Before and After

I found these amazing mid century chairs at an estate sale this spring.  The padding was seriously dry rotted but I know that I could bring them back to life.

Mid Century Chair

The tools needed for this job are pretty basic and you might have most of them around the house.

For this job you will need:
Fabric
Replacement Foam cut to size
Cordless screwdriver with assorted bits
     (or a Phillips and flat head screw driver)
pliers
staple gun
bowl
upholstery tack strip (optional)

Tools

The bowl is to hold any screws that are removed from the chair so that they don't get lost.

The bowls keeps screws from getting lost

The chair seat was held in place by 4 corner screws on the bottom of the chair.  Find and remove the screws.

Screws hold the seat in place

You have the option of removing the old padding or placing the new padding/fabric on top of the old.  I chose to put the new on top of the old.

New foam-rough side

Cut the new foam to size.  If you have a choice, have the foam cut at the store.  Because I cut this foam myself there was a smooth side and a rough side.  Make sure that the rough side is facing the seat of the chair and the smooth side is facing up.

Smooth side facing up!

Cut a piece of fabric that is large enough to cover the seat, the foam and the bottom of the chair.  Layer your pieces so that the fabric is against your work surface, next is the foam.  Finally the original chair seat is on top.  (pictured)

Layer the materials

Pull the fabric tightly over one corner and staple the fabric in place.



Pull the fabric tightly over each corner and staple in place.

Pull corners tight and staple in place.

Measure a length of tack strip and begin stapling the fabric to the bottom of the seat.

Measure and cut tack strip

Beginning at a corner pull the fabric tight and staple the fabric and tack strip in place.

Start at the corner

Make sure that your staples are flat against the chair bottom.

Flat staples

Any bent staples should be removed and replaced with flat staples.

Bent staples :-(

Once the fabric is tightly stapled on all sides, put the seat back on the chair.

reassemble the chair

Make sure that the screws are in securely in place.

Secure the screws

That's it!

Done!!!

Now that you know how to reupholster a chair, if you're feeling really adventurous, try an arm chair!

Arm Chair reupholster

Look at what a difference good padding makes!

Old padding vs. new padding

Readers of this blog may recall that I also upholstered a bench.  That project started when I turned my kids old crib into a bench.

Crib turned into a bench

I liked the bench but it needed something more so I upholstered it.

Crib bench make over

Here are the tutorial for those projects.

Crib converted to a bench

Bench upholstery tutorial

For more DIY projects, click HERE!