Grandma Recovered her Chairs Why Don't You?

Hope everyone had a good weekend mine was great even though it got up to 105 here. Whew! Today I wanted to share a before & after of a chair I finished this weekend. It was a really sad chair but the wood was still in great shape so I recovered it in a zebra fabric with black fabric details. I am no professional upholsterer but out of necessity (because I was broke LOL) I have recovered several chairs over the years.

This chair was my most ambitious one yet mainly because I decided to insert a black fabric on the front bottom and I am proud to say it came out fabulous! I hope by the pictures I post today that I can inspire you to try your hand at upholstery and to help here are a few tips.

1. Pick out something easy for your first job like just recovering a dining chair seat or if you have that down a armless dining chair that has an upholstered back. (The arms are where it gets tricky).
2. Take a picture of the piece before you start this will help you remember how everything goes when you get ready to put it back. Plus you will want before & after pics for me to post so everyone can see your great work!
3. If it still has material on it take each part off carefully and you can use them as pattern pieces cutting them an inch or two larger this will save you a lot of time and trouble. If your material has a pattern that needs to be matched be sure to buy extra so that you can center the pattern on chair back front and back and the seat.
4. Usually you start covering the chair with the chair back front, then the seat, next the chair back back, and last the bottom of the seat. When you remove the material start removing it the way you ended when putting it on, at the seat bottom.
5. The easiest way to cover your staples around the edges is to use nail heads or gluing on gimp, but if you really want to look professional you can use lip cord which is a decorative cord with a lip on it that you staple on under the chair back material then apply a metal strip called curve ease that you fold the material over. The material will catch on small hooks on the curve ease and then you tack it down close to the exposed cord creating a neat finish. Then you hot glue regular cord or gimp around edges.

See that wasn't so hard was it? :-) Here are my before and after pictures. Thanks for visiting and please come back anytime.

BEFORE (I forgot to take pics until I already had the chair painted and the front back on. Sorry)

AFTER

Sorry this chair is sold