How Do You Recover Seat Cushions on Dining Room Chairs?

Recovering dining chair seat cushions is a straightforward job on most chairs. Turn the chair over, unscrew the four fixings holding the seat pad to the frame, lift the pad out, remove the old fabric by pulling out the staples, use the old cover as a template for the new one, replace the foam if it has flattened, then stretch and staple the new fabric over the pad and refit it. A set of four chairs takes an afternoon and needs only a screwdriver, a staple remover, a staple gun and a pair of sharp scissors.

The reason this project is so popular is that it changes the look of a dining room completely for very little outlay, and it rescues chairs with sound frames whose fabric has simply worn out. The technique below covers drop in seat pads, which is the most common construction, and explains what to do differently when the seat is fixed to the frame.

Working Out What Kind of Seat You Have

Turn one chair upside down before buying anything. What you see underneath determines the whole job.

A drop in seat is a separate square or shaped board, usually plywood, held to the chair frame by four screws driven up from underneath through corner blocks. Remove the screws and the pad lifts straight out. This is the easiest type to recover and the most common on dining chairs.

A fixed or upholstered over seat has the padding attached directly to the chair frame, with the fabric wrapped around the timber rails and stapled or tacked in place, often finished with a decorative braid or gimp. Recovering this type is harder, because you have to work around the chair legs and back posts, and the finished result is more visible.

A fully upholstered chair with a padded back and sides is a different project again and is genuinely worth handing to a professional unless you have done it before.

If you find a drop in pad, carry on. If not, weigh up whether the chair justifies the extra difficulty, or whether replacing the seating altogether makes more sense given the range of modern fabric dining chairs UK sale available at reasonable cost.

Choosing Fabric and Foam

Fabric choice determines how long the result lasts. Dining seats take heavy, repetitive abrasion and occasional spills, so upholstery weight fabric is essential. Dress and curtain fabrics simply will not survive.

Look for a rub count where it is quoted, since this measures abrasion resistance. Anything rated for general domestic upholstery use will handle dining seats. Tightly woven flat weaves, wool blends, heavy cottons and performance polyesters all work well. Loose weaves and anything with long floating threads will snag on buttons and belt buckles.

Calculate the quantity generously. For each seat, measure the width and depth of the pad, then add twice the pad thickness plus 8cm to each dimension for the wrap and staple allowance. A typical 45cm by 45cm pad with 5cm foam needs a piece roughly 63cm square. Most upholstery fabric comes 137cm wide, so you will usually get four seats from a metre and a half, though patterned fabric that needs matching requires more.

Assess the foam while you have the pad out. Press it firmly with your thumb. If it springs back immediately it is fine to reuse. If it stays compressed or feels crumbly, replace it. Combustion modified high resilience foam at 30 to 50mm thickness suits dining seats, cut 1cm larger than the board in each direction so the edges compress slightly and give a neat rounded profile.

Add a layer of polyester wadding over the foam before the fabric goes on. It costs very little, smooths the transition at the foam edge and stops the weave of the fabric printing through over time.

Removing the Old Cover

Take photographs before you dismantle anything. The way the corners are folded on the original is the best guide you will get to folding the new ones neatly.

Work the staples out with a staple remover or a flathead screwdriver and pliers. Lever each one up enough to grip the crown, then pull it straight out rather than at an angle so you do not tear the board. Wear eye protection, because staples occasionally spring out unpredictably.

Remove every staple. A single one left behind creates a lump under the new fabric that shows immediately.

Keep the old cover intact. Lay it flat and use it as your template, since it already accounts for the wrap allowance and any shaping. If the old fabric has stretched badly out of shape, measure the board directly and add your allowance instead.

Check the board itself. Plywood seat bases sometimes crack around the screw holes or develop a sag in the centre. A cracked board is easy to replace by cutting a new one from 9mm or 12mm plywood using the old one as a pattern. Drill a few 25mm ventilation holes in a new board so air can move as the foam compresses.

Fitting the New Cover

Lay the fabric face down on a clean flat surface, place the wadding covered foam and board on top, centred, with the board facing up. If the fabric has a pattern or a directional weave, check the alignment now, before any staples go in.

Start at the centre of one long side. Pull the fabric over the edge of the board with firm, even tension and put in one staple. Move to the opposite side, pull with the same tension and staple. Then do the centre of each remaining side. Those four staples set the tension for the whole pad, so take time over them.

Work outwards from each centre staple towards the corners, alternating sides as you go so the tension stays balanced. Space staples about 3cm apart. Keep checking the front face of the pad as you work to make sure the weave is running straight and there are no ripples forming.

Stop about 5cm short of each corner and leave the corners until last.

Getting the Corners Right

Corners are what separate a neat job from an obviously homemade one, and the technique depends on the shape of the pad.

For a square corner, pull the fabric diagonally over the corner point first and staple it down. This removes the bulk from the tip. Then fold the fabric on each side into a single neat pleat pointing towards the centre of the corner, and staple each fold. You end up with two small pleats rather than one large bunched lump.

For a rounded corner, gather the excess into several small even pleats rather than one big one, working them in gradually as you staple around the curve. Small and many is always neater than large and few.

Trim the excess fabric back to about 2cm from the staple line once you are happy. Do not trim before stapling, since you lose the material you need to grip and pull.

Finish the underside with a cambric dust cover if you want a professional result. This is a lightweight black fabric stapled over the raw edges, and it costs almost nothing while hiding all the untidy work.

Refitting and Common Problems

Drop the pad back into the frame and check the fit before screwing it down. Fabric adds a few millimetres to each side, and a thick fabric on a tight fitting pad may need the edges of the board easing back with a sanding block or a plane.

Refit the original screws through the corner blocks. If the old screw holes have become loose, insert a matchstick with a little wood glue, let it set, then redrill. Do not simply use a longer screw, since it may come through the top of the seat.

If the finished seat looks slightly domed in an unattractive way, the foam is probably too thick for the pad depth. If it looks flat and hard, you have skipped the wadding or the foam is too thin.

Ripples along one edge usually mean the tension was uneven at the setting out stage. It is worth pulling the staples on that side and redoing it rather than living with it.

Once the chairs are done, they often make the table look tired by comparison. If that happens, the answer is usually a clean and a refinish rather than a replacement, though the modern wooden dining tables UK sale is worth a look if the table was never right for the room. For anyone deciding that recovering is more work than it is worth, our modern dining chairs UK sale and the wider dining table and chairs sets UK range cover most styles and sizes. Furniture in Fashion offers free delivery to most UK mainland postcodes on both.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much fabric do I need to recover four dining chairs?

Around one and a half metres of 137cm wide upholstery fabric for typical 45cm square pads. Allow more if the fabric has a pattern that needs matching across the seats.

Can I staple new fabric over the old cover?

It is possible on a pad with plenty of clearance, but it adds bulk, makes the corners difficult and can stop the pad dropping back into the frame. Removing the old cover gives a much better result.

What thickness of foam should I use?

Between 30mm and 50mm suits most dining chairs. Cut it about 1cm larger than the board in each direction so the edges compress slightly and give a neat rounded shape.

Do I need a special staple gun?

A decent manual staple gun with 8mm or 10mm staples handles plywood seat bases. An electric or pneumatic gun is faster and less tiring if you are doing six or more chairs.

How do I stop the new fabric from creasing at the corners?

Pull the fabric diagonally over the corner point and staple that first, then fold the remaining material into two small even pleats rather than one large bunch on each side.