Hey it’s Rob from Man Sewing and you’d better get out of your seats today because
you’re going to recover them. That’s right, I’m going to teach you how to do some of
the basic recovering. This is not upholstery. But recovering of these cool old chairs. So
basic supply list is cool old chair. You’re also going to want something like a staple
gun. You can use the electric staple gun or the manual, no problem. The most important
thing, and I don’t want to get any lawsuits about this one, you want to make sure your
staples are much shorter than the wood you’re about to use because you’re going to be
stapling from the bottom up. So you do not want to be sitting on your staples, right?
We do need a piece of wood for this project although most of the time you’re going to
already have your wood in the seat that was there. Now of course this was what we finished.
But this is what it looked like originally and we’ve just chosen not to cut this off
because of the mess it was going to make. And I kind of think it’s kind of cool anyways.
I want to keep it. So we simply traced the original seat onto some new lumber. Took just
a moment to hand sand that down. Very simple. So that’s what we’re going to use with
you today, ok? And the only other thing you’re really going to need for that is your basic
tools like a sharpie, a cutter, and, and ruler for just a second, a bunch of batting. Dense
cell foam is also terrific and most of the time you’re going to be able to use the
foam that was already on your seat as well.
But let’s pretend like you didn’t. You’re starting fresh like I am. And we’re going
to go ahead and figure out how much batting we want to use. Now this is quilt batting
so you’re going to need lots and lots of layers. And what I literally do is the seat
test. So I’ve got my chair back here that I popped this out of, and I start sitting
until Ahh!Goldilocks style. Just right. And I found on this chair, six layers was all
but perfect, ok? So let’s get you started out on that. And I’ve already gotten, let’s
see, one, two, three, four cut. I’m going to cut five to size. And when I mean five
to size, what I’m going to do next is take my chunk of batting, lay it down, take my
sharpie, go around. Your batting might try to flex and waffle a little bit but the last
piece we’re going to do is a piece about that is about two inches bigger than your
wood all the way around. And it’s going to wrap and soften the edges and kind of keep
everything in position. So these do not have to be perfect cuts. As a matter of fact, I’m
not even going to bother with the ruler but I am going to be careful with my hands here.
So I’m just going to go around this. Ok? I love cutting other shapes with rotary cutters.
There we go. Just don’t love removing the fabric, I guess, huh? Now the other piece,
I’m going to be able to use this kind of as my template. And we’re going to find
a nice piece we’ve got leftover here. Take this back out. And you can eyeball the two
inches or you can mark it. Whatever you prefer. So for myself, I’m just going to kind of
cheat. I’m going to slide it down and over. And the reason I’m saying two inches is
because I’m going to want to have something to grab to and pull it around. And my lumber
is almost an inch thick as well. So something about like that. Those are just kind of my
guidelines. I do not want to cut that. There we go. And now that’s out of the way.
Now the nice thing about doing it this way is I now have my batting basically in position
for my next step. And that next step is going to do this. I’m going to take the five small
pieces. I’m going to take my piece of wood here. I’m going to make sure I’ve got
plenty of staples in my stapler because there’s nothing worse than having one hand here and
one hand here on an empty stapler. So I’m just going to go ahead and make sure I’ve
got plenty in there. Now I start in the center. So I’m just going to take this piece and
I’m going to pull it here. And with our batting, we don’t need to put much tension
on it. It will just stretch if we do. I come to the other side now, pull that up, give
it a shot. And then as I begin working my way around, I’m going to go staple here,
staple here, rotate, or reach across, whatever you feel like doing. Ok? And then I’m going
to go to the other sides. We do all four corners at the end. Back to the center. And the other
side, just a little bit of tension again. And now I can set my other staples. You don’t
have to use a million staples here because when we staple through the fabric, it’s
going to also be stapling through the batting. So you’ll be getting additional security
on your batting that way. Ok, let me show you the corners. For the corners, I want you
to go ahead and get a good grip on the center and just pull it to the middle. Set a staple,
bring one corner over, staple, and again. You’re going to want to make sure you do
a nice, nice job when you’re using your real fabric but for right now, we’re just
getting this prepared. From the center, side, side.
Ok, now let’s get into the gravy of this stuff: the fabric. Because I know you’re
all dying to hear. And I think I mentioned earlier, but a lot of times this part is what
you’re looking at when you get it out of the chair and it will also have a nice piece
of fabric on it. If the fabric is just soiled and it’s like, like a light color, a beige
or a cream, and I want to put something on top of it. If it’s not going to show through,
a lot of times, I’ll use the original fabric just because it keeps everything in place.
But if the print is going to show through or I just can’t use the fabric for whatever
reason, I strip it down like you just saw. Ok?
And for today we’re using this linen textured fabric which is called the Low Country Indigo.
And it’s designed by Nancy Gear for Windham Fabrics. And I like it. It does have a little
bit of flex in both directions. But it’s got that really cool linen texture and a nice
easy print to work with, ok? It gives me a line to see while I’m working but it’s
not all over the place. But let’s say you have one of those really cool fleur de lis
or a medallion or something that you want positioned, there’s nothing wrong with taking
your fabric first. Laying it down and kind of eyeballing where you would want it and
then you could position your seat how it’s going to work the best before you cut it into
the square.
Now supplies-wise, what you need here is ¾ of a yard will generally do both seats for
your chair, ok? Home decorator fabric is generally 54 inches wide so that’s plenty even on
those wide trapezoid-shaped chairs. But on this, this was 45 inch quilting goods, technically
and I’m still able to do both chairs very nicely with ¾ of a yard, ok? Now, what I’m
looking at here, so you can know what I’m thinking, is I’m watching the print and
utilizing that as my lines as it goes through. And I told you that I did about two inches
larger on the batting, and I’ve done about four inches, maybe three inches larger on
the fabric. Because when I bring this around, I want to be able to get myself a fold so
that gives me something else to bite that staple into a little bit better, ok? No one’s
really going to see the bottom of the chair anyways but it’s nice to have it down there.
So if it doesn’t look perfectly tidy, don’t sweat it but this will be pretty nice adhesion.
I’m going to start in the center again, ok? Now this time, I’m using my fingers
here to push that taut. So what I was trying to say is it doesn’t have to cover the batting
but it’s nice when it does. I’m coming over here and now I’m putting just a little
bit of tension on it, ok? And I’m going to do both sides completely again but I might
add a few extra staples. The super cool thing about learning how to do this also is over
time your fabric may start to sag so you can pop out one of the sides and just tighten
it right up. Ok, now that I have both of the sides done, right, I’m just going to swing
this around and I do the exact same thing over here. I didn’t have to bother trimming
my selvedges off or anything.
So my wife and I have two kids. We have a daughter and a son. One of our things we first
got in the first few years of having children was a beautiful dining set with cream colored
seats. So guess what I might be doing when I get home. My wife’s going to see that
I know how to do this now and guess what I’m going to spend my weekends doing. I’ll be
doing recovering of these dining chairs. And you know what, a lot of times your dining
chairs will have a back on them as well that can also be taken away from the chair. And
you can do the exact same kind of thing. Every chair is kind of unique so you kind of have
to think about how to disassemble it before you get in too deep. But once you’ve got
it, you’ve got it, right?
Ok, let’s take a moment, Ahh! Zen time. Because we really want to do a nice job with
our corners, ok? So I’m going to start like I did before. I’m going to pull and add
a little bit more tension than I did last time, to my center. Ok, and then now this
time I’m going to take one and wrap it around. I’m going to put a few extra staples here
in the corners. So I’m not as worried about having that double fold here in the fabric.
But I might take a second and use my thumb in there and just try to do as nice a job
as I can on that corner. Like that. Once I have it all secured, now I’m going to pepper
it up with some staples just like that. Let’s do that again for you. To the center, a little
tension, on the outside, to the other side, a little pepper. And we’re almost there.
Are you already dreaming about what you’re going to do to your chairs when you get home?
I’m excited about it, I tell you what. I also recently found a couple of office chairs
in a dumpster at the bank. And they were these really cool, tall adjustable chairs. And I
recovered them with some really wild fabric. So I have a set of matching office chairs
that have been reupholstered as well. But they were pretty easy to get into. Sometimes
before I’ll steal a chair out of a dumpster, I want to make sure I can really manage it.
So I did. I’ve been caught many a times sitting in a driveway or a parking lot checking
out a chair that I have found because I love doing this kind of stuff.
Ah, yes ladies and gentlemen, it really was that simple. Let me flip it over and show
you how pretty that’s turned out, right? A quick easy recovery job in no time and you
can really use this technique to change the whole decor throughout your house and literally
in less than a Saturday afternoon. I’ve been playing with different ideas as well.
I have, like I said, those two children at home, so taking and covering a chair like
this with oil cloth so I could just do a spray 409. Recovery of course is a fantastic idea.
You might be able to use something fun like denim or the faux leather. I’m thinking,
at the moment, like what if you took old jeans and you covered it and you left the back pocket
in here and you had a dinner party and you put like a prize in one of the back pockets
or something like that. That could be really cool as well. So I want to know what you’re
thinking about with your fabric choices so why don’t you let us all know your first
fabric you’re going to use in the comments below. And we’ll see you next time, here
at Man Sewing.