Reupholstering antique armchairs is not a little job by any means. This project was a big undertaking for me especially since I had never reupholstered any furniture before. But it has been a goal of mine for a long time.
I will admit that I took my time when starting this project. YouTube videos and other blog posts watched and researched extensively on how to reupholster furniture. I also took my time when I started this. Sometimes I can get caught up and forget things when I am rushing a project. I didn’t want to do that to these chairs that had been in my husband’s family for about 50 years.
Materials needed.
Reupholstering furniture does take some materials to either have on hand or buy. In the first place, I needed to have the fabric. Probably the most important piece of the project. Is your project an indoor or outdoor piece of furniture? My chairs were originally solely for the indoors, but with our future small mountain cabin, I decided to make these chairs for the outdoors not necessarily in the line of the sun and rain but under a covered screened porch.
Outdoor fabric colored ivory
An outdoor fabric that was waterproof and easily cleanable worked great. Fabric Wholesale Direct was the best place to purchase fabric. They have a great variety of reduced priced selections including, outdoor pieces in several colors. For example, I chose an ivory colored Waterproof Canvas fabric made for outdoor applications.
Equally, soft padding to go under the fabric and wrap around the shell of your furniture, including the seating, was the next part. Polyester batting worked great for my outdoor project. In fact, I used NUFOAM batting sized 24″x 5yd x 1″ thickness and a high-density foam pad for the seat. One chair used an entire roll of batting. An old standard size pillow was also used for the back padding.
In the process of ripping off all old foam, batting, and fabric.
Step one, the old fabric ripped completely off each chair. These chairs are probably about 50 years old so the fabric and the foam underneath were not worth saving. To start, I ripped and cut at the preexisting holes in the fabric with my hands and fabric scissors. Next, I removed any and all staples or nails attached to the chair. Turning over the chair on its back and sides and upside down was necessary to remove all the old pieces.
As for the seat cushion, it was completely thrown away. No attempt was made to salvage or use them as a template for the new ones. The seat cushion becomes deformed and worn out through the years. It was much easier to start from scratch.
Complete demo chair ready for reupholstering.
Finally, some pieces of the cardboard were loose and unattached. Using the staple gun reattached these pieces correctly. I also used a damp cloth to wipe down the entire chair. The old foam left a crumbly film over everything, and I wanted to have a completely fresh start. Be sure also to clean up your surroundings as you go and when you finish for the day. Starting in a clean area will give you a better result in your work.
Working on the seat cushion.
New seating foam and batting.
As stated above, the old seat cushion was thrown away and not used as a template to make the new one. I designed the new cushion slightly different. After all the old materials were taken off and thrown away, I trimmed 22″x22″x2″ high-density foam and the 22″x22″x2″ cushion batting to fit the exposed seat.
Next, I ripped the 1″ cushion batting in half the best I could. It didn’t make a perfect 1″ on each side, but it did the trick. A 1/2″ batting would have worked on each side too, but I didn’t want to buy extra material. The two pieces of batting sandwiched the high-density foam to make a soft seat cushion. Finally, I cut and sewn some outdoor fabric to fit around the seat cushion. My sewing machine worked great for three of the sides while I hand sewn the last side. For best results, sew the last side with an invisible stitch or ladder stitch (you can see a picture below of this stitch). Make sure the seat cushion fabric is nice and tight. If you prefer, a zipper can be sewn in the back of the cushion cover for easier removal of washing cover. I decided against the zipper only for the time and more work on my end.
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Attaching the batting.
Batting attached to bottom then arm rests.
The chairs are now barren and the seat cushions complete. The furniture frame is ready for the padding or batting to be attached. The best result will come from attaching the batting in sections of the chair. I measured the bottom section starting from the back of the seat and then around the front. Measurements need to include underneath the chair where it will be wrapped around and stapled. Next, I measured the two arm pieces and again measuring in the same manner as before.
There are a few things to remember when doing this part of the project. First, make sure you smooth out all the batting around the corners and edges before stapling. Take your time making it look good. Put one or two staples in at a time which will give you a chance to pull taught and keep the batting nice as you go around.
Sometimes there are spots that ended up missing some padding. In my project, I used some excess cut batting and stapled it to the small open areas. Since this part will be covered up by fabric later, it doesn’t matter how it looks as long as it is soft and covered.
Finally, be sure to line up your batting as you go around your chair. I didn’t want to overlap the pieces because it would cause lumps, bulges, and extra padding that I didn’t need in certain spots. Cutting out areas or slits to make sure the batting lies flat.
Attaching the back padding and batting.
If you noticed, I left out how to attach the batting to the back of the chairs in the previous section. This is because I stapled a cleanly used standard size bedroom pillow to the very back of the chair. I wanted our chairs to be so much more comfortable than what they had been. The old chairs gave a concave shape while my new version will give convex and fluffier padding. This was a personal preference solely. All my pillow have a zippered dust cover around them. I decided to keep this cover on the pillows. I figured it would be an added layer of protection and really couldn’t hurt the chairs.
Pillow attached to back of chair.
The pillow fits perfect longways if they were stapled to the very back of the chair. I was able to keep the denseness of the pillow contained to the backing of the chair by stapling the dust cover directly into the frame and cardboard pieces in the back. This gave a nice clean and secure look. I then cut and attached more 1″ polyester batting to the back and around the top of the pillow.
Attaching the fabric.
Now its time for the fabric. This is the part you want to take your time on because you really don’t want to mess it up. I admit I wasn’t paying attention completely and started to attach a side piece of fabric inside out. I had to rip the whole piece off and start again. It‘s not fun when you mess up.
The good part of the process is that it is completely similar to the batting process. First, you start with the measurement and cutting of the bottom piece. Then you move on to the side armrests and finally the back.
You want to make sure you cut enough fabric that will completely wrap around the bottom of the chairs and will easily staple. Cutting too short will be a complete waste of fabric, so be sure to give some extra inches to a piece. Also, when you need to trim excess, always cut smaller than necessary. Remember you can always cut but can’t really attach more fabric and still make it look good.
How to do a ladder (invisible) stitch.
The fabric needs to be stapled in places that wrap around the bottom. In other areas, you will need to stitch the pieces of fabric together. Now, this method is not the traditional upholstering method, but it worked really great for me and this project. I sewed each piece together using a ladder or invisible stitch. This stitch shows a seam, but you do not see the threaded stitches.
As you stitch the fabric pieces, be sure to pull and/or pin the sections taught. This will give a nice and professional look to the edges and sides.
The finishing touches.
Chair leg attachment and fabric stabled around it.
At the beginning, these chairs measure at 11 inches in seating height. Yes, they were quite low to sit in. The standard seat height is 18 inches. When I started I knew I had a lot of height to make up if I wanted them to be comfortable.
The new seat cushion gave me 2 inches in height so I needed to make up 5 more inches which meant I need to work on the chair legs for the extra inches. I purchased a Set of 4 5″ Round Tapered Plastic Sofa and Chair Legs that gave me the exact height I needed to make these chairs comfortable.
Price of reupholstering arm chairs.
Reupholstering any furniture can be quite pricey. The upholstery fabric alone can cost up to $30 per yard. A typical armchair can use about 8 yards of fabric each. That total comes to $240 just in fabric. I was able to purchase a waterproof canvas from an online wholesale fabric store that has become my favorite fabric site. My fabric purchase cost me between $4-5 per yard, amazing savings which also included a huge sale percentage off because I bought online during Labor Day weekend.
The batting and foam pads I purchased at Joann Fabrics can also be costly, too. My small secret to help reduce this cost is to find Joann’s or any craft store’s coupons. Joann Fabrics is notorious for 40-60% off one full-priced item. If you have the option, only buy one or two things, time with enough coupons to cover all the items.
Hopefully, like me, you already have a staple gun, staples, needles and thread, fabric scissors and fabric pins. I didn’t put these into the cost because I use them for every craft project and didn’t buy them for this particular project.
I hope this article can help you on your own reupholster projects. Give us a shout on your tips and tricks for making yours even cheaper.
2 antique arm chairs = $0
Demolition = $0
2 high density foam pad 22″x22″x2″ = $36
Two cushion batting 22″x22″x2″ = $40
2 pillow back cushions = $0
Two roll 1″ batting 1″x24″x5 yards = $72 (60% off coupon)
