Want to try your hand at a re-upholstery job like that hand-me-down chair that’s been banished under a blanket for the past five years? Match your level of ambition, and
budget, to our handy project guide by Andrea Ford of RE:
Style Studio.
Pre-School:
Dining Chair With Covered Seat 
For a true novice,
stick to a simple project that requires minimal stripping and has few fabric pieces. A dining chair gives you all aspects of refinishing to get practice: wood refinishing, if you so choose, disassembly and covering. You can go for a full
makeover by stripping the wood frame, priming it and painting it out in a bold paint colour or choose to just touch up nicks and scratches of a natural wood finish. Also, if you just want a simple fix, you can skip any
work on the frame, layer your fresh new fabric over the old and call it a day.
Materials:
- Screwdriver/drill
- Staple remover
- Fabric (about 1 meter) polyester batting
- Thin foam (1”)
- Sandpaper
- Primer
- Paint (2 cans spray or 1 quart can of brush-on)
- Staple gun
- Thin under covering
- Optional supplies: wood touch-up markers
Cost: Minimal; depending on fabric and paint chosen, less than $30
Time: 1 hour (seat only); 4 hours (with frame refinishing)
Middle School: Wood Trimmed Side Chair or Retro Box-Shaped Side Chair 
For a larger time
investment, find a chair that is covered by several separate pieces of fabric or can be wrapped and stapled on the underside without intricate seams. These two examples give you the option to get creative with different fabrics while also matching patterns, placing prints and using trim to cover your raw edges. A retro modern chair such as this armless number allows you to wrap the seat and back separately and use pleating to keep the fabric taught. Ease into replacing springs with a user-friendly commercial-grade seat and back webbing that can be stapled onto the wood frame and a foam layer added for height.
Materials:
- Pliers
- Staple remover
- Fabric (about 6 meters depending on print matching)
- Polyester batting
- Foam (3” and 1”)
- Sandpaper
- Primer
- Paint (2 cans spray or 1 quart can of brush-on)
- Staple gun
- Thin under covering
- Scroll gimp trim or cord trim
- Glue gun
- Glue sticks.
- Optional supplies: seat webbing, canvas strips, wood touch-up markers, decorative tacks
Cost: Under $100.
Time: 7 + hours
Extra Credit:
Armchair 
Sewing required! If you’re comfortable with a sewing machine, this armchair is deceptively doable. Aside from the seat cushion cover, which can be copied from the original pieces after some quality time with a seam ripper, curved sections of the chair can be pinned by hand and matched, then secured by machine. Starting from the bottom of the chair, remove the exterior fabric to expose the inside trimmings such as springs and webbing. If the chair is sturdy you can bypass replacing the interior and focus instead on the chair’s aesthetics. The key to a more complicated chair is to study the original seams and pieces – think of it as an anatomy study or
3D puzzle in the making – and then copy them cut for cut after stripping the piece.
Materials:
- Sewing machine
- Zipper, 3” foam (for cushion)
- 1” foam (for back, inside back, arms and seat deck)
- Fabric (about 6 meters)
- Pliers
- Staple remover
- Fabric (about 4 meters)
- Polyester batting
- Foam (3” and 1”)
- Webbing
- Canvas strips or cardboard framing
- Polyester batting
- Sandpaper
- Primer
- Paint (2 cans spray or 1 quart can of brush-on)
- Scroll gimp trim or cord trim
- Undercover lining
Cost: Larger
investment - $200 and up
Time: 10+ hours