It Only Took 3 1/2 Years To Finish - Refinishing a Metal Chair and Seat Cushion

In November of 2016, I started working on a chair I got from my mothers home when she died. I remember this chair growing up in our home. I have not idea where the chair came from originally, but it has been in my family for many years.

No one in the family wanted it, and my nephew was going to take it to school for a prop in his drama class as it was really beat up. I decided if it were going to not go to someone in the family, I would take it home and refinish it. I have a little desk in my bedroom that could use a black chair so I took it home. 

If you remember back that far on my blog, here is a link to that post.  Around that time, Princess five had rolled her car and there were lots of crazy things going on in my world. I had also misplaced the fabric from my mothers home that I wanted to use on the chair, as I thought it would be cool to use her fabric on her chair. 

Most of the items I have from her are large wooden dressers, as I chose to get the dressers for the girls as they are functional over her antique decorative pieces that may have been worth more. With that, I thought a little bit of her couch fabric would be a nice touch to make the chair more "hers" and the chair did have a similar color on it at some point, so I was restoring it to what it was like when I remembered it from my childhood.  

I share in the two videos (the first video is in the link above post) how I spray painted the chair in the first, and the second video I did today, showing how to cover the wooden seat, add padding, and finish it off. 

The videos isn't the best as I have been losing my voice all week, so the sound isn't the best. 

I am also not feeling well, so hope I didn't pick up the Corona virus anywhere, but I have been feeling worse and worse this week and today feel like something is coming. I am heading to bed after this and it isn't even 8 p.m. 

Basically, you pick the fabric you want to put on the seat. You can recover the fabric that is on the seat, or you can remove the fabric by pulling out the tacks or staples using a flat head screwdriver and a pair of pliers. 

Once you have the old fabric off, you can use the old fabric as a template or pattern for the new cover, or you can just measure the fabric about three inches wider than the wood piece so that it will cover the padding and wood wrapping to the back where you can staple it on. 

Make sure to staple the edges evenly across from the side and not go around in a circle as you can mess up the top that way. Do one side, then the other, then the other sides like a cross, so that it is pulled evenly over the chair and you don't get bulges. 

I find using a staple gun works better than using tacks as you can do it one handed while you hold the fabric, rather than needing two hands to hammer a tack into the back of the seat.

Make sure to mark where the screw holes are in the bottom of the wood so you can find them under the fabric as it is easier to screw them into existing holes rather than trying to make new ones. 

Also, you may want to tape the screws to the wood of the seat so you don't lose them while working on the chair. I have lost one or more in the past and then you have to find the exact length screw or it can go through the wood, and when someone sits on the chair, it will poke them in the behind. 

If you have little children, you can buy some thin clean plastic at Walmart on the roll, and can put plastic over the fabric until you children are a little older and past the stage of staining the fabric. 

I have recovered dining and kitchen chairs many times over the years. Sometimes if the fabric is just dated and not dirty, I will just put the new fabric over the old, but if it is an old chair, I like to clean off the old fabric replacing it rather than covering it. 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. 

Have a Blessed Day!