Home DIY: Reupholstered Dining Chairs

Our dining table chairs have been starting to look a little worse for wear these days. Not surprising since the cushions are a beige suede fabric and we have a grubby-handed toddler. Sure, with enough scrubbing they come fairly clean, but they always seem to look dirty so my solution was to give them a kid-proof makeover.

What makes it kid-proof? Outdoor fabric of course!


Yes, I reupholstered the chair cushions with outdoor fabric, which is durable, easily wipes clean, and still has a homey feel to it. If you're interested in taking on this task, here's how it's done...


What you'll need:


Screwdriver - size and style differs depending on your chairs
Flathead screwdriver
Pliers
Fabric - I used a solid black outdoor fabric
Staple gun
Staples
Scissors


Directions:


Remove the seat cushion. Unscrew the seat cushion from the chair frame. Mine was held in with 3 screws. Make sure you keep your screws in a safe place you'll need them to reattach the seat.

Remove the underside fabric. This is usually a thin piece of fabric or heavy paper used to cover the edges of the upholstery fabric. Pry the staples up with a Flathead screwdriver and pull them out with pliers. 

Remove old upholstery (optional). I omitted this step because my old fabric was not overly heavy or dingy, plus it would have taken me an entire week to remove all of the staples on all 8 chairs. You'll want to remove the old upholstery if it's textured or dirty. If you choose not to remove it as I did then make sure you clean the existing fabric really well.


Measure and cut the fabric. Cut your fabric to fit the seat cushion with enough overlap on all sides to wrap and staple to the underside.

Wrap and staple. Pictured below.
Center your seat cushion on the fabric, fold one side over and secure in the center with one staple.
Pull the fabric snug (but not so tight that it distorts the cushion) and secure on the opposite side with a staple.
Take a look at the cushion top, if all looks good staple along both secured sides; keep the fabric taut.
Repeat the process on the remaining two sides.

Staple the corners. Tuck and fold each corner, try and smooth out the wrinkles as much as possible. Depending on your fabric this can be next to impossible. Outdoor fabric tends to have less give than other home decor fabrics so inevitably there will be some wrinkles showing. Staple the fabric down with as many staples as you need.

Trim and replace underside cover. Trim the excess fabric. Replace the underside cover and secure it with staples.

Reattach the seat to the chair frame. Find the screws that you set aside and secure the seat cushion to the chair frame. Finished.

 I'm happy to report that these seat cushions survived the spaghetti sauce test!