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How to Recover Dining Room Chair Seats

Sometimes a great set of dining room chairs get seats that are a little worn, a bit stained and just needs a fresh update. If the chair frames are in good condition, I’d encourage you to give this project a go. Simply recover the seats with fresh new fabric…let me show you how.

A short while ago, a sweet friend of mine asked me to help her recover the old seats of her dining room chairs. Here is a “Before”…

It had been years since I had recovered chairs, but was happy to take on the challenge. I’m almost always up for a challenge! 🙂

Supplies for Dining Room Chair Recover

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• Oilcloth in pattern/color of choice (or you can use regular fabric, too-*see note below if you have children*)
• Sharp scissors
• Measuring tape
• Flathead Screwdriver (for removing old staples)
• Manual staple gun
• staples that fit your staple gun
• Plenty of coffee. <<—-This is my favorite brand (because every project is better with coffee. 🙂

Fabric for Dining Room Chair Recover

My friend had purchased some great oilcloth fabric –

 

(highly recommended when you have kids) – because she knew it would be easy to maintain and she wouldn’t have to worry about spills or messes. Oilcloth is amazing stuff and there are so many great pattern/color options available now – check these out!

Dismantling Dining Room Chairs

We started out by dismantling the chair seats – which was surprisingly easy –

 

and removing the old fabric. We used a flathead screwdriver for the staple removal.

We didn’t bother to replace the inside cushions. They were still in good shape so we just went right over the top with the oilcloth. No need to buy new foam for seats unnecessarily.

How to Recover Dining Room Chair Seats

Once we had our fabric measured and cut,

 

 

we jumped right in and started stapling the cloth to the underside of the first seat, working our way around the outer edge.

 

(A few times, we doubled up around the corners – we figured extra reinforcement couldn’t hurt) 😉 At first, it was slow going, but as we started to realize what was working, we got faster. The corners were the main thing that slowed us down a smidge.

Finished Dining Room Chair Seats

Before we knew it, we were done with the first 4 chairs (2 of the 6 chairs needed new board underneath before being recovered with oilcloth – so those had to wait). My friend was delighted with the new look of her chairs and seeing her happy always brings a smile to my face.

So there you have it! In just a couple hours, you could have your dining room chairs freshened up and ready for many more years of use.

Your dining room chairs don’t have upholstered seats, but you’d like to update them with a great Farmhouse look? Check out these chairs that I painted with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint! I adore them…

Don’t forget to pin for later!

 

How about you? Have you recovered chair seats before? Do you have some seats that need to be recovered? If you have children, I highly recommend using oilcloth as your fabric of choice. It can’t be beat for wear-ability and scrub-ability – both essential if you have children in your life. Recovering seats is a simple way to update tired, worn-out chairs who need a facelift. Give it a go! Let me know if you have any questions – I love to hear from you.

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