A New Look for My Dining Room Chairs.

I've never loved my dining room set, but don't want to replace it until I find the perfect antique dining set.  I decided that since I will be living with this set for a while longer, I MUST recover the seats.  They are a very boring cream color and a few of the seats have small stains that I have tried to scrub off with no luck. 

So, off to Jo Ann fabrics I went, with coupon in hand, of course.  There, I found a beautiful fabric suitable for furniture.  It's a eucalyptus and tan stripe and made to look like silk (it's 100% polyester).  The total cost was $30 for 2 yards, 2 hours of my time, a staple gun and staples, and a screwdriver.

Fabric choice with area rug and curtains.

Here are a few before pictures.

1)Take the old seats off of the chair base.
2)Measure a piece of fabric large enough to wrap the top of the cushion with enough allowance to staple to the underside.
3)Lay fabric wrong side down on your work surface and put the cushion, top down, on the fabric.
4)Wrap the fabric so the edge comes to the underside and staple in the center of the top edge of the cushion.
5)Now, pull the fabric tightly, and put one staple in the center of the bottom edge of the fabric.

6)Alternating top and bottom, and continuing to pull fabric tightly, put a few more staples on the top and bottom.

7)Repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 on the right and left sides

8)For the corners, pull the fabric tightly over the corner and staple once or twice.

9)Neatly fold the fabric over the top of the corner and pull it firmly and staple in place.

10)Repeat step 9 the the side of the corner

11)Finish all 4 corners per steps 9 and 10

12)Staple the rest of the way around the fabric and trim off extra material

13)Flip the cushion over and admire your handy work!
14)Screw the cushion back onto the chair base.

And you just saved yourself $150 per chair (or at least that's what I told it would cost to recover ONE dining chair).

Here's the finished product and a "before and after" picture.

Do you like the before or after better?

Lindsay