Upholstering a chair consists of adding a kind of padded fabric to it, thus improving both the comfort that the chair offers us, and the aesthetics. Upholstering will undoubtedly give a new life to your home and your chairs, which will now look like new.
Upholstery has been done for hundreds of years with all kinds of furniture by putting fabric on top of it. This task also cushions the furniture and makes it more comfortable.
Best of all, almost any piece of furniture can be upholstered, something that manages to give them a second youth.
For example, if you have wooden chairs in the living room, you can add a nice cushion under them, making sitting on them much more comfortable. In addition, we will be able to reupholster our old chairs, which could have too vintage an upholstery and need to be modernized.
Upholstering is something laborious that takes time, however, it is a fairly simple task that you can do even if you do not have much DIY knowledge. That is, it does not matter if you are not a handyman.
If you want to learn how to upholster a chair, we are going to teach you step by step, so that you can give a new touch to your living room without a doubt.
Find a chair to upholster:
- The first step that we are going to take when upholstering a chair in the correct way, is to look for a chair to be able to upholster in the correct way. We are going to be able to upholster solid wood chairs, that is, they do not have any padding. The best chairs to be able to upholster them well are the wooden ones, since these are very well upholstered and are easily riveted.
- Chairs that are already upholstered can also be reupholstered, in which we are going to break the upholstery that they already have and replace it with ours. In this way, we are going to ensure that these chairs can be reupholstered from scratch, that is, in the correct way.
Measure the back of the chair:
- Now that we have found our ideal chair, we are going to measure its backrest and its seat, that is, we are going to measure the areas that we want to upholster.
- The measurements must be taken with a meter and must be done correctly, that is, measuring both the height of the chair, its width, and its depth. We will do this because that way we will know how much fabric we are going to spend, how much foam we are going to spend and how big everything we do is going to be.
- We are also going to do it because we are going to create a frame in the case of the seat, which will help us to raise the upholstery and hold it in a better way.
Create a frame:
- Now that we have taken the appropriate measures, we are going to create a frame that serves to upholster the chair in the correct way. This frame will serve to keep the fabric attached at the bottom, that is, on the seat. This way, the foam padding will say inside the frame and the fabric on the outside of the frame.
- We will make the frame with wood and nails, creating a frame of the same size that we have projected and measured on the chair. This frame in turn must be attached to the chair afterwards, something that we will do later when we start with the upholstery and that will make a difference without a doubt.
Buy high-quality foam
- Now it is the turn to buy high-quality foam rubber, which will go inside our chair and will ensure that it is perfectly attached to the chair in the correct way. However, the serious problem we have here is that the foam cannot be of poor quality and now I will explain the cause.
- Low -quality foam cannot function in the same way as low-quality foam and for this reason, it is a foam that will break down as we use it. For this reason, you should not save on expenses in this regard, since it will also be more comfortable to sit on.
- Fill the frame with foam rubber and protrude a bit, since it should be perfectly padded. Also remember to buy foam for the backrest, if you are going to decide to upholster it.
Cover the foam with fabric of the same size
- Now that we have bought all this foam, we are going to put it in the frame area, which will be projected at the bottom. What I advise you is to first cover the entire frame with foam and upholster, and then rivet and staple to the chair once you have finished.
- To do this, we are going to cover the foam with the fabric that we are going to use to upholster. In this way, we can also check how it looks and change the fabric in case we do not like what we are seeing. In the end, we will have to choose a fabric that we like and we will have to change it in case this is not the case.
- Project the foam on the chair correctly, since in this way, you will be able to check if the chair fits the sofa or if we have to make any changes to it. Be that as it may, it should be something that is completely up to the personal taste of the reader.
Riveting and stapling
- Now that we’ve finished putting up the upholstery, it’s time to staple it to the frame. In this way, we are going to create a kind of artisan cushion, which is the one that we are going to upholster on the chair that we want to upholster and the one that will remain as if it were an internal cushion inside it.
- We are going to do this with a stapler, first creating the cushion with the frame and trying to make the fabric fit correctly. Of course, we are going to do it only with the upper part, since the lower part must be Upholster next to the base of the chair.
- This will be done at the end, with the leftover fabric below. In this way, this cushion will have been attached to the chair below. Now we are going to be able to cut all the excess fabric and we will have the chair fully or almost upholstered.
- The only thing that would remain is to finish joining the new cushion that we have created to the legs of the chair, something that we will do by putting rivets on them, since the staples do not hold well. In this way the chairs will look new and it will give the feeling that all this came like that.
Enjoy
- Now we have finished upholstering our chair and we will have a comfortable and beautiful chair at the same time to do what we want. If it was a chair in a living room, it is a very good idea to upholster the rest in the same color and shape, in order to achieve good symmetry.
- In addition, we must try to take care of the upholstery as much as possible, since an upholstery in good condition will last many more years than an upholstery in poor condition. For this, take care of your furniture with care and thus prevent it from being damaged with use and over time.