Happy Monday ya’ll! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, I know I certainly did! Lots of good food, laughter, and family fun this weekend.
I decided to do a follow up post to my Thrifted Chair Makeover post last week. Today I’m going to go over how I made the chair seat – with some help from Dad of course!
Since my chair no longer had a seat, I asked Dad to cut one for me out of a piece of plywood I had in my studio. He even sanded the edges smooth with his belt sander! 🙂 If your chair has a seat already, just remove it and the old covering. Leaving the old covering can make it too bulky to fit back on the chair.
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Other Items Needed:
Foam pad – you can buy this by the yard or in packages pre-cut. I had a package of two 15″ x 17″ x 1″ foam pads, but I only used one. If your 
seat’s padded and it’s still good, you won’t need this.- Batting – this is also sold by the yard or in pre-cut packages. I used two layers of cotton batting, because it’s what I have. You can certainly use polyester if you prefer.
- Spray adhesive – this is not entirely necessary, but I find it really helps hold things in place when you are covering the seat. The one in my pictures is by Loctite, like my link. Mine’s just old and they don’t label it that way anymore! 😉
- Staple gun and staples – the one in the picture I got from Walmart. It’s okay, but I’m putting the one in my link on my wish list! I does brads too and the pack of staples has several sizes plus brads!
- Fabric – this can be anything from cotton to pleather. I would get at least a yard, especially if it has a pattern. Then you’ll be able to position it how you want. I suggest a home decor fabric for durability.
First, I lay my plywood on the foam and traced out the shape. As you can see, it was a tiny bit smaller than I needed. I just used some of the excess and glued on an extra piece with the spray adhesive. I used regular scissors to cut it out and attached it to the board with the spray adhesive.
Before you cut your fabric or batting, make sure to measure the overall width, length, and height of the seat with the foam attached. Add the width plus the height times two, then add an extra 5-6″. My seat was about 17″ x 17″ x 1 1/2″, so 17″ + 1 1/2″ + 1 1/2″ + 6″ = 26″. This will give you plenty to attach properly. I used the spray adhesive to hold down the batting before flipping it to attach.
Make sure the stapler is sitting on the board when using so you have a flatter surface. It is not going to work very well if you use it hanging off the side!
If your seat has notches, cut the corners into the diagonal for a better fit.
Just remember to always pull tauntly to help keep everything smooth. Trim off any excess once you’re done stapling.
Time for the pretty! Make sure to center up your design if you have a pattern on your fabric. I used the spray adhesive to hold it in place before flipping, this helps keeps your design where you want it!
Try to keep wrinkles on the bottom and not on the side. Do not cut the corner for the exterior fabric because it will show in the corner! I made sure to ask Dad to leave about 1/2″ extra in the notch to account for fabric.
Once your done attaching with staples, trim it up again! Now you can re-attach it to the chair and have a seat!
See, it’s not too hard! I’m going to be doing some “virtual” renovations tomorrow on my website. If you see a sign saying it’s under construction, don’t worry! It will be back up fairly quick with a brand new look!
Hope the rest of your Monday is marvelous, now, go get creative!
