Reupolstering the lawn furniture

Hypothesis: I bought a couple chairs off Craigslist cause they were cheap and small enough to fit on my skinny balcony. They were rusty and worn, but too cute to pass up! I figured I could reupholster them.

Materials: 
*Remember, this is what I used, but not what would have been best. Always check my results and discussion for any addendum to this list.*

• Two beat up, rusty porch chairs
• 1.25 yds of upholstery Fabric. I went for kitschy chic.
• 1/4" upholstery nails
• 1" thick chair foam padding
• A Hammer
• Permanent Marker, though Tailor's chalk is probably a wiser choice.
• Good fabric scissors
• A clear plastic dressmakers/quilters ruler

Methods:This is what I had to work with!

First things, first: Time to strip... the chairs of course!

One of the chairs, it seems, had been previously reupholstered a couple times. I found a lovely yellow vinyl under that white, and a horribly 70s (read: tacky) red floral vinyl under that.

The fabrics has been staple gunned onto the wood and has some incredibly rotted padding. After I removed the various layers, I was left with the trapezoid-shaped wood seat.

Luckily, though they were weather-worn, they were in workable condition. I did not strip the wood BEFORE buying my supplies of course, so this came as a relief. I would not need to buy and figure out how to cut the wood piece.


With the wood piece bare, I used it to trace the shape onto the cushion and the fabric. Now, the fabric needed to have a couple extra inches in each of the sides to wrap underneath the wood.

I added 2" to the sides, but I did not get enough fabric to add 2" to the front and back. However, there was about an inch which was enough to keep going. Whew.

I just used scissors to cut the padding. A good pair of sharp fabric scissors will cut through it like butter.

I used the 1/4" upholstery nails and nailed down the front and back sides first. The tiny nails were quite difficult to hammer in sometimes. I got the smallest ones because I didn't want the nails poking through the wood and fabric but they were quite a bother sometimes with the thick fabric. But in the end, they worked.

This is what it looked like on the bottom with all the sides nailed down. Not too shabby for my first attempt at reupholstering if-I-don't-say-so-myself.











And the top side.








Now all I has to do was put the cushion back on the chair and... wow! What a difference!

Results: Et voilà!

Discussion: I thought the chairs turned out quite well! But here are some things I would fix/do differently:

• I would use larger upholstery nails next time. At least a 1/2" since between the thick fabric, wood and cushion, my fears of the nail poking through proved to be unfounded.
• I would get 1 1/2 yds of the fabric so I could have 2" extra all around. Though if I measured the chair BEFORE purchasing the fabric, I would have not had this issue...
• Next time, or later on, I might add a ribbon to hide the exposed fabric edge on the underside. Hmm... maybe with a glue gun.

Further Research: Now onto painting the rest of the chair!

If you have any suggestions or ideas, let me know in the comments!!!

Oh, btw, this is view of Downtown Phoenix I get to enjoy when I sit in my fancy new chairs.