How to Recover a Chair Seat Cushion

If you have a chair or dining chair with outdated upholstery fabric, here is How to Recover a Chair Seat Cushion easily with no sewing required.

My desk chair has been reupholstered several times and I decided it needed another update. Since I had some farmhouse style stripe fabric left over from another project, I decided to give the chair a farmhouse flair.

Here’s how easy it is to do.

Remove the Chair Seat cushion

Most chairs of this type have a wooden chair bottom that is screwed from underneath and they are easily removed with a screw driver.

You can remove all the fabric from the seat if desired. Because I wanted to increase the softness of the cushion, I choose to leave the original fabric and batting in place.

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Measure & Cut Fabric

Next measure your seat bottom and allow approx. 3 inches additional for all edges. This seat bottom is 20 inches at the widest point so I cut the fabric 26 inches wide. Do the same for the depth of the seat bottom.

In addition, be sure to allow for any pattern. Since the fabric has a stripe, I made sure the stripe would be in the center of the cushion once attached.

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Gather Supplies to Recover A Chair

1. High Loft Batting Material
2. 1/2 yard of desired fabric
3. 1/4 yard of drop cloth fabric
4. Staple Gun & Staples

Attach Batting Material

I choose to add an additional layer of batting. If you are happy with the softness, you may skip this step.

Begin by wrapping the batting material around the top of the seat bottom and pull tightly as you staple. In addition, cut of any excess material at the corners.

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Add fabric to the chair seat Cushion

Next, do the same with the desired fabric. Be sure to align the fabric correctly if there is a pattern to consider. Once again, pull the fabric tightly around the edges to assure that the fabric is smooth once turned over and attached to the chair. Also, be sure to tuck the fabric at the corners.

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Finish with Drop Cloth Fabric

The last step is to cover the raw edges of fabric and batting with another fabric. I choose to use drop cloth fabric because I have plenty of scraps on hand and it’s cheaper than the fabric I used for the top of the seat cushion. You can see here a table runner project using drop cloths.

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Re-Attach Seat Cushion

Screw the seat cushion back to the chair frame being sure that the screw goes through the new material into the wooden frame. If the screws are to short, purchase a slightly longer screw the same diameter.

The Recovered Chair Cushion

I’m loving the Farmhouse feel of the new chair cushion. It’s perfect to use at my desk.

The chair now feels brand new and went from trash to treasure within just a few hours.

If you would like to see other chair makeover’s, check out this deconstructed chair tutorial.