ethan allen dining room chairs
hi, i'm clara from online fabric store. i'm going to show you how to give your dining chairs a fresh look by reupholstering the seat cushion. many dining chairs have a cushion that can be easily detached, which makes reupholstering a simple project. so let's get started. the materials you'll need are: upholstery fabric, i'm using waverly strands teal, cambric dust cover fabric (which is optional), a staple gun, a c.s. osborne combination tool,
and scissors or a rotary cutter. if you're replacing the cushion you'll also need: a serrated or electric knife, dacron upholstery deck padding, and 2 inch upholstery foam. first, take off the cushion. it may be screwed into the bottom. turn the cushion over. detach the dust cover. remove all the staples or tacks that are attaching the dust cover and upholstery fabric.
i'm using a c.s. osborne combination tool to do this. continue to take off any other layers of fabric and remove all the tacks or staples. if your chair is newer, you may not have to replace the cushion, but this turn of the century chair has a cushion made of straw and batting, so i'm going to replace it with foam. strip the seat down to the wooden frame if you're adding new foam. your chair may have webbing instead, or a solid plywood base. for this chair, i'm attaching a piece of cambric below the foam so it doesn't sag. place the frame on the foam and trace around it. cut the foam out with a serrated or electric knife.
place the foam and frame face down on the dacron padding. cut the padding so it wraps onto the bottom about 2 inches all around. with the staple gun, staple the padding in the middle of all 4 sides to hold it in place. work your way out from the center staple, leaving a little space at the corners. repeat on the other sides, pulling the padding taut as you go. for the corners, pull the padding towards the center of the frame and staple. then staple down the loose padding on either side of the corner repeat for the rest of the corners. trim off all the excess padding.
lay the fabric out face down. this upholstery fabric is woven, so there's a pattern on both sides, this is meant to be the front. place the cushion face down on top of it. cut the fabric so there's an extra 3 or 4 inches to wrap around the back. make sure the pattern is running straight. place a staple in the middle of all 4 sides. on each side, work your way out from the center towards the corners run your hand over the front as you go to tighten the fabric.
leave a few inches at the corners. if your initial center staple is too loose, just remove it and staple again. for the corners, pull the center of the corner towards the middle and staple, fold over one edge and staple to form a pleat. then fold over the other side to form a second pleat. repeat for all the corners. trim off all the excess fabric. finally, i'm going to attach the cambric dust cover. this isn't a necessary step, but it finishes off the bottom nicely.
cut the cambric to the same size as the frame. fold under the edges and staple. the cushion is finished, so just reattach it to the chair. and here's the reupholstered dining chair. when choosing a fabric for your chair, keep in mind that it doesn't necessarily have to be a heavy upholstery fabric like this. you can also use a medium weight drapery fabric, especially if the chair isn't going to be heavily used. and you can always reupholster it any time you want. thanks for watching this ofs project!