One of the easiest projects you can do is to recover your diningroom chairs.  I’ve done this project several times over the years and it is amazingly simple.  Of course you have to start with a chair that has a fabric, vinyl or leather seat to begin with.  Tools you will need are; screw drivers, pliers, and maybe a hot glue gun.

If you turn the chair upside down and look at the corners of the seat from beneath likely you will see the screws holding the seat to the frame.  Remove these screws and the seat should come off easily.   As you look at the bottom of the seat you are probably thinking this doesn’t look too professional how they attached the covering to my chair seat.  At least that’s what I’ve thought when I looked at the roughly cut fabric and the staples holding on the fabric.

 Usually I leave the existing fabric in place and cover the old with new.  However if you have had some damage to the covering or the cushioning below that would show through the new covering then remove those pieces. 

If you needed to remove the foam cushion it is easy to find a replacement at stores like “Michaels” or “Hobby Lobby”.  Replace with a cushion that has similar density and cut to the same dimension as the one removed.  Shopping at some of the larger fabric stores you will find fabric suitable for you chairs and it doesn’t take a lot of fabric to do this project.  Use the existing covering to help esimate how much material you will need.

OK we are ready to start.  Place the fabric face down on your working surface.  If you are replacing the cushion place it in the middle of the fabric and place the seat face down in the middle of the cushion.  If you didn’t replace the cushion just place the seat face down in the middle of the fabric.

Begin in the middle of one side and pull the fabric to the back of the seat with a little tension and staple the fabric in place on the back of the seat.  Now go to the opposite side and pull the fabric to the back and pull the fabric tight enough so it has some tension on the front of the chair but not too much.  Don’t wrinkle the existing fabric.  I’m probably making this sound harder than it is. 

After putting a couple staples in both sides repeat the process top and bottom and continue working from the middle of all side towards the corners.  When you get to within say 3 inches of the corners try folding the corners just like you do when you are wrapping a present and establish how you will finish your corner. 

Once you have stapled the fabric to the seat flip it over and have a look.  Chances are it looks great but if you have some changes you need to make remove the staples in that area and try again.  If you have a lot of excess fabric trim the excess with scissors or an exacto knife.

 When you are happy with the results merely reattach the seat to the chair frame with the screws you removed. 

I’m always shocked how easy it was and what a dramatic difference if makes.

If you want you chair to look a little more finished or up scale, the same fabric stores you found the fabric in will have piping trim which can be either stapled or hot glued to the seat before reattaching the seat to the chair.

This easy project saves both energy and natural resources in the manufacture of a new chair as well as reduces waste to our landfills.