Reupholstered Chair

When Ryan and I first moved into our house, we decided to take up a few projects for our home. Even though these projects were completed a number of years ago, I still wanted to share them now on the blog. 

One of these projects was reupholstering an old chair. The chair was originally my grandparents'. My grandparents lived in my parents' house before it was my parents' house (and my grandpa's parents lived there prior to him and my grandma as well ... fun fact!). When my grandparents moved out, they left behind some furniture and other items they didn't want to bring with them. This chair was one of those items. 

As you'll see, the chair is stained with red leather cushions. It was still in pretty good shape, however, I wanted to make it look a little more modern. I searched JoAnn's Fabrics & Crafts and found a fabric with a pattern I thought would fit the style of the chair as well as the room it would reside in. 

Because the chair still had good bones, we didn't have to replace the existing webbing of the chair. The most interesting part of the chair deconstruction was finding that the chair's batting was horsehair. If you know Ryan and his hatred of loose, unattached hair, you wouldn't be surprised to hear he gagged a little upon finding this. We pulled away the original leather pieces and used them as templates when cutting pieces of the new fabric. When doing this, you have to make sure to add at least an extra inch or two on all sides of the template. 

From there, we wrapped the new fabric around the back and the seat of the chair and stapled it in place. The stapling was definitely a two-person job because you want the fabric taut. Make sure if you are using a pattern, like we did, that the pattern is lined up.

The final detail was creating the cording. With the help of my grandma's sewing machine, I was able to take the fabric, fold it around the piping cord and sew it shut. And when I say, I, I actually mean my mom. She did the majority of the sewing for me! Luckily, due to the structure of the chair, the piping was able to be inserted between the cushion and the wood frame. No more sewing for me (I've seen people who have glued this as a shortcut, too).

I liked the stain color of the chair so we kept that. In my opinion, sometimes painting old pieces of furniture takes away its character and can make it look cheap. Anyone else find themselves cringing when this happens on Flea Market Flip?! Nooooo ... don't paint over that old woooodddd! Or is that just me?! If I hadn't liked the color of the stain, I likely would have stripped the chair and stained it a different color. 

Here's a list of supplies and tools we needed for this project: 
1) Thick, durable upholstery fabric
2) Needle-nose pliers
3) Tiny flat-head screwdriver
4) Container for discarded staples
5) Staple gun and staples
6) Piping cord
7) Sewing machine

Tip: Take before photos so you have them for reference. You'd be surprised how quickly you forget what the original piece looked like!