Old Chair Gets New Look, or, My Adventures with Upholstery

Need a fresh start? Maybe you're tired of the same old look in your living space? Do what I did- buy some amazing upholstery fabric and re-upholster a same-old-same-old desk chair!

This ridiculously simple improvement cost me $5 and maybe 10 minutes labor.

My desk chair is a simple wood chair from an old dining set. Here's what I did:

Materials:

1 yd. upholstery fabric (you'll have TONS left over)- I got mine from JoAnn Fabrics; it's called Maryann Confetti- love the name

Phillips head screwdriver (or flat head, depending on your screws)

Heavy duty staple gun

Vodka martini (optional, but maybe necessary if this stuff is too hard for ya)

Step 1: Unscrew the seat from the chair. These are usually phillips head screws. Remove previous fabric if you want to. I just covered over it
Step 2: Lay out your fabric, print side down. Place chair seat on the fabric, bottom side up.

Step 3: Fold your fabric down on all sides to create a small seam. This just makes the seams more uniform.

Step 4: Fold top edge down over the wood, staple along seam. Repeat this for the bottom edge. Staple.

Step 5: For the sides, you don't want to just fold the sides over. The corners look funky and the fabric edge shows and could potentially fray. Instead, take the corner of the fabric and stretch it over the corner of the seat. Staple, then gather the sides around it and staple. See video. It's hard to explain. Repeat this step for all corners.

Step 6: Refasten the seat to the chair with the screws. Et voila!  A fresh new look for an humdrum chair!

Fear not, friends who are not craft inclined- You're talking to the Queen of the Craft Challenged. But this is EASY, trust me.  But if you're still afraid, just chug that cocktail I mention in the materials list. Nothing like liquid courage :)


Re-upholsteredly yours,
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