How to Make a Chair Cover

Looking into how to make chair covers? Covering your chairs is an inexpensive way to give them a fresh, updated look. It also allows you to coordinate fabrics with draperies or pillows you may have made, for a designer look without the designer price! Chair seats get soiled quickly, so this is a simple way to make them look new again. It’s so easy and affordable, you can follow the easy how-to instructions below for upholstered dining chairs and kitchen chairs. Give them a new look whenever you feel like a change.

Materials:

• Brocade or other heavy upholstery fabric
• 2 foam padding (if your old foam is in good condition, you can simply reuse it)
• Staple gun
• Staples
• Screw driver
• Masking tape
• Magic marker

Instructions:

1. Each chair should have a wooden slab on which the padding and then fabric are placed. I found that the screw holes on these wooden slabs are a little different on each chair. So to be sure you put the same board back on the chair where it belongs, write a number on the underneath side of each of these boards. Use the masking tape to label the corresponding number on the chair back. This way, your screw holes will line up with the chair bottom and the board. It’s also helpful if you draw an arrow on the underneath side of the board pointing toward the back, so you will put the board back on the chair in the right direction. (Be sure it’s not the side of the board you cover up with fabric, or you will loose your direction.)

2. Next, use a screw driver to remove the screws underneath the seat of the chair. It’s easiest to use the old cloth covering of the chair for your replacement fabric pattern. This can be done by laying the old piece on top of the new and tracing around the edge with the marker. (I like to work on the wrong side, so my markings don’t show.)

3. If you are replacing the foam padding as well, use the old foam as a pattern for the new foam padding and follow instructions in prior paragraph.

4. To assemble, working on a hard surface like a table top, first lay the fabric right side down. Next, place the padding on top of the fabric. Last, place the wooden slab or seat bottom on the padding. Pulling the edges to eliminate any wrinkles, begin stapling the cloth to the bottom of the board. Continue all the way around the board, pulling fabric snug. Corners, can be folded like hospital corners and stapled, or simply gather the fabric around the curve gently, depending on the shape of your foam and the look you want.

5. Turn chair over and insert screws. You are done! Now you have beautiful new upholstered dining chairs that look professional with a fraction of the cost.

Related Craft Ideas:
Decorative Throw Pillow
How to make pillow shams