How to Reupholster a Straight Chair

Have you got a shabby looking chair sitting in your living room? Even though it’s seen better days, it’s probably the most comfortable chair in your house! For that fact, you probably don’t want to get rid of it. And you don’t have to if you reupholster it instead!

You can take the easy route and hire a professional to reupholster your favorite chair. The problem is that hiring someone else to do the job is going to cost you.

Or, with a little time, effort, a few tools and some new fabric, you can turn that shabby looking chair into a beautiful piece of furniture again.

You’ll first need to choose a new fabric or material for your chair. Keep in mind when you’re shopping that heavy material lasts longer and holds up better. Heavy fabric like Corduroy is harder to shape and work with, though.

A fabric with a small design will make your chair look smaller, while a large print makes the chair stand out and look larger. If you want to make the room the chair sits in appear to be larger, then you’ll want to choose a small print.

Note: In order to make sure my straight chair looked the exact same way it did after I reupholstered it, I snapped several digital photos before I began the project. It would be a good idea for you to do the same thing.

The next step is this reupholster project is to carefully remove the fabric that’s covering the chair. You can easily do this by finding and removing the fabric tacks or nails that’s holding the material onto the frame. A pair of small pliers or a flat tipped screwdriver will help you remove the tacks easily.

If the fabric or material was stapled on your chair, a pair of long nosed pliers works wonders to remove the staples.

While you’re removing the fabric or material, try not to disturb the stuffing, springs, webbing, et cetera, that’s located underneath.

If you need to add more stuffing to your chair to make it firmer, now is the time to do it. You can purchase bags of stuffing at your local craft store. Or, check the Internet for stuffing too.

You’ll now need to measure the length and the total width of your straight chair. Cut a piece of the fabric to fit the chair. Position the new fabric on
the chair so it is completely covered. And, of course, the print of the fabric will need to run from top to bottom.

Then, you’ll need to start at the top of the chair. Place some tacks along the frame in order to hold fabric firmly in place. A steady hand and a tack hammer will make this step easy to do.

Or, if the fabric on your chair was stapled on instead, you can use a staple gun to reupholster it with.

Work your way down the chair. Stretch the fabric or material taut as you reupholster the chair. Remove wrinkles and kinks and smooth the fabric out as it was before. Some chairs have pleats in their material. Be sure to form the fabric over your chair so it has the same shape it did before you started this project. Every so often, you’ll need to put a staple or tack through the fabric and into the frame.

You may need to have an assistant hold the fabric in place while you add a tack or staple to the frame underneath your chair. It just depends on how your straight chair is made. These tacked places will help hold the fabric in place as you put the new material back on, section by section.

I reupholstered an antique straight chair by using this method and, I must say, it looked better than ever. Since the chair was an antique and it wasn’t sat on, I chose to use a red velvet fabric. The red velvet went well with the dark wood legs.