Have you ever found a simple chair for a great price but the cloth upholstery is in rough condition?
This is exactly the issue we recently ran into. We found this cute metal vanity chair for an amazing price and knew it would be perfect for our antique booth. There was one major issue though, the chair needed a serious uplift. We liked the semi chippy finish of the enameled metal but it desperately needed new fabric and larger screws to affix the cushions to the metal frame. Perfect for our first go at an upholstery project! Follow along below to see how we refinished this piece and our tips as a first time "upholsterer."
List of supplies we used during this project:
- A simple chair with easy to remove cushion
- Needle Nose Pliers for removing any old staples
- Assorted Screwdrivers (Depending on your chair)
- Fabric Scissors (We used both 9in Ginger and 6in Karen Kay Buckley Serrated scissors however, any sharp scissors will do. These are amazing scissors if you sew or quilt though!)
- +/- 1 yard of Cushion Wrap or Xtra Loft Batting (We used Xtra Loft Batting and will explain more below)
- +/- 1 yard of Fabric of your choice (We used this cotton Duck Cloth Canvas from Hobby Lobby)
- +/1 1 yard of Polypropylene Fabric also known as Oly-Fun Fabric (We used this Slate Oly-Fun color from Hobby Lobby)
- A Staple Gun (Nothing fancy required any will do we used this Small Arrow Stapler)
- Staples for your staple gun (We recommend 5/16th or larger)
- A Hot Glue Gun (Ours is an older model from Hobby Lobby, any will work)
- Fabric Hot Glue Sticks
- Coordinating Ribbon for Covering Edges (We used this on the back of the chair to cover where the seat back screwed onto the metal frame. Your chair may not require this.)
- Rubber Finger Protectors (We found these helpful for applying the ribbon listed, completely optional ours came from Dollar Tree in a 2-pack)
To begin this project, we removed our chair cushions from the back and bottom of our small vanity chair. For us this meant removing the remaining screws, however each chairs cushions are different and removal may differ slightly. We quickly saw that this particular piece had previously been refinished several times which added to the number of fabric layers we needed to remove and tons of staples. Working layer by layer we removed the fabric until we found the original layer. We found that a combination of needlenose pliers and flathead screw drivers were helpful in removing the staples from the piece.
The original layer was in good condition for the back cushion and we decided to leave it for added protection for the foam. The bottom cushion was well worn so we took off the original fabric and rewrapped the foam with polyester batting.
*A quick side note - We opted for the cheaper option which was the high loft polyester batting as opposed to the upholstery cushion wrap. For us this was a simple decision since our chair was a decorative piece and would not likely experience extensive daily use. If your chair is going to be used regularly then we would recommend using the cushion wrap which is a better-quality material and intended for extensive use.
When we rewrapped this cushion, we removed the original fabric from the tufting and on the foam grooves. We opted to leave the original tufting buttons as they were not felt after we applied the batting over the original foam. For this step the needle nose Karen Kay Buckley were great at cutting the material from under the tufting buttons allowing us to remove the material and leave the structure and original foam in place.
Working with a section of batting cut slightly larger than the wooden cushion we began stapling it to the base. I found that having roughly 1-inch of batting stretched around the cushion was a good amount to work with. When stapling we thought of the piece in terms of a clock beginning our staples at 12 o'clock, then at 6oclock followed by 3oclock and 9 o'clock. After the 4 anchoring staples were in, I continued this pattern working in-between the existing staples and working across the piece pulling tight and adjusting the batting to ensure a tight smooth finish.
The same steps were followed for the decorative top fabric for the top and bottom cushion. For the bottom we reduced the bulk of the fabric layers by trimming the batting slightly before adding the top fabric. If your layers are thicker and you notice you are having difficulty with your staples staying in place, just increase the staple size you are using.
After the fabric was added to the cushions it was time to cover the underside to hide the excess fabric and staples. This is where the Polypropylene Fabric (also known as Oly-Fun Fabric) came in handy. It is a synesthetic non-stretch fabric that does not fray and is easy to apply to the underside to finish the edges. We traced the wooden base onto the fabric and cut the circle slightly smaller (roughly 1/4 of in inch smaller) than the traced circle. This technique can be followed for any chair cushion shape. We applied the Oly-Fun circle to the base using a hot glue gun and fabric hot glue sticks. The finger protectors came in handy during this step as the glue is extremely hot and the Oly-Fun is very thin and the glue easily seeps through.
