How Do You Reupholster a Round Bar Stool?

Where To Begin

Reupholstering a round bar stool means unscrewing the circular seat pad from the frame, stripping the old cover, replacing the foam if it has flattened, then pleating new fabric evenly around the circumference and stapling it to the underside of the board. The whole job takes about an hour per stool, and the only technique that needs practice is the pleating, because a circle has no corners to hide surplus fabric in.

Everything else is straightforward. There is no complex frame to work around, no springs on most designs, and the finished result is fully visible only from the top, which is forgiving for a first attempt.

What You Are Working With

A round bar stool seat is normally a disc of plywood or MDF between 12mm and 18mm thick, with foam bonded to the top face and fabric wrapped over and stapled underneath. The disc bolts to the swivel plate or the gas lift mechanism through four holes, sometimes with a metal plate between.

Some designs add a decorative band or a piped edge around the rim. Note whether yours has one before you strip it, because the band conceals the fabric edge and dictates how far down the side your new cover needs to reach. Take photographs of the assembly first. If you are considering whether to renew or replace, our modern bar stools UK sale gives a sense of how current round seat designs are constructed.

Gathering Materials

Half a metre of fabric covers most round stool seats, though patterned fabric needs more so the motif can be centred. Choose something with a small amount of give: the pleating process relies on the fabric relaxing slightly as it curves. Faux leather, chenille, velvet and mid weight woven fabrics all behave well. Stiff linens and heavy tapestry resist pleating and tend to form hard ridges.

You will also need high density foam of 40mm to 50mm for a bar stool seat, polyester wadding, spray adhesive, a staple gun with 8mm staples, sharp fabric shears, a marker pen and a screwdriver. A dust cover of black cambric for the underside is optional but gives a much tidier finish, particularly on a swivel stool where the base is often visible.

Step One: Remove And Strip The Seat

Turn the stool upside down and undo the four bolts holding the seat to the mechanism. Keep them together, since replacements in the same length are surprisingly awkward to source. Lift the seat away and set the frame aside.

Remove the old staples with a flat screwdriver and pliers, working around the circle. Old fabric will often be brittle, so lift it carefully and try to keep it whole. Laid flat it becomes a template, and the pleat marks on the underside show you exactly where the previous upholsterer placed their folds. That is a useful guide, since it tells you how many pleats the diameter needs.

Step Two: Assess And Replace The Foam

Press the existing foam firmly. If it springs back it can stay. If it holds the dent, feels crumbly at the edges or has thinned in the centre where people sit, replace it. Foam is the difference between a stool that looks refreshed and one that also feels refreshed.

To cut new foam, place the seat board on the foam sheet, draw around it and cut just outside the line with a long bladed knife or an electric carving knife. Cutting slightly oversized gives a softly domed edge once the fabric is pulled over. Spray adhesive on both surfaces, wait until tacky, then press the foam down from the centre outwards to avoid trapping air.

Add a layer of wadding over the foam, wrapping it about 20mm over the rim of the board and trimming it there. This is the detail that rounds the edge and stops the plywood rim showing as a hard line through the cover.

Step Three: Cutting The Fabric Circle

Lay the fabric face down and place the padded seat on top, foam side down. Mark a circle around the seat with a margin of the seat depth plus the padding plus 50mm for the pull and the staple line. On a typical bar stool that means a fabric circle about 12cm larger in diameter than the seat.

Cut on the mark rather than trimming later, since accurate margins make even tension much easier to achieve. If the fabric has a pattern or a directional pile, mark the centre and align it with the centre of the seat before cutting, and note which way the pile runs so all four stools in a set match.

Step Four: Pleating Around The Circumference

This is the heart of the job. Start with four staples at the north, south, east and west points, pulling the fabric firmly over the edge and onto the underside. These four set your tension and stop the fabric drifting. Add four more at the midpoints between them, giving you eight anchor points.

Now work between those anchors, easing the surplus into small even pleats. Every pleat should fold in the same direction and be roughly the same size, spaced about 25mm apart. Resist the urge to make a few large folds, which create visible bumps at the rim. Many small folds disappear into the curve. Work opposite sides alternately rather than travelling around the circle in one direction, which prevents the fabric pulling off centre.

A warm iron held just above the fabric, or a pass with a domestic steamer, relaxes the fibres and lets the pleats settle flat. Once you are satisfied, add staples between the existing ones until the line is continuous, then trim the excess fabric to about 15mm inside the staple line.

Step Five: Finishing The Underside

Cut a disc of black cambric slightly smaller than the seat, fold the edge under and staple it over the raw fabric edges. It takes five minutes and transforms the look of the underside, which is visible whenever anyone tucks the stool under a counter.

Locate the bolt holes before refitting. Push a bradawl through the fabric from underneath at each hole rather than cutting a large opening, so the fabric stays supported around the fixing. Refit the seat, tightening the bolts by hand until snug plus a final quarter turn. Overtightening pulls the bolt heads into the board and dents the new cover from below.

Choosing Fabric That Will Last

Bar stool seats take more wear than most upholstery, because people slide on and off them repeatedly and the seat is at the height where bags and sleeves brush past. Look for a rub count suited to general domestic use, and consider how the fabric will handle kitchen life. Faux leather wipes clean, tightly woven fabrics resist snagging, and darker tones hide the inevitable marks around the front edge.

Colour choice can also tie a scheme together. Matching the stool fabric to nearby seating creates continuity in an open plan room, which is why many people cover stools in the same fabric as their modern velvet dining chairs UK sale or pick up a tone from a sofa. Our modern fabric bar stools UK sale shows how different textures sit against timber and metal frames if you want a reference before committing.

Knowing When To Start Again

A round stool is worth reupholstering when the board is solid, the mechanism works and the frame is sound. Replace rather than repair when the board is split around the bolt holes, when the gas lift no longer holds height and the chrome is pitted, or when the stool has always been the wrong height for your worktop. Reupholstery cannot fix a dimension problem.

If you decide on new, take the measurement first: floor to underside of worktop, less 27cm, gives your target seat height. Our full collection of bar stool furniture UK sale covers round seat designs in several heights, and you can browse the wider range at Furniture in Fashion where we deliver free to most UK mainland postcodes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many pleats does a round stool seat need?

Aim for a pleat roughly every 25mm around the circumference, which usually means somewhere between thirty and forty on a standard bar stool seat. Many small pleats look far better than a few large folds.

Can I cover a round seat without pleating?

Only with a stretch fabric, and even then the result is usually uneven. On a circle the surplus fabric has to go somewhere, and controlled pleating is the only way to distribute it neatly.

How much fabric do I need per stool?

Half a metre covers most round bar stool seats. Allow more for patterned fabric so the motif can be centred, and buy all your fabric in one length so the colour matches across a set.

Should I replace the foam every time?

Only if it has lost its recovery. Foam that springs back when pressed is still serviceable, but foam that stays compressed or crumbles at the edge will make a new cover look flat within a few weeks.

Do I need a dust cover on the underside?

It is not structural, but it gives a much neater finish and protects the raw fabric edges from snagging. On a swivel stool where the underside is often in view, it is worth the extra five minutes.