Project Organized Home~Chair Recovering

Today, I thought I'd share with you what I did this past week! So many people are afraid to tackle this project, and they shouldn't be...it's not that complicated! :) I'll show you how to do it!

For the longest time I had just plain wood dinning room chairs, but when we bought our first new set ever, when we moved to Georgia, I was so excited to get wood chairs with a fabric covered padded seat! Well guess what? I have 4 young children, and within months they were nasty looking. :( I decided to recover them with curtain fabric so that they would match the curtains in the room, and I covered the new fabric with clear vinyl so that they could be wiped down, and protect the fabric! Well, they made it almost 4 years, and the kids have finally ripped the vinyl. So, it was time to recover them again. And if you know me at all, you know that I wouldn't dare go another 4 years with the same fabric color! Hehe! So I headed to the local fabric store and picked out one I thought would go great with our rental house!

The first step is to take off the old fabric. Now if you have a new chair, there might be a nice neat covering on the bottom, don't be afraid, just cut or rip it off, and underneath will be the seat fabric stapled on, looking like this in the picture below. There should be screws holding the cushion onto the chair, you'll need to find them, and unscrew them. Now, you can decide...sometimes it's better to leave the fabric and just cover over it, while other times it needs to be taken off, so it's not to bulky. If you are using a thick fabric, plus vinyl, you'll want to start fresh with the wood and batting or foam. Since I had two layers already, I had to take one off. I just use a flat head screwdriver, and pull up the staples...

Once that fabric is removed, I am ready to put on my new fabric! Just place the cushion on the table or floor, over your fabric. Cut it with enough extra fabric to go up and around the cushion, and room to staple it in place. Now this can be done so many ways, but I would highly suggest you staple all sides first, and then tackle the corners. If you have a patterned material, make sure it is centered on the cushion before you staple it! Pull the fabric nice and tight, and staple in place. Keep it as straight as possible, so you don't have pulls or wrinkles in the fabric up the sides. With these cushions, the back is pretty curvy, so I staple the front, then the back, to hold the fabric in place, then I go to the sides.

Now for the corners. There are so many ways to do it. You may have to do trial and error to see how you like them! I just pull a little section at a time, layering it over each other to make a cute little layered corner. I start off with this...

and just keep layering and folding over, until I'm left with this, and I staple it in place...

Once I'm done stapling the corner, I cut off the extra fabric, so it's not too bulky. If the corners are too bulky, they will show space between the chair and the cushion when you try to put it back on.

Finally, when done with the fabric, you can move on to vinyl, if you wish. Same thing. Lay the cushion over the vinyl and cut it to size. Staple it all around, using the same method.

Cut off any excess material once you are done, and you should be left with this!..

Now all you have to do, is place it back on the chair, get your screwdriver, and tighten the screws back into the wood on the bottom of the cushion! I recovered 4 chairs for $30. I am also covering the top of the bench behind this chair in the same fabric, and it only cost me an extra $10. Oh, I just LOVE them! The new fabric just matches this front room so well!!!! It's amazing how such little changes can make such a big difference!

FYI-For 4 chairs, I buy 2 yards of fabric, and 2 yard of vinyl. It just depends on the size of the fabric. They are always cut by 36" yards one way, but they all vary the other way. They could be 43", 24", or any dimension. You should usually always be safe with 2 yards for 4 chairs. It's better to buy more than not enough! You can use the extra to make matching
place mats, a table runner, or other projects for the room!