Reupholstering Chairs with Two Padded Back Panels

November 19, 2018 by Virginia 22 Comments

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!

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to sign up for my email list so that you’ll know when the next installment of this DIY Reupholstery project goes live!

Have a wonderful week!

~Virginia

Paint the Kitchen Cabinets: Budget Remodel Planning

October 29, 2018 by Virginia 8 Comments

Now that my reupholstered dining room chairs are nearly finished, I’m planning for my next project. Actually, I’ve been planning for this next project for years but I’m about ready to begin. That means I have to make some decisions and I need your help! Ever since we bought our new house, I’ve been planning to paint the kitchen cabinets.

Here is my current kitchen:

Yes, yes, I know that some of you are huge fans of oak cabinets but the reality is that my kitchen is DARK and the cabinets are a major contributor to the dungeonous nature of my kitchen. They need to be lightened up. (It may not look that way, but I had to take a photo in the morning when sun actually comes in these windows AND I had to bump up the exposure quite a bit just so it would show up!)

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I’ve spent years researching how to paint kitchen cabinets and, thankfully, the options to get a professional look with less work have opened up in recent years. However, I’m stuck between two options and I figured, what better way to decide than to go to my blogging community and see what others recommend?

You can see some of my collected “research” here:

In the next few weeks I need to make a choice and do some ordering because, gosh darn it, I want new cabinets by Christmas! I’m convinced that fall (also spring) is the best time of year to paint in New England (no humidity, not quite so cold yet) so that means I need to get on it!

I want white kitchen cabinets that can be achieved on nights and weekends, with minimal prep work. There are two main options I’ve come across that involve very little prep work done to the kitchen.

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Options to Paint the Kitchen Cabinets:

Though I have been studying this issue for years, in the last year it seems like all of the sudden there are newer options that have become a popular way for people to paint the kitchen cabinets without having to do the days and days of sanding and filling in wood grain.

With BOTH of these options:

there is no need to sand
you do have to degloss
the blog posts/reviews include the paint lasting for years after
have self-leveling properties, meaning they leave minimal brush strokes

When it comes to ease of application and longevity, the options that seem to have the best reviews are:

General Finishes Milk Paint – (1 quart covers 150 square feet)
DecoArt Satin Enamel Paint – (8 oz. jar covers 20 square feet)

Evaluation of General Finishes Milk Paint

Materials Needed:

General Finishes Milk Paint
General Finishes High Performance Top Coat
Deglosser
foam rollers and paint brushes

Advantages:

comes in lots of different colors and you can mix colors
no priming required!
dries quickly (could start the next coat right away)
minimal smell

Concerns:

You have to do multiple (3?) top coats (still…no priming)
white may turn out different than grey (the reviews I read often painted cabinets grey) and that might mean more coats of the paint itself or some yellowing of the paint.

Evaluation of DecoArt Satin Enamel Paint

Materials:

Advantages:

no need to remove cabinet doors to paint the door fronts
comes in a variety of colors and can mix colors
can re-coat as soon as it’s dry
no need for a top coat –> you can keep the paint on hand for touch-ups
can buy locally at craft stores, Home Depot or Walmart
- easily returnable if buy extra paint AND easy to pick up more if needed

Concerns:

do have to prime with Stain Blocker/Sealer
Stain Blocker/Sealer has mixed reviews

What will it cost?

The most difficult aspect of making a choice here is understanding exactly what it will cost. I did a calculation based on:

how much area does a quart/jar cover
how many coats people said they had to use (different for each paint, especially when you consider that one uses extra coats of paint and the other uses extra coats of topcoat)

However, the calculations of how much is covered by a quart/jar didn’t match up with how many quarts/jars people used when they did their own projects.

That being said, based on my calculations, the DecoArt Satin Enamels will cost more.

What do you think?

At this point I think I’m leaning towards the DecoArt Satin Enamels because, even though my estimates said they may cost more, it would be easier to return extra paint (since I could buy and return them locally and since they come in smaller jars). It’s hard to return a whole quart but easier to return an 8 oz jar and I could keep some extra on hand for touch-ups since there is no topcoat. Plus, if I estimated too low on coverage, I wouldn’t have to wait to get more in the mail.

So, what do you think? Which of those two options would you go with to paint the kitchen cabinets white?

Please let me know your thoughts and your experiences with these paints in the comments below!

~Virginia

Reupholster Dining Room Chairs: Dissassembly

October 1, 2018 by Virginia 21 Comments

This is Part 1 of a three-part series on Reupholstering Dining Chairs with two padded back panels. See Part 2 HERE and Part 3 HERE.

If you want to reupholster dining room chairs, you’re in for a long project. Two years ago, when my husband and I moved from Seattle to Rhode Island, we took the advice of friends and sold most of our large furniture. That meant that when we finally closed on our house, we had no large furniture! A year passed before we finally replaced our dining room set. Moving and buying a house took a toll on our finances. However, when my in-laws planned a trip to come see us, we knew we needed something. That’s when we chose to reupholster dining room chairs the DIY way.

Choosing to DIY

When I’m not working, I love to do “projects.” My brain needs a break from hard-core academics and it feels good to work with my hands. At this time in my life, I was in full-on project mode. The pressure to DIY had been building up over the last two years since apartment-complex living is not conducive to DIY projects. I knew that reupholstering dining room chairs would be a bigger project than I had taken on before but I had the time to research the process and knew that it was going to be a more affordable option than to buy new.

I started by scouring Craigslist and our local thrift store. Eventually my husband was the one who found this set at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore near his work. I love that buying from Craigslist or the local thrift store keeps this furniture out of the landfill while allowing me to have a better quality piece of furniture. These are solid wood. We could never have afforded a set like this from another store.

It took almost another whole year (and my sister’s family coming to visit for Christmas) before I finally finished the project. There was some time involved in research, fabric selection, disassembling and tracking down a sewing machine. In the middle, I started working full-time again, which meant no time for the project. I won’t share all the details of what I researched because this post would be even longer than it is going to be, but please let me know any questions you have in the comments below and I will do my best to share what I found.

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Materials needed for Disassembling:

Phillips Screwdriver – to remove screws holding your seat cushion to the chair
Flat Head Screwdriver – to pry chair panel away from chair
Upholstery Staple Remover or Tack/Staple Remover
pliers to pull staples out if needed
Seam Ripper – if needed to take apart any fabric sewn to fit seat cover.

Disassemble the Chairs

Step 1 – Remove the panels and the nails

In my research I learned that one of the best ways to DIY reupholster furniture is to take the piece apart. So, the first thing I did was take off the panels on the back of the chair.

Since there is a panel on both sides, I used a screwdriver to wedge in between the chair frame and the panel. Once it was pulled up a little, I could wedge the screwdriver in to pry the panel up all the way around.

Taking apart the panel showed me that the panels had been attached with a brad nailer! The brads were very difficult to get out of the chair. I removed as many as I could with the back of the hammer to pry them out (or pliers). The brads have a very little lip at the top so some I had to hammer down to the side, out of the way.

**TIP** If you are doing multiple chairs at a time, use some masking tape to mark each chair and panel. I put a piece of tape on the frame of the chair and one on each piece removed from that chair. For example, I wrote “1” on the piece of tape on the frame of the chair and then “1 front” on the piece of tape on the front wood panel. Later I made a tape label for “1 front” on the fabric removed from that front panel, “1 back” on the back wood panel, and “1” on the seat cushion fabric removed from that chair, etc.

Step 2 – Remove the chair seat.

Flip the chair upside down and unscrew the screws attaching the seat to the base of the chair. Keep the nails that fall out in a little baggie so you have them for later!

This can take some muscle if the screws are very tight. Just be patient and go slowly, so you don’t strip the screws.

Step 3 – Remove the staples from the backs of all the pieces.

This step took time, over multiple days. Removing staples is an arduous job, even when you have the right tools. I purchased this upholstery staple remover to do the job quickly but the staples were so tight that the tool couldn’t get under them.

I ended up buying this type of tool to wedge under the staples and pull them up a little. Then I pulled the tough staples out with pliers. It took a lot of elbow grease. In the end, I didn’t use this tool very much and wouldn’t recommend it. This little guy, however, was a huge time-saver and worked much better than a regular screwdriver.

The seat cushions also had an extra layer of fabric stapled to the bottom that needed to be removed and labeled.

**TIP** If you know this process will get tedious, plan right from the start to do Steps 1 to 3 in stages. For example, I got to the point where I would do a chair at a time. I would take the panels off, remove the staples from the backs of the chairs, then return to unscrew the seat cover. Lastly, I would take all the staples out of the seat cover. That was the longest step as my chairs had 2 layers of staples in the seat cover, often with staples overlapping each other all the way around the outside!

Choose Your Fabric

Since the process for disassembling the chairs can be time-consuming, this is a good time to look for the perfect fabric.

Fabric Material

Pick a fabric that will suit your purposes. I did a lot of research on what fabrics are best for dining room chairs. Here is some of what I found:

Linen – Not for me. Though I love how it looks, it soils and wrinkles easily. Plus, it’s hard to clean.
Leather – Not for me. It’s easy to clean but too dark for the look I’m going for.
Vinyl – Not for me. It’s easy to care for and less expensive than leather, but I just didn’t like the feel.
Cotton – Possibly, especially in a blend. Resistance to wear, fading and pilling. Still some issues with soiling and wrinkling.
Microfiber/Suede – One of top choices. Easy to clean.

Fabric Pattern

Beyond the type of fabric, it’s important to think about the pattern on the fabric. Some fabrics have patterns that go one direction and must be matched on every chair. This makes it more difficult to cut your pieces since you have to be careful that it is running in the same direction on every piece. It seemed like this would also mean wasted fabric.

Since this was my first time doing upholstery, I decided to keep it simple. I wanted a solid color fabric, or one with a small repeating pattern that could be turned in any direction. I stayed away from a fabric like this that had a clear up and down.

My Choice of Fabric

My goal was to find a nice, neutral, bright look on a fabric that would clean well. I ended up trying out at least 15 different samples of fabric. To do this, go walk around Joann Fabric and feel the upholstery fabric. I also ordered some samples from FabricGuru.com.

I loved FabricGuru.com because they had great prices and even had deals on leftover remnants.

When I obtained the samples, I would run them through a test at home. I smeared red sauce, coffee, and other foods on the fabric samples and then cleaned them off. In the end I went with this Hudson 43 Upholstery Velvet Fabric-Alabaster and waited for Joann’s to have a sale or a coupon.

Calculating how much fabric you need:

Once the fabric pieces had been removed from the chairs, I flattened them out and measured. The seat covers were sewed so I used a seam ripper to tear out the threads and lay the seat cushion fabric flat to get a good measurement.

**TIP: before you take all of your seams out, take a picture of the areas that were sewn. This will be helpful later in remembering how they actually fit together. For me, I left one cushion intact so it could be used as a reference when I eventually sewed the new fabric together.

Back panel / front panel = 19 inches x 28 inches
Seat Cushion = 30 inches x 30 inches
I needed 6 seat cushions and 12 front/back panels

My fabric was 56 inches wide so to figure out how many yards I would need, I did a little math! (I hear my high school math teacher in my head right now! You do use Geometry in real life!) I grabbed a piece of copy paper, and sketched out how I might cut the pieces.

Along the 56 inches I could fit one 30″ seat cushion and one 19″ front/back panel side by side.
- 30″ x 6 seat cushions down = 180″ long (would allow for all 6 seat cushions and 6 back/front panels)
What’s left is 6 front/back panels.
- 56″ / 2 = 28″, which was the length of one front/back panel.
- So, I could do two front/back panels side by side.
- Three rows of these front/back panels, 19″ deep, means 57 inches more down the fabric.
180″ + 57″ = 237″
237″/36″ in a yard = 6.6 yards. I ordered 7 yards of fabric, just in case I messed up!

At the end of this Step you should have:

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

That’s the end of step 1 to reupholster dining room chairs. In the next post I will share the tools and tips I used to put the new fabric on the chairs.

**I will say that even though I’m splitting this into two posts, I did start recovering the chairs while I was still disassembling some of the pieces. It gave my hands and arms a break from pulling out staples.

Now that this series is complete, you can go straight to the next step! See Part 2 of this series HERE and Part 3 HERE.

Thank you so much for stopping by! If you got something from this post, please consider pinning it to your DIY project board!

~Virginia