To upholster the back of a dining room chair, you cover the inside back first, then finish the outside back with a separate panel whose edges are folded under and either stapled behind a trim or blind stitched in place. The inside back is straightforward. The outside back is where the job is won or lost, because it is fully visible and has nowhere to hide a rough edge.
Most dining chair backs are flat or very slightly shaped, which makes them a reasonable second project after you have recovered a seat pad. Allow a couple of hours per chair for a first attempt and considerably less once you have a system.
An upholstered chair back is built from two faces. The inside back is the surface you lean against, padded and pulled taut over the frame. The outside back is the rear face, usually flat and either upholstered or left as bare timber depending on the design.
Fabric on the inside back wraps around the frame edges and is stapled onto the rear surface. Those staples then need concealing, which is the whole purpose of the outside back panel. It covers the mess and gives the chair a finished appearance from behind.
Before you start, look closely at how your chair was originally made. Take photographs from several angles and note where the trim sits, how the corners were folded and whether there is a cardboard tack strip anywhere. Rebuilding it the way it was built is almost always the right approach.
Remove the outside back first, since it went on last. If there is a decorative braid or gimp, it will be glued or tacked over the join. Work a flat blade underneath and lift it gradually rather than pulling, as it often survives to be reused.
Underneath you will find the staple line for both panels. Remove the staples with a proper staple remover and pliers. This is tedious and there is no shortcut, but leaving old staples in place creates lumps that show through the new cover.
Keep both old panels flat and labelled. They are the most accurate templates you will get, and they also record how much material was turned under at each edge.
With the fabric off, inspect the padding on the inside back. Dining chairs typically use a thin foam pad of two to four centimetres, sometimes over a hardboard or webbed panel. Replace foam that has compressed or crumbled.
Add a layer of polyester wadding over the foam and take it slightly past the edges. This rounds off the hard line of the foam and stops the frame edge showing as a ridge through the new fabric. Skipping the wadding is the single most common reason a home upholstered back looks flat and cheap.
If the padding sits on webbing that has gone slack, replace the webbing before anything else. Tensioning new webbing across the frame takes fifteen minutes and completely changes how the back feels to lean against.
Cut your fabric using the old panel as a template, adding a few centimetres all round. Check the pattern direction and centre any motif before you commit.
Position the fabric over the padding and put three staples in the centre of the top rail on the rear face. Move to the bottom rail, pull the fabric down with even pressure and staple the centre. Then do the same on each side. Working from the centre out on opposite edges is what keeps the weave square.
Continue outwards towards the corners, placing staples every two to three centimetres, smoothing the fabric with your free hand as you go. Do not pull hard enough to flatten the wadding. The aim is a surface with no wrinkles at rest, not a drum skin.
Where the back meets the seat rail, tuck the fabric through the gap if the design allows and staple it underneath. On chairs where the back and seat are separate, finish the inside back at the rail and let the seat cover overlap it.
Most dining chairs have back posts that the upholstery has to fit around. Cut a Y shaped notch in the fabric so it can pass either side of the post, stopping the cut about one centimetre short of where the fabric needs to sit. Cutting too far is irreversible, so err on the cautious side and extend the cut gradually.
Fold the raw edges of the notch under before stapling, so no cut edge is visible from the front. On a curved post this takes a few attempts to sit cleanly. Take the staples out and redo it rather than accepting a pucker, because it will be at eye level whenever someone walks past the chair.
This is the panel that determines whether the chair looks professional. There are three common methods.
The first uses a cardboard tack strip along the top edge. You staple the fabric upside down along the top with the strip inside the fold, then flip the panel down so it hangs correctly with a crisp straight top edge. Pull it taut and staple the sides and bottom, folding the raw edges under as you go.
The second method folds all four edges under and blind stitches the panel to the inside back fabric with a curved needle and slip stitch. This gives the neatest result and is what a professional would do on a good chair, but it takes practice to keep the stitches invisible.
The third method staples the panel flat and covers the staple line with braid or gimp glued in place. It is the quickest and perfectly acceptable on a traditional chair where trim is part of the design. On a contemporary chair, visible braid can look dated, so choose the method to suit the style. If your chairs are modern and the finish feels beyond what you want to attempt, our modern dining chairs UK sale selection covers most current shapes ready made.
Chair backs take less abrasion than seats but far more visible wear from hands, walls and the backs of other chairs. Mid weight upholstery fabrics work well. Avoid anything with a long pile on the outside back, as it flattens where it touches a wall.
Consider using two fabrics. A hard wearing plain on the seat and inside back, with a complementary fabric on the outside back, is a classic approach that adds interest without looking fussy. It also stretches an expensive fabric further.
Velvet backs look excellent but show pressure marks and need brushing. Woven textures hide handling better. Our modern velvet dining chairs UK range shows how velvet backs work when the pile direction has been set consistently across a full set, which is difficult to achieve at home across six chairs.
Some chair backs are genuinely difficult. Deep buttoning requires long needles, twine and a feel for tension that takes real practice. Sprung backs and heavily curved shells need techniques that are hard to learn from a written guide.
If your chair falls into that category and it has sentimental or genuine antique value, a local upholsterer is the sensible route. If it is a mass produced chair with a tired back, the labour rarely justifies the outcome. At Furniture in Fashion we would rather you spent your weekend on a project that will actually reward the effort. Pairing new chairs with a modern wooden dining tables UK sale option often refreshes a room more completely than restoring worn seating alone.
Once the basic technique is comfortable, a few details lift the result considerably. Piping along the edge where the inside and outside back meet gives a crisp defined line and hides the join entirely. It is made by wrapping fabric around cord and stitching it, then sandwiching it between the two panels as you fix them.
A contrast outside back is the simplest way to add interest. Using a plain complementary fabric on the rear of the chair costs little, stretches an expensive front fabric further, and looks considered rather than economical.
Buttons are the most visible detail and the most demanding. A single row of three buttons across the back is achievable at home with a long needle and upholstery twine, and it adds definition without the difficulty of full deep buttoning.
Whatever detail you choose, apply it consistently across the whole set. One chair with piping and five without will look unfinished, and matching the detail later is harder than doing it at the same time.
Chair backs collect hand oils and hair products at the top rail, which is a gradual soiling most people miss until the area is visibly darker. Wipe or vacuum the top rail regularly rather than treating it only when the seat needs attention.
Outside backs suffer where they touch a wall. If chairs are pushed back against a wall or a radiator, the fabric flattens and discolours in a line. Felt pads on the rear frame, or simply leaving a small gap, prevent this.
Check the staple line under the outside back panel once a year. A staple that has worked loose is easy to replace at that point and awkward once the fabric has started to lift around it.
Recovering a chair back is a job you can repeat. Because the panels are cut to a template you already have, doing it a second time in five years takes a fraction of the effort of the first attempt.
On most dining chairs, yes. The back fabric usually tucks down behind the seat rail, so working with the seat pad removed gives you access and a cleaner finish.
Blind stitching with a curved needle gives the best result, with a cardboard tack strip along the top edge a close second. Both avoid the visible braid that a glued trim requires.
Allow roughly half a metre per chair for inside and outside back combined on a standard dining chair, plus extra for pattern matching. Measure your old panels for an accurate figure.
It is possible but not advisable. The old staples create ridges and the additional bulk makes it difficult to get clean edges where the new panel meets the frame.
Almost always uneven tension from stapling around in one direction rather than alternating opposite sides. Missing wadding over the foam is the other frequent cause, as it leaves the fabric with nothing soft to sit against.
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