For a standard drop in dining chair seat, allow around half a metre of 140cm wide upholstery fabric per chair. A set of four seat pads needs roughly 1.5 to 2 metres in total, because you can usually cut two pads from the fabric width. Chairs with an upholstered back as well as a seat need closer to one metre each, and anything with a patterned fabric that needs matching should be increased by a third.
Those figures cover the vast majority of dining chairs found in UK homes. The variables that change them are seat depth, the height of the foam, whether the back is padded, and the repeat of the pattern. Getting the calculation right first time matters, because dye lots vary and buying a second length later rarely gives an exact colour match.
Measure the seat pad across its widest point from front to back, then side to side. Add twice the depth of the foam plus 5cm to each measurement. That gives you the fabric footprint needed to wrap over the edges and staple underneath.
A typical seat measuring 45cm by 45cm with 5cm foam therefore needs a piece around 65cm by 65cm. Two of those sit comfortably side by side across a 140cm fabric width, so half a metre of length covers two chairs. Six chairs need 1.5 metres, eight need two metres, and it is always sensible to round up to the next quarter metre.
For a chair with a padded backrest, measure the back panel the same way and treat it as a separate piece. Backs are often taller than they look because the fabric must wrap around the top rail, so measure the full height rather than just the visible padded area.
Upholstery fabric is most commonly sold at 140cm wide, but you will also find 137cm, 150cm and occasionally 110cm. Narrow widths can add significantly to what you need, because you may only fit one seat pad across the roll instead of two.
Check the width before you calculate rather than after. A quote based on 140cm fabric can be out by nearly half if the fabric you fall for turns out to be 110cm. Sketching the cutting layout on paper takes five minutes and shows immediately how many pads fit across.
Plain fabrics are straightforward. Patterned ones need extra, because every seat must show the design in the same position or the set looks disorganised when the chairs are pushed under the table.
Find the pattern repeat, which is the vertical distance between one point on the design and the identical point below it. Add one full repeat to your total length for every two chairs. A large repeat of 60cm across six chairs can add nearly two extra metres, which is worth knowing before you commit.
Centring matters too. Position the strongest motif in the middle of each seat and work outwards. It is better to waste fabric than to have a flower sliced in half at the front edge of every chair.
Velvet, chenille and corduroy all have a nap, meaning the pile lies in one direction and the colour appears to shift depending on how the light hits it. If you cut one seat with the pile running back to front and another running side to side, they will look like two different colours in the same room.
Decide on a direction, mark it with chalk arrows on the back of the fabric, and keep every piece consistent. This restriction removes some of the flexibility in your cutting layout, so add around ten per cent to your total when working with a napped fabric.
Velvet is popular for dining chairs because it wears softly and hides light marking, and the velvet dining chairs UK sale designs we stock show how well it suits a formal room. If you are recovering rather than buying, treat it with the same care in the cutting stage that a maker would.
Fabric weight and rub test ratings tell you more about longevity than price does. Dining chairs take constant friction from clothing, so look for something described as suitable for general domestic upholstery rather than curtains or light use.
Tightly woven cloths resist snagging from zips and belt buckles. Loose weaves and boucle look wonderful but pull more easily, which matters if children use the chairs daily. Faux leather wipes clean and suits households where spills are frequent, and the leather dining chairs UK sale range gives a sense of how those finishes look around a table.
Whatever you choose, buy from a single roll. Ordering two metres in one go rather than one metre twice avoids any risk of a visible colour shift between chairs.
Fabric is only part of the shopping list. Foam is the component people most often forget, and old foam rarely deserves to be reused. Around 5cm of medium density foam suits most dining seats, cut to the exact size of the base.
Polyester wadding wrapped over the foam softens the edges and stops the fabric abrading at the corners. A backing cloth, sometimes called bottoming cloth, covers the raw edges underneath and gives a finished appearance. Add a box of upholstery staples and a staple remover, and you have everything the job requires.
Budget a little more fabric than the calculation suggests. Offcuts are useful for testing your stapling technique and for repairing a single chair later if one gets damaged. Keeping a spare half metre folded in a drawer has saved many a set.
Reupholstering is worthwhile when the frames are good and the fabric choice is personal. It becomes less compelling when the chairs themselves are basic, because the cost of quality fabric and foam across six chairs can approach the price of a new set.
Run the numbers before you order. Six chairs at two metres of mid range fabric, plus foam and sundries, is a real investment of both money and weekend hours. Compared against the dining chairs UK sale options available, the answer is sometimes obvious and sometimes not, but it should be a decision rather than an assumption.
We supply dining furniture across the country at Furniture in Fashion, and plenty of customers do both: recover an inherited pair of carvers and buy new side chairs to sit alongside them. Where the room needs a complete refresh, the modern dining table and chairs sets UK collection removes the matching problem altogether.
Fabric is bought by length but used by area, and the difference between a thoughtful layout and a careless one across six chairs can be half a metre or more.
Sketch the fabric as a long rectangle on paper, marked with its true width. Draw each seat piece to scale inside it, starting from one selvedge and working across. On a 140cm width, two standard seat pieces sit side by side with a narrow strip left over, and that strip is useful for testing your stapling technique.
Rotate pieces only if the fabric has no nap and no directional pattern. On plain weaves this freedom can save a surprising amount, letting you fit three narrow pieces across where two would otherwise sit.
Keep the offcuts. Small pieces cover the underside of a bench seat, make a matching cushion or provide a patch if one chair is damaged later. Larger remnants are worth folding away with a note of the fabric name and the date bought.
Finally, buy the whole quantity in a single order. Dye lots vary between production runs and a metre bought later can sit visibly differently in daylight, which is the most common regret people report after a reupholstery project.
Around 1.5 metres of 140cm wide fabric for six drop in seat pads. Increase to two metres if the fabric is patterned or if the seats are unusually deep.
It is possible but not advisable. Curtain fabric is woven for drape rather than abrasion and will wear through at the seat edges far sooner than upholstery cloth.
Measure vertically from a point on the design to the identical point on the next iteration below it. Add one full repeat to your total length for every two chairs.
If the foam crumbles, has flattened, or holds an impression after use, replace it. New fabric over tired foam looks correct for a few weeks and then sags again.
Yes. A spare half metre from the same roll lets you repair a single chair later without a visible colour difference between dye lots.
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