If you have kids and pets like me, your kitchen or dining room chair fabric has probably seen better days. Maybe your just really messy or haven't updated in quite some time. Whatever your reason, reupholstering your existing chairs is not only cost effective but it is really easy. My kitchen table chair fabric was awful I admit. Completely worn out in the fabric but not a thing wrong with the chair itself. They were screaming face lift and I was going to give them one!
Once I found the most beautiful thick fabric that matched my existing home decor, there was no stopping me. You will need to measure your chair seat. For four chairs, it will take around one yard of fabric and 1-1/2 yards of fabric for six chairs. Be sure to leave at least an excess of three inches of fabric all the way around the chair seat.
Looking underneath my chairs I was pleasantly surprised that all that was standing in my way was three screws holding the seat to the chair frame. Out with the screws and there I had two pieces. One ready to be reupholstered seat and one chair frame. If your chairs are like mine and fairly new, you can simply cover the existing fabric with new material. If not, you can tear off the old fabric and replace the foam padding, since most foam has a life span of only five to 10 years. To attach fabric, first find the center front width of the pad and back, and mark. Find the center of the fabric by laying your fabric face down with your seat face down on top of the fabric. Measure on all sides to ensure you have centered your seat with the fabric. When your fabric is straight, start attaching staples, leaving the corners alone. Repeat above step to attach the front and then the sides. Use your spare non-stapling hand to smooth and straighten the fabric as you're stapling. Don't stretch the fabric so tight that the lines (if you're using striped fabric) are distorted. Trim extra fabric away as you go. At the corners, fold fabric over and pull down and away and staple in place. Rotate the seat pad and repeat the process for each corner. If your seat has rounded corners, you can wrap them so that no folds or creases are visible from above. If the seat has square corners, crease and fold the fabric as you would when you gift-wrap a box. It's usually helpful to trim away excess fabric as you work on corners. If you would like to protect your seats, now is the time. Using scotch guard or any other stain repellent will help prolong the life of your fabric. Then take your seat and screw it back to the chair frame. Repeat this process for each chair and you will have a beautiful new look that was inexpensive and so easy to do!
