Upholstering a Chair With a Drop Cloth

by Recreated Designs

3 Materials

Drop cloth is great for protecting your floor but did you know that it works great for upholstering too? Take a peak and see how an old, $5 chair was completely transformed with a drop cloth and a bit of paint.

upholstering a chair with a drop cloth, diy, painted furniture, reupholster

I fell in love with the lines of this chair when I saw it at a charity store last month and knew I had to have it. I loved how wide the seat was and how comfy the springs still were; despite it's age. I knew it needed a lot of work, but for FIVE DOLLARS, how could I pass it up?

I stripped the chair down to just the frame and the springs and immediately disposed of the old insides. I definitely wanted new filling in the chair before I began to re-upholster it.

After stripping it all down I gave the frame a coat of Miss Mustard Seed's Linen coloured Milk Paint® and then stapled a layer of drop cloth below the springs to act as a holder for the new filling. I filled up the area below the springs with new polyester fill and eventually pushed it all down below the springs.

I had already decided that I wanted to use drop cloth to re-upholster this chair and then add some grain sack type stripes. I like the look of drop cloth and know that it is really thick and cheap so thought I'd give it a whirl. I must note that I had a hard time though finding a colour that I liked. Most of the drop cloths I found had a grey colour to them and I wanted one that was more natural and creamy.

I finally found one I cut pieces of the drop cloth to match the size of the seat and back of the chair and sewed the top parts together to be able to slip over the seat back. This was by far the most challenging part of this chair! I then marked off the stripes using Frog tape and filled them in with Miss Mustard Seed's Artissimo coloured Milk Paint.

To finish it all off once the paint had dried, I stapled the bottom piece of drop cloth over the seat of the chair onto the underside of the frame. For the top, I added a layer of batting and then slipped the top piece of drop cloth over the frame and stapled it under the back flap (to hide the staples).

I love how the chair came together and how great the drop cloth worked for the upholstery. I would definitely recommend giving it a whirl next time you are looking to reupholster something.

To get the complete directions and see more before, during and after pictures, drop by the blog...