I am back with another DIY. This time I am inside again.
I decided I wanted to redo our dining room chairs. These chairs have padding that was way overdue for a “redo” and I knew that myself and any guest would greatly appreciate this project.
Unlike most of my projects, this one wasn’t from Pinterest. I started this project at my local JOANN Fabrics. Shout out to the girls at the Queen Street, York, PA store because they were amazing. They helped me calculate the amount of padding and fabric I would need for this project and showed me the different padding options I had. I think they went over and beyond this busy day in their store and can’t thank them enough.
Supplies Used:
- Flat head screwdriver
- Electric drill
- Phillips screwdriver
- Heavy duty staple gun
- Staples
- Pliers
- Fabric scissors
- Serrated kitchen knife (or electric carving knife)
- Fabric
- Foam padding
First Step: Remove the chair seat from the chair. My chair seat came apart fairly easily. I flipped the chair over to find the screws that attached the seat to the base of the chair. I used an electric drill and screwdriver to remove all the screws.
Second Step: Take apart the seat of the chair. I used a flat head screwdriver and a pair of pliers to remove the staples that held the fabric onto the seat. Once the staples were all removed from both the main fabric and the felt cover on the bottom, I was able to access the very worn padding. I can say this project was way overdue, you know that the padding is old when it crumbles as you handle it.
Third Step: Cut your fabric and padding. I used the wooden frame of the seat as a template to cut my foam padding. I laid the foam on a workspace table and cut it into smaller, easier-to-handle squares using a serrated kitchen knife (you can also use an electric carving knife). I then traced the wooden frame onto the smaller squares of foam and used a serrated kitchen knife to cut out my shape. Then, I moved on to thefabric. The store provided the fabric on a roll which made it much easier to work with. I unrolled sections of fabric on my workspace table and cut the fabric into easier-to-handle sizes. I used the old fabric I removed from a chair as a template but I knew that I would need to cut the new fabric in a larger size since my padding was four times thicker than the original.
Fourth Step: Attach the fabric and padding to the chair seat. On my table, I laid the fabric for one chair then laid the padding in the center of my fabric and then the wooden chair seat frame on top of my padding. Once I had all pieces layered, I roughly pulled the fabric around the padding and onto the wood frame to ensure that I had it all placed properly. Once I pulled my fabric as tightly as I could, I stapled the fabric to the wood frame on each side, using a basic heavy duty staple gun, which can be purchased at any hardware store typically for $20. Once all the fabric was stapled onto the wood frame securing the foam padding, I reattached the felt fabric that covered the wood frame on the bottom of the seat using the staple gun as well. The felt covers all of the rough edges of your fabric and gives it a very nice finished look.
Final Step: Attach seat to chair frame. Turning the chair frame upside down again, I placed the newly finished seat on the chair and reattached it using the screws I removed previously when disassembling the chair in the beginning, using the electric drill and the screwdriver to tighten the seat securely onto the chair frame.
If you had a good experience with a recent DIY, I’d love to hear from our followers. I’m looking for my next project, any suggestions?
Realtors Jen and Larry Lindt 