Your kitchen chairs become outdated over time through wear and tear. Reupholstering is the best simple and inexpensive way to bring the chairs back to life. Installing new fabric on these chairs requires no complex sewing, so you should be able to do the task yourself.
☰ Our Top Choices
show
Upholstery Supplies and Tools You Need
You need to have the right tools on hand before you start to reupholster your kitchen chairs. Here are the things that you will need:
Required tools
- Hand tools
- Pliers
- Scissors
- Screwdriver
- Stapler
- Hammer
- Hand saw
Required materials
- High-density foam
- Plywood (if necessary)
- Quilt batting
- Upholstery fabric
- Upholstery staples
Steps on How to Reupholster a Kitchen Chair
Removing the old upholstery
- Unscrew the seat of the chair from its base by using a screwdriver. Keep the screws on the side as these will be used to reattach the new base once you are done.
- Remove the tacks and staples that hold the fabric and the seat together by using the back of a hammer to pull it upwards. Start from inside to outside to make sure that everything has been pulled free. Dispose of the old parts properly to avoid any accidents or injuries from the tiny sharp objects.
- Lift the seat fabric from the seat as you will be replacing its padding.
- Check the sturdiness of the seat base. If it has been weak or damaged, replace it with a new one. Trace the dimensions of the old seat on a piece of plywood using a marker. Using a hand saw, cut the marked lines and make it as a replacement for your old seat base.
Padding and dust cover replacement
- Put the new fabric on top of the seat base and cut its edges to get the dimensions. This remains hidden under the fabric and the foam so it’s okay if the edges are jagged. Placing a dust cover prevents the sagging of the seat base.
- Carefully staple the dust cover fabric around the edges of the seat base to secure it in place. Place a single staple at each side’s center going outwards. Work with this while pulling the fabric cloth.
- Put the frame of the seat on top of the foam. Mark its edges using a pen. Use a butter knife to cut the foam from the lines that you have traced as the guide.
- Place the foam on top of the seat frame to ensure that its edges match with each other. Cut out whatever exceeds the frame to keep the chair seat clean.
- Make sure that the seat batting goes up on the edges of the back seat by at least two inches on all sides.
- Start stapling the edge of the batting from the center. Work on this towards the seat corners and repeat this on the other side.
- Fold the corners of the seat batting and secure it with a stapler.
- Cut the excess of the seat batting once it is secured to prevent any fabric threads from hanging by the side.
Attaching the new upholstery
- The cushion and the seat batting must be placed against the fabric. Make sure that there are at least four inches of distance from the fabric edges.
- Cut the fabric cloth for at least four inches from the cushion edges to cover it.
- Pull the fabric upwards on each of the edges and locate its center. Staple its center to secure the fabric in place and repeat this thrice on each side of the seat.
- Fold the corners of the fabric and cut the fabric of the dust cover on each side. Staple each edge to keep it in place.
- Reattach the base of the chair to the seat by screwing it back tightly.
