How to Upholster an Oak Dining Room Chair

Upholstering a dining room chair can add character and comfort to any seat, and can emphasize the natural beauty of oak's distinctive grain. The key is making sure your material is smooth and tight, leaving you with a professional quality chair. You will need a friend to assist you.

Things You'll Need

• 1-inch high-density foam Upholstery fabric Staple gun Tacks Hammer Screwdriver 3/8-inch staples Scissors Chalk

Instructions

1. Remove the seat from the frame of the chair by removing all the screws from the underside of the seat. Keep the screws to reattach the seat after it is upholstered. Use chalk to draw an arrow pointing toward the front of the seat. The upholstery will cover about an inch around the edge of the seat, so keep your arrow near the center.

2. Use scissors to cut the foam to fit your seat. Make it about 1/4-inch bigger than your seat on each side, so the upholstery will look rounded when you are finished. After the foam is cut, trim the fabric to the size and shape of the seat, leaving about 4 inches extra around the edges.

3. If the fabric has a pattern or a stripe, tack the fabric down on each side of the seat to keep the design straight while you work. Don't hammer the tacks in all the way; they will be removed before you start stapling.

4. Have your friend hold the seat upright while you begin stapling. Starting in the corner, use one hand to pull the fabric tight over the foam to the bottom side of the seat, and the other hand to staple to fabric in place. Keep the staples about 1" from the edge of the seat. Once you have finished the first side, trim the excess fabric before moving on to staple the opposite side. Starting with sides that are opposite rather than next to each other makes folding the corners easier in the next step.

5. For the final two sides, fold the fabric tightly over the corner straight toward the opposite side of the seat, creating a fold in the fabric just as you would if you were making a bed. Make sure any wrinkle or extra slack in the fabric is smoothed and pulled tight; this is especially important for these last staples, because the seat in this stage will look just like the final product, and any imperfections will remain.

6. Use the screws you removed before to reattach the seat to the body of the chair, using your arrow to match the front of the seat with the front of the frame. Make sure the seat is positioned the way you want it before you screw it back on, tucking the fabric into the frame and positioning the corners where you want them before tightening the screws.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are upholstering more than one chair, use chalk to mark the seat you're removing with the frame it matches; this will cut down on confusion later if the screw holes are in slightly different places. Check your work every two or three staples to make sure your fabric is straight and tight; once you staple a wrinkle into place it is much harder to fix. If you make a mistake, use your hammer to remove the staples and reposition the fabric before moving on. If you are using a fabric that tends to ravel, adding a square of batiste to cover the bottom of the seat will prevent fabric strings from coming loose and dangling from the chair.