How I upholstered my chairs!
The Pyjama Editorial
February 22, 2019
Want a new chair now? Without the hassle of getting rid of the old ones?
I got you!
Well, not new-new, but refreshed.
Right, so a bit of context first:
I DYI'd my way through furnishing my flat, and this is my latest venture. Me and my boyfriend needed decent chairs, but couldn't spend a lot of money. One day, walking down the street we found two chairs saying "free". They were quite sturdy and looked perfect in my living room. But I had to clean the cushions and make them look good somehow.
And so, I came up with this idea to re-use left ofter curtain fabric (that I had no other use for) to give them a lift! I did forget to take a photo of the original cushions, but to give you an idea, they were dark brownish-red and the fabric had some wear & tear marks.
Important tip:
Do steam-clean and sanitize before thinking of keeping anything second-hand. Your health/safety is more important.
Thus, today I am sharing with you 1 SIMPLE WAY to upholster any old chair (or even sofa!) with only fabric and one other tool! This is a great project if you have a set of curtains you like but don't see yourself using anymore, or even an old duvet cover with a cool pattern!
Turns out you can actually save money and decorate your flat just the same - and upholstering a chair isn't even that hard - read through for a simple trick!
For this simple DYI, all I used was a staple gun! I'm terrible with hot glue guns, and no good at sewing, so I went for the next best thing, stapling. It does take a bit of finesse, my result wasn't perfect - but it looks very shabby chick (I hope!).
Excuse my dinossaur hand, ahem.
You can get a staple gun at any hardware store, or generalist store (like Wilko). Fabric might be more expensive if bought specifically for this; but the purpose of this dyi was to save money, and re-use fabric.
I was extremely lucky with these chairs, as they were easy to dismantle. It is more challenging to work around weird angles and legs. If you are looking to do this and your chair isn't easily dismantled, make sure to take frequent breaks in order to not over-strain your back.
In total, I think I spent about an hour for two chairs. It is very quick to get done. And you can't even see the staples! (Tip: You can easily hide them in the bottom part if you sew along the corners as most times the corner of the cushion will sit on the chair structure and hide the staples from view!)
One thing to keep in mind, however, is that a heavy duty staple gun is not exactly indicated for upholstery projects. Specially with cushions, since they are usually made of foam, if you try to staple anything to the soft part of the cushion it will not stay. My tip is to staple along the corners as youºve read above, where the fabric will be thicker and stable enough to hold the staples.
You can also add extra foam to your cushion, by wrapping the outside (or with glue or staples or even sewing) or the cushion in it before adding your new cushion cover.
Do you have any tips of your own for easy upholstery? If so, leave them down in the comments!
This is a DYI that even the most un-crafty person can try! As you've seen it is super easy.
And as you get into the hang of it, there is even youtube videos explaining how to replicate an "invisible stitch" but with staples!
Let me know if you try this easy trick, would love to see your results!
Love,
Vee x
