Chair reupholstery

At any time, without major expenses, you can replace the upholstery and make new upholstered furniture out of old. The skills of the furniture maker profession are interesting to learn; they can be an excellent help in everyday life.

The advantages of upholstering a chair with your own hands

Furniture purchased a long time ago, after new upholstery, will serve for a long time. A wood and metal frame in a heavily worn office or computer chair is usually like new.

ATTENTION! If the frame also needs restoration, then it is better to entrust the work to professionals.

Preparing for reupholstery

First, the chair must be carefully inspected. Typically, fabric and foam wear out first. The work will be done faster and easier if everything is prepared correctly in advance. Not many special tools are needed and most of them are available to any home craftsman:

• furniture stapler with 6 and 10 mm staples;
• stapler, screwdriver;
• glue gun with silicone glue sticks;
• large scissors;
• an ordinary hammer and a mallet.

To work with fabric, you need a sewing machine (depending on the model of the chair). In an old chair, the seat and back are usually sagging. To build them up, sheet foam rubber with a density of 25–35 g/m3 and synthetic padding with a density of 200–400 g/m2 are suitable.

Choosing fabric for the chair

Upholstery fabric is the main component of a successful upholstery.It should be tightly woven, durable and match other interior items in color and texture.

REFERENCE! It is best to buy fabric in a specialized furniture fabric store. The quality and color design of the products in such a store are best suited for furniture upholstery.

It is useful to take a closer look at the new products in the store. For example, even natural fabric with special impregnation is not afraid of coffee or juice spilled on it. Fabrics are made that are not afraid of the claws of pets, they are also the most wear-resistant today. High-quality durable fabrics can be found by their name:

1. Tapestry is a symbol of quality among upholstery materials. This fabric, made from natural threads, is very durable and will decorate furniture in the English style.
2. Flock is a relatively new fabric, obtained by gluing pile to a natural or mixed base.
3. Chinille, a jacquard fabric with a woven pattern, is very dense and durable.

REFERENCE! A beautiful result is obtained when upholstering with companion fabrics. The difference in shade and texture will make the furniture look sophisticated and unusual.

Disassembling the chair

Before removing the upholstery, it is useful to photograph the chair from different angles. This will help you navigate when assembling the parts of the cover and when upholstering it.

First, you need to turn the chair over, remove the legs and remove the brackets from the bottom. In some models, the armrests are removable and upholstered separately. Having disassembled the chair, if possible according to the model, you should begin dismantling the upholstery. The parts of the cover must be removed without damaging one of the symmetrical parts of the armrest. The back and seat are completely removable. Using the old parts, new ones will be cut from the purchased fabric.

Under the cover there is usually a layer of padding polyester and foam rubber.They also need replacing. Old foam rubber must be completely replaced if it crumbles over time. Whole sagging foam rubber can be extended with sheet polyurethane foam and padding polyester. In some models, a spring block is located inside the foam rubber. The condition of their connection is checked, if necessary, the springs are replaced and re-bandaged.

The chair has been disassembled, there is an opportunity to evaluate the upcoming work on its upholstery. Using a sharp furniture knife, new parts of foam rubber 2–4 cm thick are cut out. Foam rubber with greater thickness is cut with a very sharp large knife.

How to reupholster a chair with your own hands step by step

If the upholstery of the chair has difficult moments in connecting the layers of foam rubber, they also need to be photographed at the disassembly stage. These photos will help in the future.

Cutting the fabric and assembling the cover

The carefully removed cover is disassembled into individual parts. They should be carefully ironed with steam and aligned so that the weft and warp threads are at right angles. This way you can be sure that the consequences of fabric deformation during the first upholstery and use will be leveled out. The parts of the old cover have been restored, you can start cutting out new clothes for the chair. The parts are cut out on fabric laid out in one layer. The largest parts are placed first. Small parts are laid out between them.

IMPORTANT! The old parts and the new ones must match in the direction of the warp thread (the warp thread is a thread parallel to the edge of the fabric).

Fabric with a pattern has its own important cutting rules:

• first you need to choose the direction of the drawing - the top of the “flower” is always directed in one direction;
• For each large part, a center is determined; for a flower, it coincides with the center of the part;
• the direction of the backrest pattern coincides with the direction of the seat;
• the pattern on the armrests is directed from the outside to the center of the seat, i.e. the direction of the pattern on the armrest is perpendicular to the seat.

After cutting, you can start sewing. All lines from the old case are repeated in the reverse order of disassembling it. For sewing, use very strong threads. For finishing seams, they are selected in a color that matches the fabric and is thicker than for internal stitches.

When upholstering, some operations using staples are “hidden” in the groove of the frame (a recess with a diameter of one centimeter). This operation is completed by gluing a finishing cord matched to the color of the fabric. You can “dress” any cord of suitable diameter in fabric. The result will be even better than using ready-made finishing cord.

The cover is ready, you can upholster it.

Upholstering and assembling the chair

Using photographs taken in advance, we repeat the upholstery in reverse disassembly sequence. First, all large parts made of foam rubber and a spring block covered in foam rubber are installed. The spring block is attached to the frame. From above everything is dressed with padding polyester. All layers of foam rubber and padding polyester are glued using suitable glue.

Fabric parts are upholstered using a furniture stapler. Upholstery tension should be strongest on the seat, backrest and armrests. All other parts of the chair are upholstered so that there is no slack anywhere, the fabric is carefully straightened. In the corners, where necessary, small symmetrical folds are laid.

After upholstering the components, you can begin their installation. All metal fasteners should be replaced with new ones.A finishing cord is glued into the grooves, and finishing elements made of carved wood are mounted. The back of the chair and the bottom are upholstered last, and the legs are mounted.

REFERENCE! Specialized stores have a large selection of legs of different models. Carried out together with the reupholstery of the chair, replacing the legs will be the finishing touch in creating “new” furniture.

Upholstering upholstered furniture can be an interesting hobby and an additional source of income. A good direction for realizing creative potential.