How Do You Reupholster a Faux Leather Dining Chair?

To reupholster a faux leather dining chair, unscrew the seat pad from the frame, prise out the old staples, use the existing cover as a cutting template, then stretch the new faux leather over the foam and staple it to the underside working from the centre of each side outwards. Faux leather has almost no natural stretch, so the corners need to be folded and eased rather than pulled, and the material should be warmed slightly before fitting to make it more cooperative.

The whole job takes about an hour per chair once you have done the first one. Most of the skill sits in two places: getting the tension even, and folding the corners so they lie flat.

What You Will Need

Faux leather sold by the metre, allowing about half a metre per standard drop in seat with generous margins. A staple gun, either manual or electric, with 8mm to 10mm staples. A staple remover or flathead screwdriver and pliers. Sharp fabric scissors or a rotary cutter. A screwdriver for the seat fixings. Replacement foam if the existing pad has flattened. Polyester wadding, which is optional but improves the finish considerably.

Choose your faux leather carefully. Thinner, cheaper materials crack along fold lines within a couple of years. Look for a bonded or polyurethane faux leather with a fabric backing and a little give in the hand. A material with a slight texture hides minor tension inconsistencies far better than a high shine finish.

Removing The Seat Pad

Turn the chair upside down onto a protected surface. Most dining chairs use four screws through corner blocks or directly through the frame into the seat base. Remove them and lift the pad away.

Some chairs, particularly older designs, have fully upholstered seats built into the frame. These can still be recovered, but the work happens with the chair upright and the staples fixed to the outer frame rather than an underside, which is a slower and more exposed job. If you are new to upholstery, start with a drop in seat.

Before you remove the old cover, photograph the corners from several angles. When you reach the corner folds on your new material, that photograph will save you a great deal of trial and error.

Stripping The Old Cover

Work the staple remover under each staple and lever it up, then grip with pliers and pull straight out. Rushing this stage splits the timber base and leaves you with a surface that will not hold new staples.

Keep the old cover intact. Once it is off, lay it flat. It is your pattern piece, already shaped to fit, with the corner cuts and notches already in place.

Inspect the foam underneath. Press it firmly. If it springs back promptly it can be reused. If it stays compressed or crumbles at the edges, replace it. There is no point putting a new cover over dead foam, because the seat will still feel wrong and you will be doing the job twice.

Cutting The New Faux Leather

Lay the new material face down. Place the old cover on top and draw around it, adding a couple of centimetres of extra margin on every edge. That surplus gives you something to grip when stretching.

Faux leather has a grain direction and often a slight sheen difference along its length. Cut all your seats in the same orientation so the chairs match under artificial light. Skipping this step is a mistake you only notice once every chair is finished and the set sits under a pendant light.

Cut cleanly in single strokes. A ragged edge is harder to fold neatly at the corners.

Fitting The Cover

This is where faux leather differs most from fabric. It does not stretch on the bias the way woven cloth does, so it will not ease into shape with brute force. Instead, it needs to be warmed and coaxed.

Leave the material in a warm room for an hour before you start, or pass a hairdryer over it briefly at a low setting from a distance. Warm faux leather becomes noticeably more pliable and holds a fold better.

Lay the material face down, place the foam on top, then the timber base on top of that. Check the alignment from the front before you fix anything.

Start at the centre of one long side. Pull the material over the edge with firm, even pressure and fire one staple. Move to the opposite side, pull to the same tension, and staple. Then do the centres of the two remaining sides. You now have four anchor points holding the cover square.

Work outwards from each of those centre staples, alternating sides, placing staples every three to four centimetres. Alternating prevents the cover drifting off centre, which is almost impossible to correct once you are past the halfway point.

Stop about six centimetres short of each corner.

Handling The Corners

Corners separate a neat job from an obviously homemade one. Faux leather cannot be gathered into small pleats the way fabric can, because each pleat creates a hard permanent ridge.

The method that works best is a single mitred fold. Pull the material at the exact corner point straight over the edge and staple it once. That creates two flaps of surplus, one on each side. Trim the excess bulk from underneath each flap, then fold the first flap in flat against the frame and staple it. Fold the second flap over the top of the first, keeping the folded edge crisp and aligned with the corner of the seat, and staple that.

Press the fold hard with your thumb as you go. Warmed faux leather takes a fold and keeps it.

For rounded corners, ease the material around the curve with several small pulls rather than one large one, distributing the surplus evenly instead of concentrating it in one spot.

Finishing And Refitting

Trim the surplus back to around two centimetres from the staple line so it does not bunch up when you refit the pad. Check the front face for wrinkles, and if any remain, remove the staples along that side, re-tension and re-staple. It is worth the extra ten minutes.

Some people add a base cloth over the underside for a tidier finish. It is not structurally necessary but it does stop dust settling on the exposed foam.

Refit the pad to the frame with the original screws. If the holes have worn loose, use slightly longer screws or plug the holes with glued wooden matchsticks before rescrewing.

Caring For The Finished Chair

Faux leather lasts well when it is not allowed to dry out. Wipe seats with a damp cloth rather than a chemical spray, since solvent based cleaners strip the surface coating and cause the cracking that gives faux leather its poor reputation.

Keep chairs out of direct sunlight where possible. Ultraviolet light is the main cause of surface degradation, and a chair that sits in a sunny bay window will age noticeably faster than the rest of the set.

When To Recover And When To Replace

Recovering makes sense when the frame is solid and you like the chair shape. It is a genuinely economical way to update a dining room, particularly if you are changing a colour scheme.

It makes less sense when the frame is loose, the foam has failed, and the original chair was inexpensive to begin with. At that point the materials and your afternoon are better spent on a set that will last. Our modern leather dining chairs UK sale range includes both faux and real leather options with properly built frames, and there are softer alternatives among our fabric dining chairs UK sale if you would rather move away from leather entirely.

If the table is showing its age too, replacing both together tends to give a more coherent result than updating chairs alone. You can see the full range at Furniture in Fashion, and our modern dining tables UK collection covers glass, wooden and high gloss finishes that pair well with recovered seating.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much faux leather do I need for one dining chair?

Around half a metre for a standard drop in seat, allowing for margins. Measure the seat width and depth, add 15cm to each dimension, and buy accordingly.

What staple size works best for faux leather?

Staples between 8mm and 10mm suit most dining chair frames. Shorter staples pull through the material, and longer ones can split thin timber bases.

Can I put new faux leather over the existing cover?

It is possible but not advisable. The extra layer creates bulk at the corners and edges, making the pad harder to refit and giving a rounded, ill defined shape.

Why does my faux leather wrinkle at the corners?

Almost always because the material was cold and pulled too hard in one direction. Warm it first, then ease the surplus around the corner with several small pulls rather than one strong tug.

How long does recovered faux leather last?

A good quality faux leather on a well built chair, kept out of direct sun and cleaned with a damp cloth rather than solvents, should look presentable for several years of daily family use.