DIY Upholstery Chair.....First Time

by Mish Volonino

My mom moved south with us and downsized. She had pieces of furniture that just wouldn't fit in her place. This chair was one of her favorites.
I told her I would give it a home and would reupholster it. Well, after YouTube videos, I was very intimidated. I honestly didn't think it would be too involved.
In a sense it was very involved but I also think since this was my first time taking on a project like this, it was time consuming and a learning experience. I didn't want to ruin my mom's favorite chair.
I wouldn't think twice now about purchasing a chair or bench to reupholster.

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The first thing I did was work on recovering the cushion. I wanted to create a truly girlie girl chair for my craft room/office. I ended up purchasing fabrics on sale, marked down bedding, and sheets. I wanted a patchwork, eclectic design.

My next step was tackling the cushion on the arms of the chairs. I decided to use a larger piping which also makes it a little easier to cover mistakes.

I only had a basic upholstery staple gun and boy was that a job working with it. I would staple and it wouldn't go in right or I missed the target. A lot of time was spent removing staples. I was very frustrated. I took a photo (seen below) and posted it on Instagram and said how frustrated I was and wished I had an electric staple gun. Fortunately for me, Arrow Stapler company came to the rescue. They saw my post and replied "let us help you out and send you a complimentary electric staple gun". WOW. I was thrilled. And even better, it arrived a few days later with extra staples too.

While waiting for the staple gun to arrive, I took my Pantone book to Lowes Home Improvement and had them mix a custom Chalk Paint by @Valspar. Let me just say I love their

I painted the wood frame. It took about three coats and there was no bleed through. I really like their chalk paint. It's $5 cheaper than most companies that sell a quart and you can have them mix any color. So no more trying to match from a few select color options. Coverage is great too. Two thumbs up for

So now it was time to tackle this huge, terrifying reupholstering job. I started to pull staples out. I decided I wanted to reupholster over existing fabric. Honestly the fabric was in good shape so there was no need to remove all the fabric. I had a lot of fabric and for the large pieces, like the back of the chair and back seat I purchased a patchwork quilt. It made my sewing time easier.

Finally the staple gun arrived. I think it arrived four days after I gave them my address. Even my husband was surprised.

I loaded up the staples and prepped my chair. I cut the fabric down to size and started to staple. Oh my goodie two shoes, what a breeze it is to work with an electric staple gun. No messed up staples to pull out. It shot every staple into the wood frame with ease and precision.

Above you can see I finished covering the seat cushion and have the pieces of fabric cut to size. I did a simple sewing machine straight stitch to attach two different fabrics for inside arms (not shown here but I also inserted a piping between the fabrics).

If you look closely to bottom left of picture you'll see I pulled back fabric and stuffing from bottom back side of chair. I pulled out all the staples that were holding the existing velvet fabric tight from inside the chair frame. I did this so I could tuck and pull through new fabric to staple down.

So I stapled around and attached the fabric. I tucked and pulled through fabric in back.

Photo above is without added piping. Although there is piping added in between fabric transitions to give a cleaner, more tailored appearance.

Pictured below is close up of electric staple gun. I love this gun. So dependable. I'm forever grateful to Arrow Staplers.

This is with added piping. Piping I attached with glue gun. Easy peasy! Of course I sewed the piping.

Now, I started this project at the end of November so of course the holidays side tracked me.

I am in the process of finishing this chair now.

I was very intimidated to take this on. And no doubt this would have been a very hard job if I just worked with a basic upholstering staple gun. But since I did work with the electric staple gun from Arrow, I feel like I can pretty much take on any reupholstery job.

The electric staple gun is reasonably priced and a great investment if you are a DIY Queen like me. Just think of all the bargains you can recover.

I'll post more pics when I am completely done.

Hope this inspires your creativity.

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3 of 23 comments

Jennifer on Jan 22, 2016
Absolutely beautiful!!! I am not sure I am up to this stage yet. Just a beginner!!!but you have inspired me!!

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- Mish Volonino on Jan 29, 2016
  @Jennifer i am a beginner too. first real upholstery job i have done
  
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Krafty Mrs.K on Jan 03, 2020

NO Drama? oh that chair is all Drama! Love it!

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