Everyone has a chair that could stand to have some new life breathed into it. Whether it’s been in your family forever, or you just picked it up at a thrift store last week, chances are it probably needs to be reupholstered. Luckily, it’s not difficult!
This post will outline how to recover a cushion on a chair or stool. Most of these detach very easily, with just a few staples, nails, or screws.
Fabrics and tools required:
- 3/4 yards upholstery fabric, or enough to cover your cushion (I used this Black and Aqua Poly Brocade.)
- Poly-fil Organic Cotton Batting
- Heavy-Duty Staple Gun (If the base of your seat is relatively thin mine, you can get away with the light-duty model.)
- Heavy Duty Staples
- Wonder Clips
- Aleene’s Quick Dry Tacky Glue
I started with this lovely wooden chair; it was a little beat up, but it was nothing a little sanding and stain couldn’t fix. The cushion however, was another story – stiff, cracked, and hardly comfortable.
A couple nails in the back of the seat came out pretty easily and I was able to shimmy the cushion out of the slot it rested in. Since I wasn’t trying to save the original vinyl, I wasn’t too careful with keeping it intact as I tore it off. Small upholstery nails tacked it into the sides of the base wood, so I removed them as well.
If you’re looking to recover a cushion exactly the way it was, without adding any extra batting or foam, you could carefully remove the original fabric and use it as a pattern. Instead, I traced the base of my seat and added 3″ around the sides to make sure that I’d have enough to wrap over the new batting.
For the batting, I cut one layer exactly the same size as the wood, as well as 3 more layers progressively 1″ smaller. You could easily add or remove layers depending on how cushy you’d like your new chair!
After placing the batting on top of the wooden base, I stretched my upholstery fabric over the entire thing. I started with one staple in each of the four sides, and then worked my way around so the fabric would be evenly taut.
If your base is more than a 1/2″ thick, you could wrap your fabric around and staple it directly to the bottom, but since mine was so thin I had to tack it on the sides.
To secure the extra fabric on the bottom, I added a bit of tacky glue and left some binder clips around the entire thing for an hour. You could also glue or staple a layer of non-fraying fabric to the bottom, hiding your raw edges.
All-in-all, it was a quick and fun project; and the result is adorable!
Have you ever recovered a seat cushion? Are you going to try doing it now? Tell me what fabric you’re using!
