Reupholstering a Chair

By April Carroll, Habitat for Humanity - La Crosse Area ReStore Intern

​Tools:
Hammer
Screwdriver
Needle nose pliers
Tape measure
Staple Gun
Sewing pins
Scissors
Sandpaper
Sewing tape measure

Materials:
Chair
Upholstery fabric (I used about 3 yards for this vintage French style chair, but different chair types will have different fabric needs)
Scrap fabric
Small nails/tacks
Batting (if replacing old batting)
Wood stain
Cambric dust cover
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The first step after you get your chair should be to photograph it from all angles. As you take your old upholstery fabric off, you should also photograph each step to use later when putting on the new fabric. ​

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Remove the back piece first by removing the small nails or tacks that hold it in place. I used a flathead screwdriver to lift the old nails out enough to remove them with a needle-nose pliers. Keep the fabric as intact as you can and pin it to a piece of scrap fabric to use as a template for the new fabric. When tracing the old fabric, be sure to give an extra couple inches of excess around the old piece. Since the fabric gets trimmed after it is already on the chair, you will need the extra to make sure it fits properly.

I made sure to take close up photos of areas I thought may be tricky when reassembling the upholstery, and generally at each stage took photos from relevant angles to help me put it back together later.

​After you remove the back, front, and seat fabric, you can decide whether or not to keep the old batting or replace it. I chose to keep the original batting.

At this stage, it is optional for you to sand and re-stain the exposed wood on the chair. I started off with a medium-grit sandpaper (about 150) and when I was down to the exposed wood, switched to a higher (200+) grit until I was happy with the results. I wrapped sandpaper around a needle-nose pliers to get into the tricky spots and details. Putting down plastic tarp on the batting can help keep sawdust and wood stain from getting into the cushions, but you can always remove them instead. With chairs made before the 1950s, there is usually hay or horsehair under the batting and it can be difficult to separate without making a mess, so this is a nice alternative option. After you have sanded and stained your chair, you can start putting the new fabric on.

I started with the seat since it was the last thing I took off. Using the new fabric I cut from the old pieces, I could then reverse the steps I took to deconstruct the chair. This part can be tricky and fabric pins will be your best friend. Many fabric stores do offer upholstery twist screws to hold thicker fabric in place as you form it over the chair, but straight pins worked fine for me. The new fabric may not be a perfect fit, so use caution when trimming it to fit around the legs so you don’t take too much off. I used a staple gun to attach the bottom, folding as needed to get a tight fit. I found that squaring up and securing the front edge first allowed me to pull the fabric taut and more squarely secure the rest (it took a few tries). Keeping those bits of plastic tarp between the legs and cushion helped the fabric slide into place easier as well.

After the seat and front are on, the last piece of upholstery you put on should be the back section. After carefully pinning it into place, you can use decorative tacks to secure it, or you can use small nails. I found sewing tape to work nicely to help space the tacks evenly as I could pin the tape measure directly to the chair. As a tip, you can use a needle-nose pliers to hold the decorative tacks in place straight, so they don’t bend out of shape when you hammer them in.

The last step in finishing your chair is to add an optional Cambric Dust cover underneath the chair using a staple gun.

Congratulations! You have reupholstered a chair!