DIY Upholstery is a great way to update old seating. It breathes new life into old furnishings and possibly saves furniture pieces from the landfill. A win-win.
And to me, the simplest of all DIY upholstery projects is the typical seat cover refresh. Loosen the four screws under the seat cushion. Pull the new fabric over the seat. Staple the new fabric under the seat. Reattach the seat. Easy Peasy! I’ve lost count as to how many friends I’ve helped with this.
But what if you have skirted dining chairs? We’re going to tackle this very thing in this first project. And a small recliner in the second project 🙂
DIY Upholstery: Project #1 (Skirted Dining Room Chairs)
We have a wood dining table that I love. But I don’t love matchy – matchy chairs. I prefer contrasting dining chairs. However, these chairs (that once belonged to my mom) were in definite need of an update!
Not only was the color from a bygone era, the skirts were just not doing it for me.
I had never worked with skirted chairs. So I’ll admit it seemed a bit daunting. But I knew I didn’t like them the way they were. So my thought was “What do I have to lose? I don’t like them, I can’t make them worse” lol.
DIY Upholstery is All About Trial and Error for Me
Since I am not a professional with upholstery, I figure things out as I go. If it’s something I’ve never done before, I will choose a spot and just start taking it apart. And I will sometimes take photos if I think I need to remember how something came apart.
This is another one of my early posts. So, I do not have photos of the “process”. But trust, this was not hard. Ripping off skirts is just a matter of flipping the chairs upside down. Then finding the staples that hold the fabric to the chair.
You can use either a flat screwdriver or professional furniture staple puller to remove each of the staples. And you simply work your way around.
Once I removed the skirts, these chairs were immediately updated! Just look at the difference below. But I did also update the fabric.
Two-Piece Chair Covers (Dealing with the Chair Bases)
For this DIY upholstery project, I covered the bases separately from the backs. And in this case, I didn’t even remove the chair bases. I simply used my pneumatic staple gun to staple the fabric around the base.
I did it this way because there were holes in the wood frame (as you can see below) I knew I was going to add a decorative element to hide all my work.
Two-Piece Chair Covers (Dealing with the Chair Backs)
Basically, I made slipcovers for the chair backs. With my fabric inside out, I cut fabric pieces about ½” larger than the frame of the chair backs. For each chair, I cut a front piece, a back piece and a gusset piece.
Then I used straight pins to attach the pieces together around the back of the chair. Once I was happy with the fit, I sewed the pieces together. (This method worked for me because my chair backs are the same width top to bottom.)
Next, I turned the slipcovers right side out and slipped the covers over the chair backs. On the back side (as shown in the photo below) I folded the raw edge of the fabric under. Then used my pneumatic staple gun to pull the fabric tight. I was careful to pull the fabric just to the point where my seams would still line up at the top of the chairs.
A Word About Pneumatic Staple Guns
Pneumatic tools (aka air tools) are your friend!! Yes, you will need a compressor. But a small compressor is usually sufficient for most upholstery projects. Believe, once you’ve used an air staple gun, you will never go back to manual staplers!
There are various staple sizes to be aware of and various gauges (referring to the thickness of the metal staples). It’s important to purchase staples to match the staple gun.
First you’ll need to check that the crown size (referring to the top width of the staple) matches your staple gun. There are 3 common widths: 1/4″ (narrow crown); 3/8″ (medium crown); 1/2″ (wide crown). I prefer 1/2″ crown because its putting more staple “surface” in contact with the fabric. Plus 1/2″ wide staples are easier to remove.
Next you’ll need to check that the staple gauge matches the capability of your staple gun. If the staples are too soft for your staple gun (or vice versa) you’ll run into trouble.
And you also want to be mindful of the staple length (referring to how long the staple “legs” are). There are several common lengths to suit your needs. Most staple guns will accommodate varying lengths of staples.
So you only need one gun for upholstery work with different lengths of staples. For example, if you are attaching thick fabric to something, then a longer staple length would be better. However, if the fabric is thin, you could get away with a short 1/4″ long staple.
The 1/2″ crown, 21 gauge staple gun that I have used for years, has no brand name. But I recently purchased a Meite brand decorative nail gun and it’s been great. So that’s the brand I’m recommending below. Here’s a link to a short, helpful article on this topic.
Decorative Fabric Trim to Finish These Dining Chairs
There are tons of options for fabric trim with all sorts of price ranges. I ended up using something left over from the curtain project in the same room. Not only did this save me money but it was a sure match.
And here are the finished chairs!
DIY Upholstery: Project #2 (No Sew Upholstery for Small Recliner)
Recliners are not trendy. But I find them to be so efficient. You get the comfort of a footrest without taking up extra room for a footrest. The footrest just folds right under the chair. Ingenious to me!
When things are not on trend, it makes it very hard to find good options. Of course, there is the custom order option. But I will usually try to do something first on my own before going the custom order route. It’s just who I am 🙂
So I decided to try and find a small recliner and recover it. Facebook Marketplace is my favorite source for pre-owned furniture pieces. And it did not let me down. I found this sweet deal for $50!!
Apologies! It was an after-thought for me to take any photos of this project. So I don’t have a complete “before” photo. And unfortunately, my “process” photos are not very thorough. But there’s enough here to give you the general idea.
Before purchasing it, I had to ask myself that all-important question that I ALWAYS ask. What’s the worst possible thing that can happen? I might mess it all up and lose $50. For me, $50 was a great price so I could take a chance and learn how to recover a recliner.
I did make sure it worked properly. And thankfully, it didn’t have any funky smells.
Recliners Come Apart into Smaller Pieces
I watched a couple of YouTube videos for how to upholster a recliner. Then jumped right in. Unfortunately, I can’t find any simple tutorials today. When I did mine in 2018, it was not that complicated at all.
My recliner only has 2 main parts. Part 1 is the chair itself with the foot rest mechanism (above photo). Part 2 (the base unit) is this small frame with two sides (armrests), the 4 legs, and two metal bars at the bottom. Part 1 gets bolted to Part 2.
This is the underside of Part 2 (the base unit). I have it turned on its side so I can remove the staples and take off the old fabric.
This is also the base unit but its standing on its own 4 feet. So its easier to tell these are the armrests. (I have already covered one side)
After I took mine apart. I cut separate pieces of fabric to cover each element. I followed what was already there. It was pretty easy to tell how they were hiding their mechanics.
I Made a Work Around So I Didn’t Have to Sew Anything
Then for the sides of the base unit, I saw they had sewn pieces that slipped over each side. But I didn’t want to sew for this project. So I covered the base unit in 2 steps. The following steps are my work around.
Step 1: I covered the inside of the armrests first. I started by stapling the fabric to the wood frame at the bottom. Then I pulled the fabric taught from the bottom – up and over the armrest to the outside of the base unit. Then leaving about 1″ excess all around the outside, I stapled that fabric to the side frame. Sorry, no photo 🙁
Step 2: I traced two pieces of cardboard to match the shape of the two sides. Then with spray glue, I fabric-covered the cardboard and pulled the raw edges around to the backside of the cardboard. Next, I hot glued these cardboard pieces onto the sides of the base unit to hide all the raw edges from Step 1.
Special NOTE: One of my fabrics had a large pattern. I made sure to match/mirror the pattern on the left and right sides of the chair.
This is still the base unit with one side recovered. I did this in the 2 steps described above. Cutting the cardboard to the exact shape of the sides was very important. I was also paying attention to the placement of the pattern. And I mirrored this exact placement on the opposite side.
I Figured Out How To Use Furniture Tack Strips!
The hardest parts were the sections with furniture tack strips. Furniture tack strips are the secret to getting a professional-looking finish. You use them underneath the fabric to secure the fabric in place without visible staples.
For my recliner, these furniture tack strips (3 of them) were only on the back. I was able to reuse the ones that originally came off my recliner. This video shows how to deal with furniture tack strips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCX3sUtHPgg
This is the main unit (Part 1) leaning over on the base unit (Part 2). It made it easier for me to work on the back.
You can see from the photo below, I LOVE mixing textures and fabrics. And I LOVE this gold Cheetah so much that I used it on both of these upholstery projects but 5 years apart!
This video is SUPER thorough for you research junkies 😊. However, I’ll admit this video is a lot more complicated than it was for my recliner. But perhaps that’s because my chair is not a La-Z-Boy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGWCY0Pmyjo
Here’s a look at my completed recliner. It’s my favorite chair for reading in the bedroom.
Materials Used for DIY Upholstery
24″ x 36″ Self-healing cutting mat
3M Super 77 Spray Adhesive 16.75oz
Tools Used for DIY Upholstery
Pneumatic 21 gauge 1/2″ crown staple gun
21 gauge 1/2″ crown staple assortment
Air compressor starter kit (20 piece)
Brother strong and tough sewing machine
Take Away
Sometimes projects can seem daunting. But learning new things is how we keep growing. Look for ways, to update your surroundings, that don’t involve a lot of money. This will often lead to even bigger successes.
Here’s to trying new things and Making it Fabulous!
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