Dish Towel / Tea Towel Chair Upcycle
Do you have dining chairs or folding chairs with seat pads?
Well if you do, do you know you can re-upholster them really quickly into something funky and unique by just using a dishtowel? I did it before with a m ap dish towel and footstool before (see here).
This time I tackled some folding dining chairs.
I'm a Brit and we call dish towels, tea towels. That might have something to do with the amount of tea we drink!
Anyway, I have quite a collection of dish towels. I like to support independent shops and designers in a small way by buying one of their colourful tea/dish towels.
I had these dining chairs that needed revamping. They were comfy and foldable so I wanted to hang on to them.
I unscrewed the seat pad and painted the frames with black chalk paint. And when that was dried I then added two coats of matt varnish.
I lay my dish towel over the seat pad to make sure it was big enough to cover it.
If it is a bit small or a little tight you can unpick the hem of the dish towel to give you a few more centimetres.
Next, I lay the seat pad face down onto the dish towel and cut away any excess fabric.
Then starting in the middle I wrapped the dish towel around the seat and stapled it to the back of the pad. With an electric staple gun, this is very easy to do. Pull the fabric tight as you staple.
Fold in the dish towel at the corners to make a neat finish. Then staple the fabric all the way around. You can't have too many staples, I space mine out at about 5mm between each one.
Next, spray the dish towel with a fabric protector and then screw it back onto the painted chair frame.
I love how the chair turned out. I do have a thing about maps.
For the other chair, I used a funky dish towel I bought from a fabric designer with a tropical print. (more photos and details on the blog link in bio at the end).
This upcycle is so easy to do, you could update your chairs for the holidays with themed dish towels. I think this would work really well for Christmas.
I upcycled another two of these chairs with a funky hexagon denim patchwork made from old jeans (see here).
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Comments
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Such an easy and creative idea. I love the holiday suggestion. How cute to recover for every holiday. Cute! Thank you.
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Thank you. They lasted really well, as tea towel fabric is tough.
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I grew up in Kansas USA and I've called them tea towels also. But I've moved around a lot (military) and it depended on where we lived if it was a tea or dish towel. I do like the idea. I used a couple extra curtain panels to recover my dinning room chairs.
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Thank you, that’s a great idea using old curtains.
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Do you think I could use this idea on a foot rest on a recliner. My foot rest is starting to fray on the corners.
I need this tutorial for the 2 bar stools in the garage. How much fabric should I buy? 1 or 2 yards of a thicker fabric like white denim or ?
I love to repurpose, but don't always have time to execute my ideas. But my question is: Why is everyone using chalk paint? My grandmother was German, and we too grew up calling dish towels, tea towels.