How to Reupholster a Dining Chair Seat

Remember my dumpster chair? I finally finished it! Are you ready? (Note: This post will contain affiliate links. See more about my affiliations by reading my Disclosure Statement.)

Here’s what it looked like when I found it:

And then I removed the fleece blanket that the previous owner had used to reupholster it. So it looked like this:

And it smelled HORRID. I’m pretty sure an animal peed on it.

So I took the seat off, scrubbed the wood (it was so filthy), lightly sanded, and primed.

Which is where I left you about three weeks ago, isn’t it?

Well, it took me a while to get the paint done because I majorly screwed up. And then I couldn’t figure out how to do the cushion.

But I managed it. And now it looks like this:

Isn’t it pretty!?

Let me just show you more. Yes, I am going into picture overload today. I’m just too excited NOT to show you this chair from as many angles as possible. 😛

OK, let’s actually break this down.

How to Reupholster a Dining Chair Seat

Materials Used:

• 1 can spray primer
• 2 cans Colonial Red spray paint, Glossy
• fabric (from the $2.00 bin at Wal-Mart)
• light duty staple gun
• chair foam (I got a set of four from Wal-Mart)
• spray adhesive
• burlap

Reupholstering a dining chair cushion looks so easy. What I found was that it is REALLY not. Here’s how I made it work, though.

Step 01: I tore out the old upholstery and threw away the cushion. It was filled with this nasty brown stuff and it smelled absolutely terrible. As I said earlier, I’m fairly sure it had been urinated on. It was gross. So after I got that taken off (which took a while), I threw it all out. Then I got my foam, which wasn’t quite big enough. So I laid my seat frame on two pieces, traced it, and cut it out, and glued them together.

I did this twice, so the chair would have a lot of padding.

Step 02: I also cut out a piece of burlap to lay over those springs. I didn’t want my cushion to fall through the chair, so the burlap was necessary. I cut it into a square, stapled it to the frame, and then trimmed it down to size.

Next, I took my foam, used my spray adhesive to glue the foam to the burlap and then more spray adhesive to glue the next layer of foam to the first layer.

And then the fun began.

Step 03: I cut out a square of fabric and spent an hour and a half trying to figure out how to put it on the frame so it wouldn’t have creases.

Once I figured it out (I folded the fabric over in a couple inconspicuous spots), I took my stapler and stapled the fabric down. The underside looked like this:

I didn’t want fabric poking out, but I also didn’t feel like trimming it. So I used more burlap to give it a slightly more professional-looking bottom.

All covered!

Here’s what it looked like:

Then it was a simple matter of attaching the seat to the chair. It came with screws, so not a big deal.

Here’s a comparison photo:

I love it! It came out even nicer than I hoped it would.

So it’s been decided–I’m decorating my guest room in red. 😀

What do you think? Have you ever reupholstered something? I’d loved to see it, so feel free to share it on my Facebook wall!