chair re-upholster

Recovering This End Up Style Kindergarten Chairs

As a parent of two elementary school students, I always ask my kids’ teachers if they need anything for their room. Usually the answer is markers, wipes, or snacks. But, my kindergartner’s teacher knows about my secret identity after having taught my older son for a year. So, she didn’t hesitate to ask me if I could possibly recover a few really sad looking chairs that had seen their fair share of kindergarten butts.

These poor chairs were still very study, but the fabric was nubby, pilled and stained. I love a good challenge, so I took all three of the chairs home over the Christmas break.

The first task involved removing the seats. Before I touched the seats, I flipped over the chairs and marked the front side of the chair so they would fit together perfectly when I put them back together. [Read more...]

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Filed Under: Before and After, chair re-upholster, DIY, Furniture, Kids Room, milk paint, painting chair, polyurethane, re-upholster, re-upholster seat cushion, ReNew, Sewing, Trash to Treasure, Tutorial, Upcycling, Upholster Chair

Upholstering Little Bench – A sweet spot to land

20 Jul posted by Brittany Bailey

If you stuck through my ugly post yesterday. I have some pretty pictures for you today!

Two years ago I happened upon a cute little bench being thrown out with a neighbor’s trash. (I am addicted to trashed furniture. In fact, I have a NASTY chair in my garage that needs a lot of help structurally and asthetically.)

The roadside bench was painted a very blah beige color. I brought her home and gave her some decorative lines and a monogram. At the time we didn’t have anywhere to sit in our mudroom, so this little bench served the purpose well. Later I built a big mudroom hallway bench with built in shoe storage (I promise to create a tutorial for that at a later date.) So, this little bench was moved to the guest room where she sat by the window until this week.

The first thing I did was give her a little rub down with some sand paper. Then I laid down 3 coats of fresh shiny white paint (leftover from trim and moulding painting).

I used some old foam I saved from our move (only 3+ years ago). This foam was the packing material used to ship ice cream cones! I received it from a nice woman off of FreeCycle.org and thought it could be used for a cushion at some point.

I cut some batting to fit over and wrap around the foam (so as to hide all the seams in the foam).

Then cut the arms off of an old t-shirt of Pretty Handsome Guys (don’t worry, he had already said goodbye to it.) And cut up the sides so I could use just the back of the shirt.

And finished off with the decorative fabric cut slightly larger than all the other layers.

I carefully folded my decorative fabric under being sure that I had the old t-shirt hidden in the fold. And put in two staples with the staple gun to hold the fabric on the one side.

Moving over to the other side, I cut the t-shirt, batting, and decorative fabric down to size being sure to leave about an inch excess on the decorative fabric.

Then I repeated the same fold under and put in two staples.

Now for the bling! I had plenty of leftover nailhead trim from this project (check that link out if you need a better tutorial on adding nailhead trim.) I began at the corner of the front of my bench and added the starter nail.

At this point my 6 yr. old had come over to my side telling me how bored he was and, “What can I do now?” I asked if he wanted to help me hammer. Once I started each nail, he was able to hammer it into the nailhead trim for me. (I did have to finish a few off myself.) We worked together adding the nailhead trim to the front and back of the bench.

Before adding the trim to the sides I neatly folded and tucked under all the layers (cutting excess off when necessary.) Until it looked like this. Then I added the trim on top to hold the fabric in place.

And there she was, my beautiful cushioned bench for our guest room. I’ve been busy trying to finish a few projects (rebuilding a curbside chair and making a night stand from a door and picket fence) in this room before my best friend from high school comes to visit. Nothing like a visitor to get your DIY butt in gear!

Sittin’ pretty

Sweet smelling soaps in a coordinating bowl

My trash to treasure bench is now a sweet spot to land

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Filed Under: chair re-upholster, daisy fabric, Furniture, Nail Head Trim, painting, priming, ReNew, upholstering bench

Re-Upholstering the Chair Seat

19 Jun posted by Brittany Bailey

The next step in my extreme rattan chair makeover is the upholstery. Time to give your tushie a new cushy!

Seat Re-upholstering:

I removed the seat from the chair before I started any of the paint stripping and painting. Removing the seat on a cushioned chair is really simple. Flip your chair over, look for four holes where the mounting screws are located (see red arrows below.)

Tools You Will Need:

Cordless Drill or Phillips head screwdriver
Flat head screwdriver
Needle-nosed pliers
Scissors
Batting
Fabric
New Foam Cushion (if your foam is in bad shape)
Sharpie Marker
Staple gun w/ staples (I used 5/16″ staples)
Hammer

Grab a screwdriver or cordless drill with a phillips head attachment and unscrew the mounting screws. Be sure to save the screws as you will need them to re-attach the seat later.

If the fabric on your cushion is in good shape and you are using a fabric that is thick enough to cover the old fabric, you can leave the seat intact. In my case, the fabric was very old and stained. Not exactly something I wanted to be sitting on….ewwww!

So, I began the demolition phase of this makeover.

Grab a flat head screwdriver and needle-nose pliers. Wiggle the screwdriver underneath the staples and then use the pliers to pull them out.

Once the fabric has been removed and all the loose staples have been pulled, take a look at your foam cushion. If it is stained, crumbling, or smelly, you will want to replace it with new foam. Luckily the foam seat was still in good condition and no stains or odors, so I kept it.

I laid my fabric on top of the seat and played with the pattern until I liked the layout on my chair. Then I took my sharpie pen and drew an outline about 3 inches out from the edge of the seat.

Next, pull out your new batting. I like my seats to be nice and cushy, so I chose two layers of batting.

Next, I laid out my fabric, then the two layers of batting and finally the seat. Make sure that the batting will wrap around to the underside of your seat. Then cut your batting. Usually my batting is about an inch smaller than the fabric on all sides.

Now it is time to get your staple gun and hammer. Start by pulling your fabric up and wrap it over onto the bottom of the seat. Use your staple gun to put in one staple. Hammer in the staple if it is sticking up.

Next you will pull the fabric across from your first staple and affix that side. Repeat this step as shown below:

Now you can finish stapling the sides and hammering the raised staples. Leave about an inch to two inches from the corners. Pinch the corner fabric together as shown at the left. Then neatly fold it over onto the seat and staple a few staples to secure it.