Recovering Dining Room Chairs

The chairs I recovered tonight were yet another Craigslist find. We go a dining room table, a leaf, and four chairs for $25. What a steal!! Too bad the leaf doesn't fit exactly. I would still use it if I had a tablecloth though...

The chairs were covered in this dingy brown canvas-type fabric. Not very pretty. So I went to Walmart and got some $7-a-yard fabric to recover them. I wish I paid a little less, but it's the upholstery/home fabric, so I guess I can't complain too much. To recover all of them, I bought a 1 1/2 yards, about $10 worth. That's cheap for a new look, I think. At least, it's worth it to me!

Here's the process: First, I unscrewed the seat from the bottom. This is the easiest style to recover, for sure. I blogged about another chair I recovered here. Second, I cut fabric to fit over the padding and seat, with some extra on the sides. Third, I used a staple gun to secure the fabric in place. I found that doing parallel sides first worst best. Then you can fold the corners carefully and make sure that the fabric looks even without weird pulls on the fabric. (Hint: Don't use stripes or a pattern that has to be lined up perfectly. Prints work much better!)  Fourth, screw the newly-covered seat back on the frame. Sometimes I went through fabric on the back when I screwed it in, but this doesn't matter because no one can see the bottom. It was easiest to turn the chair upside down with the seat on my lap, that way I had the pressure to make sure the screws went in tight. This project took less than 2 hours! YESSSSS! (Much less than the clawfoot tub!)

All in all, I'm happy with the result. Since it is pretty neutral, however my dining room turns out, it should be able to fit!