How to Reupholster Dining Room Chairs

Once I painted the dining room table legs and refinished and stripped the wood on top, the chairs just didn’t match anymore and not just the color but the fabric of the seat. It was time to reupholster the dining chairs. And I decided to paint the chairs white to match the table legs using the HomeRight paint sprayer. This was my first time spraying paint on a chair or a piece of furniture that has a lot of angles. The first chair I sprayed did have some slight runs with the paint but as I practiced it definitely looked better.

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The first step to repaint and reupholster the chairs was to remove the cushion pad and fabric. We had to loosen the bolts of the entire chair and remove the braces. Once we did that the cushion was able to come off. The cushions of the chairs are comprised of a piece of particleboard, high-density foam, and then the fabric.

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Supplies Needed to Reupholster Dining Chairs

• Screwdriver (to remove the braces from the chair)
• Staple remover
• Pliers
• Home decor fabric
• Heavy-duty stapler

The next step was to remove the enormous amount of staples on the back of the cushion and then I had to decide on a fabric to replace the original ones. I ended up going through Fabric.com to purchase samples of ones I liked. I highly advise getting samples of the fabrics you like, that way you can see how the styles look in your space. I ended up ordering five samples and the total cost for that was about $14, shipping was quick and I could see and feel the texture.

In order to help me choose I ended up putting the samples all taped to the chair so I could see what the fabric looked like with the table, the painted chair, and the other elements in the room. I was immediately drawn to one type of fabric but I did end up doing a poll on Facebook to see what the popular opinion was. In the end, the popular opinion was the one I had originally liked.

So I ordered enough fabric, ended up being about one yard per chair. And it never hurts to have extra. I had kept the old fabric so I could use it as my template when cutting the new pieces.

Some tips when choosing fabrics for upholstery fabrics. Just know that home fabrics are not the cheapest and it can be expensive to reupholster. You could probably shop around and find something that’s a little cheaper but keep in mind that these fabrics are higher quality, higher knit. They have to be because they’re going to be on a piece of furniture that is heavily used. Make sure not to use any quilting type fabric as it will tear and not withstand the heavy usage.

Once all the pieces for the chairs were cut it was time to reassemble. The most important thing was going to be keeping the fabric tight. I used a lot of pulling and started on opposite sides. Once each seat looked good we were able to add the braces back. And the finished product looks fabulous!

Even our mama cat, Star thinks they are pretty cool!

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