion, making sure to pull the fabric tightly. Secure the fabric to the back of the cushion with a single staple to the center of the border. Repeat this with the bottom border, then the right border and finally the left border. Once each border has a single staple in the middle securing it to the back of the seat cushion, fill the spaces on the border with rows of staples. Stop just before you get to the corners on each side.

6. Pull up the two sides of the fabric at one corner. Pull them tightly over the corner, gathering the fabric and pressing it down. If the fabric is too long to work with, snip off a few inches. Secure the gathers to the back of the cushion with several staples.