How To Reupholster A Chair

The furniture in a room, without the question of lingering doubts, can do a lot for its aesthetic value. For example, you can have the best looking room in the world, but if the furniture in the room is not pleasing to the eye, it’s as good as a killjoy. On the other hand, a very basic room can be injected with magnanimous amounts of life if it’s blessed with good-looking and comfortable furniture. Furthermore, as far as furniture goes, chairs just happen to be an extremely important part of the same. Chairs make for the framework of the furniture in a room. Sadly however, most chairs are not made to last for an eternity and at some point of time will need to be reupholstered. The act of getting a chair reupholstered can be juxtaposed to a pretty young thing rushing to a snazzy saloon for a ‘makeover’. Read on to gain access to instructions on how to reupholster a chair.

Reupholstering A Chair

You Will Need 

• An Old Chair
• Fabric
• Pliers
• Staple Gun
• Cotton Batting
• Staple Remover
• Welting
• Glue Gun 

• The first thing to do when desiring to reupholster a chair is to remove any or all the old fabric from the chair that needs to be reupholstered. It obviously does not make for good sense to reupholster a chair that still has old fabric on it.
• When getting old fabric off a chair, don’t go the whole nine yards to discard the same. You will only have to set aside the fabric pieces which you can later on use as a model when working with the new fabric. The old fabric however can be discarded after you are done with the whole process of giving your chair a ‘makeover’.
• Get your new fabric out. Upholstery fabric is your safest bet really. This is because normal fabric is not durable and in all probability will fail the arduous test of time. Upholstery fabric scores over normal fabric in the departments of thickness and durability.
• This is where the old fabric comes fully into use. You can begin this step by measuring the new fabric against the old fabric. You can do this by first measuring the old fabric and then cutting out just as much as new fabric as you need. Make it a point to cut around two to three extra inches on each side of the new fabric to allow for binding. Retaining the old fabric can thus prove to be advantageous, because it is so much easier to measure the fabric than it is to measure the chair.
• At this step you will need the observation skills that make for the second nature of a forensic expert. Just like you’ve seen these professionals hunt for clues at the scene of a crime, hunt for glue on the frame of your chair. You can however give the magnifying glass, the pair of gloves and flashlight a miss! Finish off this step by making it a point to remove the glue on the chair.
• Once you are done with removing glue off the frame of the chair, proceed to remove any staples on the same. To fulfill this objective you can use the staple remover to advantage.
• Remove the old batting from your chair. Once you are done with this, you can staple the new batting into place.
• Reupholster the chair by draping the fabric over its seat and then pulling it right through the bottom. You will have to use brute force when pulling the fabric to prevent the occurrence of wrinkles. Staple the fabric, but make sure it’s all in place before doing so. Repeat the same procedure for the back and the arms of the chair.
• Finish off the whole process by adding welting along the edges of the fabric. You can use a glue gun to put the welting in the place. This step however is purely optional.