DIY Recovering a Chair Cushion

Moving in to a new house meant many things for my roommates and I, chief among them that it was up to us to decorate. I had spent my day-dreaming time throughout the summer thinking of a color scheme and layout for my room, but put little to no thought into how the living room or kitchen would look. This was mostly because I had no furniture to contribute and therefore wasn't sure if we were going to attempt to be cohesive, or just have a shmorgishborg of mismatched furniture. However, halfway through the summer, one of my roommates announced that her parents were willing to give us four old kitchen table chairs, but that the fabric was dated and dirty. So, we accepted the challenge and took it upon ourselves to re-cover the chair cushions. 

This is how all four chairs looked originally:

The Process:

1. First, we dusted off the cobwebs and cleaned the original fabric on the cushions.

2. The seats of the chairs were held on by a single screw in each corner, so all we had to do was unscrew them and pop off the cushioned seat. 

3. After the seats were separated from the chair frame, we tightly wrapped our fabric around and used a staple gun to secure each edge to the bottom of the seat. We got our material at JoAnn Fabrics; we used very thin cotton fabrics, but kept the older, more thick, original fabric underneath for support. 

4. Next, we grabbed a hammer and secured each of the giant staples into the wood by simply whacking them.

5. Then, for an added touch we cleaned and polished the wood frame.

6. The final step was simply to put the seats back on the frame, which just meant tightening the screws back in with a screwdriver, and voila!

This is the finished project: