Read below to see how you can easily upholster an existing furniture piece as DIY project. All you need are a few tools, some fabric, and a vision!
Are you looking for a quick and easy way to elevate furniture in your existing space? Or maybe you bought a set of chairs on facebook marketplace, but the fabric is absolutely hideous? I always thought upholstering furniture would be really difficult, but with the right tools, you can make it happen!
I had never actually upholstered anything myself until my mom came to me with an idea to fix up her current 8 piece dining chair set. I've always wanted to learn, so my grandma, my mom and I got right to it!
Here's what you'll need:
Fabric of your choosing
Sharp fabric scissors
Needle nose pliers
Screw driver
Measuring tape and pencil
Electric drill
Staple gun
Staples ( We used the "Central Pneumatic 20-Gauge, 3/8" long, 1/2" Crown" staples)
Portable compressed air tank
Make sure you have all of your materials ready to go before you begin the process.
1. Order any materials you don't already have.
First, order the fabric that you want for your pieces. Depending on where you purchase this from and how much you need , it could take a few days to a few months to arrive. The materials listed above were used throughout the entire process and were important pieces to the success of this project!
2. Clear table space to work on.
It is very important to be able to lay out your fabric to cut and upholster.
3. Disassemble your piece.
Since I was doing a set of dining chairs, this meant I just had to take the seat part off. I did this by turning the piece over and taking the screws out with an electric drill.
4. Remove any fabric you don't want.
This is a step we skipped. Since the new fabric we bought wasn't super plush, we kept it underneath for added cushion. It doesn't matter if you remove it or not.
*If the piece has a black light fabric on it that hides the excess fabric below, I would suggest carefully removing it with the screw driver and plyers. We did this so that at the end it can be added back to the underside of the chair to make it look more finished overall.
5. Cut your fabric.
This is a step where you will want to triple check your work. The key here is to get the most out of your fabric, but not to make it too small that its hard to work with. Our general way we measured was to make sure there was about 3 inches of fabric on each side of the chair to be able to wrap it up and staple it. This is just a general statement so you'll have to make your best judgement for your piece. When you decide what looks right for your piece, mark your cutting line with a pencil and cut using your fabric scissors. I typically fold the fabric on the line I want to cut and cut down the line that way.
6. Load your staples and turn on your air pressure tank.
Load your staples before turning the tank on!!! It may take a bit for your pressure tank to reach an appropriate pressure point. We waited until it was at 100psi before beginning.
*If your staples aren't coming out at first you either A. Don't have enough pressure or B. Your staples were loaded incorrectly or are jammed. Turn of the machine before checking what went wrong if you think its the staples.
7. Staple your fabric to your piece.
Make sure all of your staples are on the under side of your piece and are stapled directly to the wood frame. There is no rule to how many staples you put in, but you'll need enough to keep the fabric taut. We found success in stapling the sides before folding in the corners.
If there is a cut out corner piece.... Test different folding methods that will keep the fabric taut all around. Since you are folding the corners, this will leave you with excess fabric underneath. I would advise to make the fabric isn't to thick to where it makes it difficult to screw the seat back on at the end. The more consistent you can make your folding on each corner, the better.
**One thing I should note is that I had my mom and grandma help me. It was SO much easier to have one person holding the fabric taut while the other stapled. We all agreed that this process would have been a lot more difficult with one set of hands, however, I'm sure it is doable.
8. Put you cover fabric back on. (See step 4 for reference)
If you took the black fabric cover piece off in step 4, staple it back on to hide all the excess fabric underneath. We decided to also return the original chair tags back on for added resale value.
9. Screw the seat back in place and you're done!
Now you can enjoy your piece! This simple update truly helped brighten up the space. The hardest part was needing more than one person to make it happen, but I'd be interested to try it alone. For it being my first time upholstering something, I think these turned out really well!!
If you found this post helpful be sure to #share the link on any socials! Happy DIY! #upholstery #upholsterdiy #howtoreupholster #howtoupholster #diningchairdiy #chairreupholstery #homediyproject
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