~ How To Upholster a Simple Chair Seat Cushion

 When you last saw this chair it was a very distressed paint finish of blues to gray and white. Shortly afterwards, everything went almost back to neutral in the living room, including the little Italian made French style chair. The off white suits me much better.

 

But then I needed a burst of color again as noted in the last post of the very quick blue and white pillow made out of the same fabric.This is not the fabric I thought I was using for this quick change the living room. Instead it was the two companion fabrics that I like much more once I had the larger pieces home. Hopefully I can talk my daughter into using the other fabric.

This is a really simple project. Here's how you can do it, too.

First lay the fabric over the cushion - seat so you can move it around and decide exactly how you want the pattern to appear on the chair. In this case there were only a few options, but with some designs you many have many to chose from. You may or may not want all the chairs to be the same for a dining room. If you are using solid fabric, they will all look alike. Usually you will want the chairs to be the same.

Flip the cushion  over holding or pinning the fabric in place, and then get an idea of how much fabric you need to cut off. You don't want a lot of bulk. Just see how far the fabric needs to go to cover the old staple line, then add another inch or so to fold it under. 

 

Now cut around the cushion leaving the amount of fabric that you calculated you need to turn it around the cushion and enough to turn it under once. You can see in this photo how to turn it under and then staple. 

If you know how to stretch a canvas, this is the same thing. Start on the top or bottom, put in only a couple of staples, then go the opposite end, and then do the same few staples in each side.

After you do all 4 sides, then go back to the top and add staples beside the center ones you began with, then do the bottom and then each side. Keep flipping it over and checking to make sure you patten has not gotten pulled off center. If you need to remove a staple, just use a flat head screw driver and needle nose pliers and redo the staple so it is where you want it. 

You will then be left with just the corners. Flip it over so you can see the front again, and recheck your pattern to make sure it's straight. The go to the backside again to finish the corners.

For the corners you will want to gather and ease the fabric around them and carefully cut off any excess that might keep the corner from laying flat. Only cut a little at a time.  Above is the front corners which are notched where the leg fits in it.  so I pulled straight in through the notch and then eased and folded as necessary. If you have a square seat, you can fold neatly and staple on the backside so it doesn't show at all on the front side.

For a little color change, this will be perfect. I'll make a simple off white cotton linen slipcover for when I want it to be neutral again, or the chair is used somewhere else.

The fabric used for the chair and the quick pillow is  called "Fun Floret" by Waverly. 

See Y'All Soon~
Donna
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