Our kitchen chairs needed a serious upgrade. The fabric was SO dingy, dirty and stained. Ugh. I have no idea why I don’t have a close up photo of them as I am positive I took one, but you can sort of see what I mean here.
Chace eats his breakfast at this table every morning and the spills and stains that come from a toddler to child have taken their toll on these little chairs. Time for a refresh!
The main thing I wanted here was a fabric that looked like an indoor fabric, but was really an outdoor one. I wanted something that could stand up to the dirt and spills that are inevitable with a five-year-old.
The winner? This amazing outdoor fabric called “Secret Gate – Pewter” from Tonic Living. It’s an awesome gray/cream lattice pattern – now the title makes sense right? I only needed one yard so at $15.95/yd this was an inexpensive upgrade. My favourite kind!
Now, the chairs look like this…
I had never reupholstered anything before but my friend Natalie had, so she came up to help me. It’s not an overly hard process but with the stapling and pulling the fabric taught that is involved, it’s great to have a second set of hands. Natalie’s help was invaluable! She’s got a really good eye too for keeping things straight and uniform.
First, we unscrewed the seats from the chairs. The screws were easily accessible on the bottom.
Then, we draped the fabric to see what layout we liked the best.
After we had decided on one, we used a few T-pins to hold the fabric in place. These will come out later.
Flipping the cushions over, we started with the corners, making sure they were pulled good and tight.
We used a staple gun to secure the fabric to the chair cushion base.
Then we continued around the cushion, pulling the fabric taught and securing it in place with staples.
When we were done, it looked pretty much like this. Not the prettiest ‘finish’ but since no one looks under a chair, I think it’s okay. I may try to finish it off a bit cleaner but to be honest, it’s been this way for a few months now and isn’t bothering me too much.
We removed the T-pins, and then draped the next cushion to match.
T-pinning that in place, we repeated the whole process.
We screwed the finished cushions back on to the chair frames and..
DONE!
I love how the chairs now look updated. The fabric is modern, fresh and fun. And stain resistant!
You would never know it’s an outdoor fabric by looking at it would you?
And it looks great when looking down on it through the glass table top too.
Overall I’m so pleased with how they turned out.
It’s amazing how a simple and inexpensive upgrade can yield such a high-end look. Talk about ‘bang for your buck’!
Have you ever tackled any reupholstering before? How did you finish the bottom of the chair if so? Any experience bringing an outdoor fabric inside?
What a fabulous upgrade to those chairs! Such a simple change and such a big impact!