Recovering Seat Cushions

Dining Room Update

Recovering Seat Cushions

I painted my walls a few weeks ago, and it opened a whole can of worms of other projects. I had my list, checked it twice, and headed to Hobby Lobby. While I was there looking for Christmas decor, I came across the most awesome blue chevron fabric. It took me a few minutes to think of a project to justify buying it, and then I remembered my boring dining room chairs! 

My friend, Sarah, and her husband gave me the table and chairs before they moved to Michigan about 6 years ago. The cushions were originally black, so I covered them in the silk fabric to lighten them up.

It's really easy to recover the cushions, and you only need a screw driver, scissors, and a heavy duty staple gun. I bought 1.5 yards of fabric, and that was enough for 4 chair cushions.

Here's what you do:

Flip the chair on its back, and use a screw driver to unscrew the cushions from the base of the chair.

This is what the cushion looked like after my last make-over. I decided not to bother removing the old fabric. I figured it would help hide the original fabric, which was so dark.

I cut the new fabric so there was about a 2-3 inch margin to wrap around each side of the bottom of the cushion. I basically cut the 1.5-yard fabric into 4 quarters. Also, I ironed each square before stapling the fabric to the seat cushion.

I laid the fabric face-side down on the floor and centered the cushion, seat-side down onto the back of the fabric. If you are using a patterned fabric, like I did, you'll want to be sure the pattern is straight and centered.

Work with two opposite sides at a time. I worked with the back and front sides first because they were parallel. Pull two sides taut without stretching the fabric too much, and place a staple in the middle and the corners to hold the fabric in place. Then place staples about every 1.5 to 2 inches apart.

The corners can be tricky. I pulled a little bit of fabric at a time, wrapped around the corner, and stapled in place.

Then I pulled a little more, wrapped around the corner, and stapled in place. I did this until the side margin would lay flat against the cushion.

Here's what the underside looked like when I was finished with the first cushion.

The corners can be a little bulky with fabric, so I cut away any extra. Also, make sure to cut away any excess fabric around the screw holes. 

Voila! I recovered all four cushions before re-assembling.

Use the screwdriver to re-attach the cushions to the chairs. The project took me about an hour and twenty minutes from start to finish.

It looks so much better!

BEFORE

AFTER