I've had this chair for a few years and to tell you the truth, I actually hated it for the longest time. I wanted to change it so I would like it, but I didn't know how. So, eventually it got a total makeover. Yep, stripped to its bare wood and recovered it. What a job the stripping was... and the first new fabric was okay, just not a OKAY, if you know what I mean. So, here she is when I first got her. The wood was painted with a crackle effect and probably looked pretty elegant in its day. The fabric wasn't too bad, but a bit outdated. Somehow I saw some potential there. Here are the supplies needed for this project.
So I decided the best course of action was to strip her down to the bare wood. For any of you who have stripped furniture, you know that it is a bit of a job, but most always a worthwhile endeavor. This one was for sure, worth it.
At first, I wasn't sure about the variation in the wood, but having spent hours/days getting the old finish off, I wasn't too keen on painting it, so I left it alone and I have grown to love it. I added a wax finish to give it a more cohesive look, which you can see in the final photo at the end of this post. I then covered it in a fabric that was okay, but not OKAY. I purchased it on sale, which is always good, but it was one of those "better than nothing" purchases. I lived with it for a while and then decided that I just wasn't completely satisfied with the final look. So, I found another fabric and I think I hit the nail on the head. So here we go.
So here is the old fabric. I know, I know, it's not bad at all, but I had another vision. So the following photos will show you how I recovered this chair for the second time.
I removed the dust cover before I took this photo, but you can see the dozens of staples that I needed to remove. Ugh!
Here is a picture of how the back looks before fabric is applied. Under the batting that you see here are layers of foam and between them are upholstery straps that are stapled to the back as shown below.
And that's not all of them.
I used the old seat cover as a pattern to cut out the new one. Isn't this fabric dreamy? It really does go perfectly with the decor in the room.
What you are seeing here are the pinned side gussets that I had to sew on the seat cover so that it would fit snugly around the arms of the chair.
There it is sewn in place.
And it tucks neatly and snugly around the seat form. Working from the bottom of the seat, I stapled the new fabric cover into place. The method is as follows: (Note: when stapling, you want to pull the fabric taut, just enough to give it a flat effect.)
Staple top north center
Staple bottom south center
Staple east side
Staple west side
Working from center toward corners, staple each side about every inch, leaving enough room to gather the corners.
At each corner, carefully fold the fabric while pulling it toward the center of the corner and staple into place. This part can be a little tricky, but if you feel you're not comfortable with its finished look, remove staples and do it again.
The back of the chair has two sides and I did the same by using the old piece as a pattern to cut new pieces and stapled to the front and back very close the the edge of the wood frame. I then trimmed away the excess using my very sharp scissors... snip, snip, snip.
Next, it was time to add the cording. I got lucky, finding this cording in the exact color of yellow that was in the fabric. Making my own cording was the other option, but I thought this was very attractive and added some nice texture to the chair.
Using fabric glue, I pressed the cording into place and let it sit and boy oh boy, this glue is strong and holds very well. I added cording to both front and back.
And here she is in all her glory. I hope this tutorial was helpful. Feel free to message me with any questions.
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