Hello friends! I’m back this week with Part 2 of Reupholstering Dining Chairs. This time I’m going to show you how to deal with reupholstering dining chairs that have upholstered back panels on both sides of the dining chair. (See Part 1 and Part 3) But first, let’s recap.

At the end of the first post:

• all of the chairs were down to their frames
• staples and fabric were removed from each panel and seat cushion
• each panel, seat cushion, frame, and fabric piece was labeled with a piece of tape and a number matching the chair.
• fabric was chosen and ordered

Materials Needed to Reupholster Chairs with Two Padded Back Panels

• fabric of choice
• fabric scissors
• tack strips
• staple gun and staples
• brad nailer and air compressor (optional) | New Cordless Option Available
• rubber mallet or here

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Cut the Fabric to Size

Once you have chosen your fabric (see the first post in this series) and it arrives, you need to cut it down to size. You can see my image in the first post for how I planned out where to make the cuts. Once it arrived, I arranged the original fabric pieces according to the diagram and used them as a pattern to cut the new fabric down the size.

Make sure to have a clean surface for this step. I actually placed a blanket on our floor and put the fabric on top of that to keep it from getting dirty. You want to flip the fabric so that the good side is down. Then, trace around the pattern with a pencil. Finally, cut it into pieces with sharp scissors. MAKE SURE TO TRANSFER THE PIECE OF TAPE WITH THE NUMBER ON IT FROM THE OLD FABRIC PIECE TO THE NEW FABRIC PIECE!

*Note: I actually used each individual piece of the old fabric as the pattern for the new pieces. They were basically the same size, so I could probably have just used 1 piece of fabric as a pattern for the back panel and one of the seat cushion pieces as a pattern for the seat. Then I could have thrown the rest away right up front. However, I couldn’t be sure that ALL the cushions were the same depth so I used each piece as a guide. Since they were numbered, it would guarantee that if the old piece fit on that chair originally, the new piece would also fit. 

I will note that if your chairs have padding that is old and disintegrated, you may need new foam. Mine didn’t need it so I just batted them a few times to knock out any dust and then recovered the old cushions with the new fabric. (Now that I think about it, I would recommend vacuuming the old foam too!)

Now that you have all of your new fabric cut into pieces, it’s time to put the new fabric on the chairs!

Reupholstering Dining Chairs: Two-Panel Padded Backs

The most difficult part of refinishing these chairs was the fact that there was a padded back panel on both sides of the chair. Most tutorials I found online didn’t show how to reupholster chairs with two padded back panels. But, as noted in the first post, research said the first step was to take the chair apart and see how it was put together.

When I took it apart I found that the two padded back panels were attached with a brad nailer. The cushions were covered in fabric, which was stapled to the back of the padded panel. Then the panel was pushed up against the back of the chair and the brad nailer drove brads through the fabric into the wood of the chair. Since the fabric was a loose weave, the nails did not leave any bunching. The fabric could be moved just a little so that the brad would slip through. However, the fabric I bought to replace it was a tighter weave. It would leave indentations or holes all around the edge if I tried to nail through the fabric.

Reattaching the panels will depend on your fabric:

• If your fabric has a looser weave (ie, you could stick a pin through without leaving a hole), you can simply staple the fabric to the back of the padded back panel using a staple gun. Then, attach the two panels back onto the chair by using a brad nailer and stapling right through the fabric into the wood of the chair.
  • Make sure to keep the brads close enough to the edge of the panel to catch the lip of the chair on the underside.
• If you are using a fabric with a tighter weave (like my suede), then you won’t be able to staple through the fabric. Instead, you will need to use a tack strip.
  • I tried two kinds of tack strips and infinitely preferred this one. It was sturdier and easier to break into pieces by folding the strip back and forth until the metal snapped.
    • (This was the other I tried. It was more expensive and harder to use for this project since I had to cut the pieces down to size. The pieces were very difficult to cut and since the top of my chair was curved, I needed the pieces trimmed down. More about that below.)

Step 1: Place the Tack Strips.

As explained above, make sure to have a clean surface for this step. You don’t want your fabric getting dirty while it is being pushed down onto the floor.

Place the tack strips evenly around the outside of the chair, so that the back panels will tightly adhere to the frame. See image.

This can be difficult with furniture that has rounded edges. Since the tack strips I found were all straight, I cut pieces to roughly fit the straight areas of the curve. This is why it was much easier to use this kind of tack strip.

Bend the strips back and forth and they will snap off. This allowed me to use smaller pieces that fit the curves. Otherwise, you would see a tiny bulge in the fabric at the point where one of the straight edges would protrude out a little from the curve.

Step 2: Staple the Tack Strips

TIP: This next step is easiest when you have a second pair of hands...

Wrap the fabric around the padded back panel and tightly fold the fabric up and over the prongs of the tack strip. For me, the easiest way to do this was to turn the tack strip on it’s side and push the tack through.

If the tack strip is pointed down slightly, then when you flip the tack strip so that it is flat against the panel, the fabric will be pulled tight.

• You do have to actively think about this as you poke the tacks through the fabric. Sometimes you have to slightly pull the fabric up so that it will be a tight fit when you push the tack through. Otherwise, you will get to the end and flip it over and realize that the first part is tight to the edge and the last part of the tack strip has drifted away from the edge.

Tips: Keep the tack strip as close as possible to the edge of your board. To be able to attach these panels to the chair, the tacks need to be close enough to the edge to catch the lip of the chair back when you hammer them in.

Once the tack strip is tight,  staple it in place. Make sure that the metal is completely covered and that there is enough fabric on the edge for the staple to fit. See picture above.

• Pull the fabric tight and staple as close to the edge of the strip as possible. This will keep it from moving around when you hammer it to the chair in the next step.
• Continue to pull tight, checking to make sure that the metal has not slipped off the edge of the panel and staple all the way around the edge.
• I think it works best to pick either the left or right side to start with. When that’s finished, staple the side opposite to it. That way the fabric will stay tight.

After the sides were stapled, I stapled the top. This is the most important edge and the one that will be the most visible, so I was very careful to make sure there was no bunching. Since my edge was curved, I started with the flat spot in the middle and then worked outward toward the edges, pulling the fabric flat against the curves as I went.

Step 3: Hammer panels back onto the chair

Once all of the tack strips are stapled into place, reattach the two padded back panels to the chair. Make sure to match the numbers so that the fabric goes back on the right panel and the panel gets attached to the correct chair! (see the first post for more information on numbering!)

For this step, I turned the chair on its back and set the panels on the chair.

Then, with a rubber mallet, I hammered them into place. I recommend using a rubber mallet because when I used a hammer, it caused marks and damage to the fabric.

TIP: Place a towel over the fabric where it is being hammered and hammer over the fabric. This protects the fabric from marks. 

Hold the chair up to eye level and check for gaps. It may take a few rounds of hammering around the outside until it adheres completely.

Do this for both sides are you’re ready for the final step! I had a grand plan to share recovering the cushions in this post too since it’s short but that just didn’t happen. So, stay tuned for Part 3 and the reveal of the new DIY Dining Chairs next month!

Don’t forget to check out Part 1 of this post if you haven’t already:

And if you gained something valuable from this post, please consider pinning to your project or DIY board!

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Have a wonderful week!

~Virginia

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