A tatty old chair doesn’t have to mean a trip to the tip. With a bit of elbow grease and some fabric you can makeover an old chair into a piece of furniture to be really proud of.
The techniques are similar to those used with these dining chairs, but with this project the fabric is fixed to the frame of the chair and not just the seat.
You’ll need
An old chair- Upholstery fabric
- Sand paper
- Gold paint
- Staple gun or light hammer
- Upholstery tacks or staples
- Gimp/braiding
Step one
Remove the old fabric – but don’t throw it away as this will become the pattern for your new fabric.
Step two
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Rub the chair down thoroughly with a fine grain sand paper.
Either re-varnish the chair or give it a light coat of gold paint. You only need to use a light coat as this will allow the old wood to shine through and give it a lovely glowing, aged look. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly.
Step three
Using the old fabric as a pattern, cut out the correct pieces in your new upholstery fabric. You can use any old fabric you want, but upholstery fabric is stronger and will last longer. Dress weight fabrics tend to wear out quickly and start to split.
Attach the fabric to the chair with either upholstery tacks or staples.
Step six
To give your chair a really professional look, apply some gimp (a type of braiding used in upholstery) to the edges of the chair, to cover up your tacks or staples. You can use any fabric glue, but a glue gun will make it a lot easier and a stronger finish.
Before and after
With a little elbow grease we went from this
… to this
