how to re-cover a chair with fabric

15 January 2015

Hello!
chair after new fabric


Do you remember the pair of $5 chairs that I found at a yard sale this fall? They were stained and kind of gross, but I loved the classic shape and the color of the wood.
thrifty treasures

I mostly loved them because by examining them, I could see that I could put new fabric on them without sewing!! I took off the wooden screw caps in the back -- just pop them off. You can also find replacement caps at the hardware store.
screw cap on chair

There is the screw underneath:
screw under wood screw cap

With a screwdriver or drill, removed the cushions and you can cover right over the existing fabric, but curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see what was under the blue layer:
uncover fabric on chair

I just used my basic staple gun and lined up my fabric by eyeballing it, cut it out and stapled it around so that the wooden frame would hide the staples in the back.  On the bottom, it doesn’t matter, unless you care what you see when they are flipped upside down to make a fort.
putting new fabric on chair

And there you have it. It probably took about an hour and a half total for both chairs. I chose a darker indoor/outdoor fabric with a pattern so that it can be easily wiped down and repel stains. It’s called Robert Allen Indoor/Outdoor Baja Diamond Indigo.
how to recover a chair

We keep them by the fireplace unless we need more seating at the table.
chairs by fireplace

The total was $10 for the chairs + 2 yards of fabric at $10/yard = $30 for 2 chairs. Perfect!

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