reupolstering old chairs

[HoosierBuddy]

Hey guys,

I got 2 free chairs from my mother to use in our bonus room above the garage. The only problem was the 40 year-old leather was cracked pretty badly. I've never done any upholstery work before, but my wife is pretty handy with a pair of scissors, and my mother-in-law was able to loan me a pneumatic staple gun. So, after watching a couple of youtube videos from diyuphostery.com, we ordered some supplies and jumped on in.

It's harder than putting up wallpaper, but easier than doing your taxes.

I think the first chair turned out acceptable, and the second one should be a snap.

Tools required included the aforementioned pneumatic staple gun (diyupolstery considers electric staple guns to be an abomination), a staple puller, a good tack hammer, a flat bladed screw driver (to use as a substitue tack puller), my wife's pair of "SEWING SCISSORS" (which I am never allowed to touch under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES) and a razor blade.

Materials included 3/8 stainless (high quality) staples, upholstery nails, and upholstery material.

Total manhours? Maybe 8 hours on the first chair, and I think we can do the next one in about 4.

Anyway...fun project. Except for the yelling back and forth.

In the pictues below, the red chair is identical to our original. The chair on the left is complete. After this picture was taken, I got the chair on the right stipped down and ready for new fabric...but then was stopped as I'm not allowed to touch the sewing sizzors.

Phil

 

[swgray]

Great job! For a first timer you did a really good job keeping the pattern squared up to the chair. Did you find the tacks locally or online?

 

[metal1313]

you def did a good job, ive done a few chairs, from very simple seat cusions to a leather arm chair. a really good, fast stapler makes it much much easier, as does an upolstry stretcher. my next project is going to be inset panels for a head board. pretty simple looking but really hard to do right

 

[Jaguar Fan]

... I've never done any upholstery work before ... It's harder than putting up wallpaper, but easier than doing your taxes...

Great job!

By the way, my wife is a tax attorney who also re-upholstered 6 of our chairs this summer. She says taxes are easier.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Great job! For a first timer you did a really good job keeping the pattern squared up to the chair. Did you find the tacks locally or online?

Thanks!

I got all of the supplies online. Even the staples. My mother-in-law worked as a seamstress in a custom drapery shop for many years. When she loaned me the staple gun, she told me the staples she gave me were not nearly as good as the drapery shop used to use, and were very difficult to remove, as they would break easily. She was lamenting the fact she couldn't find any "good" staples. I bought a box of 2000 stainless staples and they will pull out without breaking. I should have about 1800 of them left to give her when I return her staple gun.

The online site I mentioned has all of the needed supplies, but I found out they drop ship some items. It took about 10 days for the entire order to be filled.

Phil

 

[t. jones]

Hoosier Buddy that leather wasn't cracked that was Patina, don't you watch Antiques Roadshow? Grey chair looks too nice for the shop now. Thanx Trevor

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Hoosier Buddy that leather wasn't cracked that was Patina, don't you watch Antiques Roadshow? Grey chair looks too nice for the shop now. Thanx Trevor

Ha. That's patina deep enough you could lose pocket change in it.

The chairs are destined for our bonus room over the garage, which is our family room.

Phil

 

[mtwaterguy]

Good job for a first time effort. Two things I notice that you might address next time are 1) running the top arm and inside back material the same direction, so that there is no shading difference and 2) placing the nails where the inside and outside fabrics meet, like the original.