Week 12: Chair Re-Upholstery

(March 20, 2011)

This is what our "computer chair" looked like 2 days ago:

Gross, right? I didn't mind so much the cheesy gingham/sunflower motif, but when it started peeling back and revealing the older incarnation of the chair, and WORSE, the old stuffing...  I had to do something.  Especially since Charlie has been running around with little bits of the ancient fluff and playing with it.  Gives me a shudder every time I think about what exactly might be contained in that chair fluff.  And I'm not a germ-afraid kind of person!  I let Charlie eat food that's been on the floor for goodness sake!! (On occasion.  Don't judge!  I feel like it must be good for his immune system...)

I thought it might be kind of cool if I just got rid of the upholstery and just left it bare, since the wood style seat looked to be kind of nice, but the edges were very sharp and unfinished. 

I had a bit of vinyl left over from another (still as yet unfinished) project, so I figured it couldn't be that hard to recover it myself.  Anytime you look at re-upholstery on youtube, it looks amazingly easy.  And it turns out it is!  Kind of...

Here's what you need:

screwdriver
staplegun
staples
fabric to cover with (something sturdy)
something to stuff with (I used 4 layers of quilt bat, but it's probably better to use something like foam)
chair (like, duh)

First, disassemble the chair.  For this particular chair, both the back piece and seat piece came off.

You might need a screwdriver assistant.

Next, take off the old covering.  This was gross.  There was a weird, decades old perfumey smell coming from the chair as I ripped away the layers that was making me nervous so I opened a window and advised Charlie to stay away.

Once you have a clean starting surface, cut out your filling and cover.  Cut about an inch around the outside of your seat for the filling, and an inch or two more than that for the cover. 

Start stapling!  When you do this, to ensure even tension all the way around, do it in sort of a star pattern.  Start in the middle of one side, then do the middle of the opposite side, pulling taut.  Do a staple on each side and keep doing this until you get close to the corners.  Then do the same kind of thing with each corner - start in the middle of the corner and work outwards.  As you can see, it doesn't have to be perfect on the bottom, but you want the top to be fairly smooth.

Repeat for any upholstered parts of the chair, then reassemble!

Since the back part of the chair will be showing, I also cut out a piece of vinyl  a little bigger than the back, folded over the edges, and used that to cover up the messy edges.  These staples you want to make sure are tidy and evenly spaced. 

One more note:  It's probably a good idea to somehow mark where the screws go for the legs.  I found it a bit tricky getting them into the right spots, because I can be a bit hasty when starting a new project.  Other than that, easy peasy!