From Drab to Fab! DIY Chair Reupholstery for Beginners

Are your kitchen or dining room chairs looking a little rough?  Or maybe you just want a new décor or style?  You should try this awesome DIY project to reupholster them!  Its super easy and anyone can do it. Seriously, even you!

This is what you’ll need:

-Enough fabric to cover all of your chairs.  Pick a nice neutral solid, or a crazy pattern or both!  Remember, you don’t need to match all of the chairs exactly.

-A staple gun (sounds scary but its not, its just a super strong stapler).  Don’t forget the staples for it!

-Scissors to cut the fabric to size.

-A screw driver to take the seat pad off of the frame of the chair, and of course to put it back on when you’re done.

After you’ve got your supplies, start taking the seat pads off of your chairs.  Simply unscrew the screws that hold it in place.  Make sure you keep your screws in a safe place.

There is no need to remove the current fabric on the seat pads unless it will show through your new fabric, or if you want to use it as a guide to cut the new fabric.

Next, lay your fabric out and place your seat cover on it.  Be sure you are laying the fabric out print side down. Begin cutting around your seat cover.  Leave at least 3 extra inches of fabric around each seat pad and make sure you can pull it tight around to the back of the pad all the way around.  Leaving extra is better than not having enough, you can always cut the excess off after you’ve stapled it.

You don’t have to do this for each seat pad if they are all the same, you can just use the first fabric piece as a guide to cut the rest.

After you’ve cut your fabric you can begin stapling it onto the back of the seat pad.

Be sure to pull it tight as you go around the pad and try to fold the corners in nicely as you staple. Now you can trim any excess fabric that might be hanging around your staples.

Next simply reattach the seat pad to the frame with the screws and you’re done!

Tips:

If you have kids or messy friends you might want to add in an extra step and attach clear vinyl over your fabric so you can wipe off messes.  Simply put it on the same way you did the fabric.

You can also do this easy DIY for accent chairs.  Its especially fun to redo a vintage or thrift store find with some fresh fabric!