Dining Chairs Restoration

This is a continuation of a 2-part Dining Chairs Restoration post. If you’ve jumped to this page from an online search, you’re on page 2 of 2. You can jump back to the beginning here: Dining Chairs Restoration

Continued from page 1 (prep)…

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Painting the chairs was very satisfying and they were transported into modern times almost instantly. The chalked paint I love so much is oil based, so minimal priming was needed. I painted a couple coats on the inverted chairs, and then the next day painted a couple coats on them upright. Once dry, I removed the painters tape and plastic protecting the webbing and brought them inside to fully cure for a couple days. I used a little less than 1 can per chair.

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While I waited for the paint to cure, I prepped the fabric for the seats. I used the old upholstery as pattern pieces, adding about an inch around the edge for wiggle room. The fiddle back chair has a perfectly round seat, but the ladder back chair is wider in the front. I’m glad I didn’t overlook that! For each chair I cut 1 fashion fabric and 2 canvas pieces. The sham I bought for the upholstery fabric is really thin printed cotton, so I adhered a layer of canvas to the underside using heat-n-bond making it as thick as upholstery fabric should be. I sprayed every piece with scotch guard to protect and waterproof.

Adhesive: HeatnBond UltraHold Iron-On Adhesive Value Pack, 17 Inches x 5 Yards

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Many reupholsterers use double welt piping to cover messy edges and staples, so I did the same. Like I knew mine would be messy! I cut 4 horizontal strips from the back fabric of the sham and sewed them together to make one long one. I know cutting on the bias (diagonal) is better, but this black fabric had 4-way stretch. I used my zipper foot on my sewing machine, folded the strip around 550 cord, and stitched on the edge of the cord. Then I folded in the second cord and stitched over the first stitching in the center. I cut off the extra and boom: double welt piping long enough for both seat edges! The edge of each chair measured about a yard and a half, so I made 4 yards piping for wiggle room and overlap.

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Stapling was fun and also terrifying. My pneumatic/air gun didn’t have a safety so I was pretty careful to not accidentally staple myself (which is why I didn’t link directly to my tool in my shopping list above, maybe there’s a better one out there). But it worked like a charm. I used 1/4″ staples on the canvas, and switched to 3/8″ staples for the padding and upholstery fabric. I trimmed the padding before adding the upholstery fabric. I was careful to staple just outside of where I felt the webbing ended, otherwise I’d have ended up with larger seats and not enough fabric.

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My back hurt after so much stapling, so I brought the chairs back inside to wait until I could hunch over them again. The next day I trimmed excess fabric and foam about 1/4″ from the staples. They sure cleaned up nice!

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And finally I added the piping over the messy edges with hot glue. Yes, hot glue. I had to take my time but still managed to ooze glue. Hey, it was my first time! They’re not perfect, but they are mine, and I love them so!

Here they are in all their newish glory! A special thanks to my friend Sarah who wouldn’t let me leave these two chairs behind, and for giving me a new appreciation for old things. I think my grandmother and my mother would love them as I do. So what do you think of “the sisters”??

For more in the series, click here: Heirloom Restoration or follow the corresponding board on Pinterest.

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