When it comes to recovering a seat on a dining room chair, I am shocked that some people don’t understand the ease of the task. They live with chairs they either don’t like, have been soiled for years, or simply don’t work with their current decor. Let me show you how easy it is!
First, your chair seat must be the type that screws to the frame of the chair. Turn your chair upside down and unscrew and separate the seat from the frame.
This is an opportunity to change the color of the chair if you’d like. A couple coats of spray paint could do the trick. Or, as I show here, you can take a sandpaper sponge and rub it along the edges to give a little distressed look. If your chairs are old, they might already be gently distressed, so a little more might just give it the perfect character. Your chair might have a little carved detail that would look better if you added a little glaze or paint color to enhance the detail.
Select a fabric that works best for your decor. Maybe you need a bold pattern or maybe a textural solid might be best. Generally 3 yards of fabric that is 54” wide will be enough for six to eight chairs. You can usually cut the fabric in half. This will cover two seats per width. You want to make sure to center any particular pattern. Make sure not to cut the fabric too short. You want enough to wrap over the seat and pull to the underneath to staple.
Begin stapling along the underside on the front. Do not pull it tight….yet. And don’t get too close to the corner….yet.
Next go to the back. Now pull the fabric tight and staple. Then do the left and right sides. This will leave the corners next.
The fabric I am using here is a lightweight fabric, so it is easy to pleat around the corner and staple. You can roll a thinner fabric under itself as you pull it back and tight. If your fabric is heavier, you will need to pleat the fabric around the corner a little more.
You can certainly cut a piece of fabric to fit on the underside of the seat to make a nice and clean look. However, no one will ever look under your chair, so I usually leave it raw.
Once covered, you can screw the seat back where it was on the frame.
See how easy that was?!
