Upholstering Dining Chairs

Things needed for this project:

Foam {I wanted fluffy chairs so I went with the 2"}

Dacron or 3/4" batting

Pneumatic staple gun {an electric staple gun WON'T work...I tried it, then promptly asked for a pneumatic for Christmas}

3/8" Staples

Razor knife

Marker

1. Trace your seat base leaving an extra inch all the way around.

2. Cut it out.  {The ladies at JoAnn's used an electric bread knife to cut the foam and it worked much better than the razor, but you probably don't have one of those either.}  Don't worry about the edges being messy, it won't matter.

3. Staple the foam to your seat base.  Don't staple from the top, staple downward on an angle from the middle of the outside edge of the foam.  It won't look smooth, but that's what the dacron is for.

4. Measure and cut your dacron.

5. The purpose of the dacron is to smooth the surface of the foam, while adding extra cushion.  Roll your edges over and staple, always starting with the middle.  Put one staple in the front middle, the back middle and the sides.  Then go back and finish stapling the rest of the front, the back, then the sides.  Make sense?  {Yes, I am in my pajamas...and enjoying a root beer float while watching Confessions of a Shopaholic.}

Do not staple the corners.  If you staple the dacron to the corners you'll end up with too much bulk and your seat won't sit right when it's finished.  Staple up to about 1 inch from the corners.

Cut off the excess.

This is what it will look like before you trim the excess.

And this is after.

6. Cut your fabric and repeat step 5.

7. This next part is tricky to explain.  There are two types of corners to choose from when covering a seat - the tailored pleat {single pleat} and the butterfly pleat {double pleat}.  The fabric I chose is a faux ostrich leather {I wanted something wipe-able} and because of its thickness the butterfly pleat would've been too bulky, so we went with the tailored.  Cut up the center of your corner.

8.  Then cut away the excess fabric on the side you don't want the pleat.

9.  Fiddle with it over and over until you get the hang of it and like how it lays

10. Staple like crazy.

11.  Clean up the mess.

Feel free to email/comment if something doesn't make sense.