If you have worn-out chair seats, you can easily re-cover them. Just pull a few staples and start over. Reupholstering is a great way to bring tired-looking chairs—even tired-looking rooms—back to life. The materials are relatively inexpensive, the tools are simple and it’s a project almost anyone can If you have worn-out chair seats, you can easily re-cover them. By the DIY experts of The Family Handyman Magazine Step 1: Chairs are not all created—or upholstered—equally Here we’ll show you how to reupholster a chair with a “drop-in” or “screw-on” seat—a style shared by many benchesSeat bases can be constructed from a variety of materials: solid wood, plywood, pegboard and others. are normally screwed on but can also be glued on or dropped in. can be foam, cotton or other natural Which stapler works best? All the staplers shown will do the trick. The question is: How hard do you want to work—and squeeze—to “do the trick”?
Your stapler buying decision may also hinge on a few other factors, including how often you’ll use it, what else you might use it for—and whether you need a good excuse to buy an air compressor. It will give your hand a workout, and you may have to occasionally use a hammer to drive the staples all the way in, but you can still get good results. hold the nose of the stapler firmly against the seat base when you pull the trigger. Cost: $15 to $30 We used one for our project and itYou still need to firmly press the nose against the fabric and plywood to get a well-seated staple—but it’s way easier on the hand. As a bonus, some models also shoot 3/4-in. and shorter brad nails. Cost: $25 to $75 If you’re going to be stapling for hours on end, invest in a pneumatic stapler. These drive the staples flush with the pull of a finger and allow you to be extremely accurate in the placement of
Some tools also drive brad nails up to 1-1/4 in. Cost: $40 to $150 (plus air compressor) Step 2: Round up your materials When you shop, buy “upholstery grade” fabric for its strength and stain resistance. Fabric prices vary wildly; might find something for $5 in the bargain bin or spend 10 times as much. bought our fabric, foam and batting at aFor the dust cover, we used landscape fabric from a home center. Step 3: Remove the old and get ready for the new If you’re re-covering more than one chair, number each chair and seat; way, the screw holes will line up properly when you reinstall the seats. are special tools just for yanking upholstery staples or tacks, but you can get by with basic hand tools (Photo 1). dull side cutters are perfect. staples well but don’t cut them off. Remove the padding and inspect theIf the wood base seems solid, reuseIf it’s cracked, use it as a template to
make a new one (Photo 2). sander to taper the edges to match the profile of the old one. Plop the seat on top of the foam and outline it with aUse a serrated bread knife (Photo 3) to cut just inside the line. Step 4: Install the new fabric Place a section of batting—4 in. wider in all directions than the size of your chair seat—on a flat work surface, then set your foam and seat on top. Lightly stretch the batting and drive one staple (Photo 4) along each edge. Flip the seat over, then center your material on top (Photo 5). the material so you’ll be able to wrap it up onto the chair bottom at least 4 in. in each direction. seat facing up and the front edge overhanging the work surface, drive one staple through the bottom to hold the material in place. the seat 180 degrees, then tack the back the same way. Check your pattern alignment one more time, then flip the seat upside
Starting at the front middle staple and working toward the corners, use the palm of your hand to lightly stretch the material, then drive a staple every 2 in. (Photo 6). staples within an inch of the edge, and secure the batting and fabric at theUse your entire hand, not just fingertips, to tighten the material. This way you’ll avoid little dips and puckers in the pattern. Repeatedly flip the seat over to check the pattern forit’s easier to keep flipping and checking than to go back and pull staples. Our expert flipped the seat over and checked the pattern a dozen times whileStop stapling 2 in. from each corner. Secure the back edge in the same way, stretching the material lightly as you work. Then complete the sides, again repeatedly checking the pattern. Step 5: Corners are the key You can make simple, single-fold “hospital corners” if the edges of your seat are concealed by a frame. most cases, the front corners will be exposed and will
look better with a “butterfly corner.” Remove excess batting and material from the corners (Photo 7) then flip the seat right side up and experiment with a few corner tucks. Fold the center inward, then overlap each side onto that fold (Photo 8). corner looks symmetrical and tight, flip the seat over and staple the folds in place. When the corners are done, flip the seat over and cut off the excess material. Staple on a dust cover (Photo 9).The Smith Brothers style #376 sectional The Smith Brothers style #8143 sectional, from the "Build Your Own" 8000 series The Smith Brothers style #324 conversation sofa The Smith Brothers style #388 sofa group Smith Brothers offers more than 900 different fabrics, which sounds exciting at first... but when you start to dig into all those choices, it can start to get pretty overwhelming! While it's great to have options, you may want a little extra help in finding that perfect fabric for your new furniture—especially considering that there's a lot to fabric beyond what color works
Here is a brief guide to choosing fabric for your furniture. While this is not an all inclusive list of contents found in upholstery fabrics, these are the basics. Knowing the pros and cons of each will help you select the fabric for you. Natural fibers generally feature flat weaves that are ideal for prints. They are softer, and tailor well for upholstered furniture. being a natural product they can fade in direct sunlight, and may be susceptible to pilling. Pilling is when a fabric begins to develop little balls of fiber on the surface. is a natural characteristic of many fabrics. Not all fabrics pill, but it is difficult to predict which ones will. Most pilling can actually be shaved off with a fabric shaver.Made from the cotton plant, this is soft, absorbent, and fades easily.Made from the flax plant, linens tend to have a lot of hard plant fibers and For a textural look, designers make yarns with irregularities, producing the characteristic uneven surface of the finished fabric.
Sometimes, this creates a regular pattern in the fabric once it is woven together, but it can also be a natural characteristic of the fiber that shows up occasionally in the fabric. Linen, cotton and silk tend to have natural slubs.Made from animal hair, wool is warm, and not often used in upholstery.Made from the cocoons of silk worms, silk has strong fibers and a natural shine, but can be damaged by sunlight.Also known as viscose, rayon is made from wood pulp and designed to be shiny like silk. Synthetic fibers are made by extruding chemicals into fiber strands. They are more durable and (in general) more resistant to staining and fading than natural fibers. Synthetic fibers are just as likely to be susceptible to pilling, however. There are several different ways to turn yarn into fabric. There are a great many types of patterns in upholstery fabrics, but here are some of the more common terms. Examples from left to right: floral, stripe, chair pattern, and a body cloth
If you've bought fabric upholstery before, you know that the fabric is often the first thing to show signs of wear and age. Most likely, the quality and longevity of the fabric is just as important to you as the construction of the furniture itself. Fortunately there are a number of industry standard tests that a furniture manufacturer can use to ensure that the fabrics they put on their furniture will last. At Smith Brothers, we use each of the following tests before we introduce any new fabric—though we impose much stricter threshholds than most manufacturers would allow when we determine whether a fabric passes these tests.This test rubs either a screen or a piece of cotton against a fabric in a "double rub" motion. rubs the fabric can withstand without yarns breaking, the more durable it is.This test rubs a fabric in a circular motion, mimicking normal wear. We then give it a rating based on the amount of pilling or fuzzing that appears after the test is complete.
Dynamic Seam Fatigue Test. This test stresses a seam sewn between two pieces of the same fabric. If the seam fails too quickly, we reinforce the seams on that particular fabric while upholstering. If a fabric satisfactorily passes both the Wyzenbeek and the Pilling tests, we allow it to be used on recliners. Fabrics that do not satisfactorily pass one or both of these tests are restricted to stationary pieces. This is because recliners create a lot more friction and cause fabrics to wear out more Fabrics that do not pass this rating are not necessarily bad—they just need to be saved for stationary pieces of furniture. An example of the process of coordinating multiple fabrics for a single application: the style #375 sectional While there really are not any set-in-stone rules for mixing fabrics, here are a few guidelines that may help. Once you have selected all your fabrics, decide where they should go. Usually, the body cloth goes on the sofa/sectional.