A How To (recover your chairs)

For as long as I can remember, my dining room chairs have looked like this. It's one of those things that brings me comfort, even as I look at that picture. Belonging to my Grandparents and then being passed to me, I kept them that way for a couple of years. Not because it matched my dining room or because I was in love with the checks, but because that's how I always remembered them. Being so far away from home, it was like a little bit of home was here with me. After a year of eating at the dining room table, Eli destroyed a couple of those chairs. Spaghetti sauce and taco meat and yogurt and ketchup and...you get the point. It was time to recover and stop being embarrassed when company came over and had to sit their butts on our stained seat cushions. And so we went out, we I picked out the fabric and we came home and we got busy!

Start by taking off the cushions of your seats. This can easily be done by turning the chair over and unscrewing the seat from the chair.

Next you'll want to remove the existing fabric. This is somewhat optional, depending on what new fabric you're putting on your chair but because ours was black and white checked, you would have been able to see it through our new fabric, so we had to. This can be done by using a screwdriver and pliers and pulling out the staples. (It is not recommended that you remove the base layer seating on your cushion.)

Measure the length, width and depth of your seat cushion. If your seats are round or curved measure the longest length and the widest width. After you measure, make sure to add three times the depth to the width and the length for the correct amount of fabric you will need for each seat. (To make it easy for us, we removed the existing fabric and took that with us to the fabric store. That way we could measure out exactly how much fabric we needed.)

The next step is fun! Shop for your fabric. We went to G Street Fabrics and sorted through tons of fabric until we I found one that I was happy with. You want to make sure to get some help if you aren't familiar with fabrics, as seat cushions need very durable fabric for every day use.

Once the fabric is purchased and you're back home, lay the fabric out, wrong side faced up, and place your seat cushion OR the old fabric from the seat cushion on the new fabric and align it. This is especially necessary if you bought fabric with stripes/checks/or any type of design that will be necessary to make sure each chair matches.

Once the fabric is aligned exactly how you want it, trim so that there is enough fabric all the way around to fold over the edges and staple.

Next you'll take the fabric and place your seat cushion on it, and using a staple gun you'll start attaching the new fabric to your cushion. This can be a little tricky. Make sure you pull the fabric very tight and smooth, without bunches between your staples. Put your first staple in the middle and work outwards. If you encounter curves, make sure you fold the fabric under the seat so that it is not visible from the top.

Repeat that step on all sides of the cushion. Make sure you pull and tug on that fabric to ensure that the top of the seat is flawless, with no bunching or creases.

The corners are next. Think of it this way, it's like wrapping a present. You'll want to pleat your corners. Point the corners towards the center of the seat and fold one side down, so that the folded edge runs along the diagonal. Fold the other side down in the same manner so that you have a pleat and staple.

If you have any excess fabric that should be trimmed, do that now. Also, hammer down any staples that are not flush.

You're almost done! Return the seat to the chair and screw the base back in. Turn over your chair and give yourself a pat on the back for doing such a great job!

Here's my finished product!