Our poor office chair went under the knife (and stapler–but no sewing!) to give it a new look. I picked this chair up for $15 a couple years ago when an office was updating their furniture. So it was a little worn when I brought it home, but add on a few years and it was plain nasty. Perfectly comfortable and in great working condition, just old and dirty. Instead of replacing it, I decided to give it a facelift.
I’m sorry I’m even exposing you to these pictures but want you to see just how bad it was…the bottom right has pink highlighter drawn all over it and the then the dirty seat above. My 6 year old loves to spin around and around in this chair and I think what you see is the result of too many dirty shoes on the seat.
When I found this duvet cover on sale ($17 for a queen duvet cover=a lot of fabric for not a lot of money!) I knew it would work for our “new” chair.
The first step was to remove all of the old staples–and there were a lot! I flipped the chair over and using a screwdriver and pliers I started taking out the staples.
Furniture factories are very liberal with their use of staples. It took a while to get them all removed.
After all the staples were out I peeled the original fabric off to use as a pattern. The foam and the fabric were stuck together. My 3 year old asked why I was skinning our chair! I traced around the old one and cut out the new.
Tried it over the cushion to be sure it would be the right size before I started stapling. I should mention that the chair’s foam was still in good condition so I didn’t have to add or replace any of it.
Then I did the reverse of the first step and started adding staples! The trick is to pull the fabric tight while stapling. It would have been nice to have another person helping, but never fear somehow T-Rex ended up right there cheering me on!
The top of the chair pops in and out of the black plastic back so you can remove the staples, staple the new fabric back on, and pop it back into place. And again, the before and after:
I’m loving the results, but thinking I should ScotchGuard it just so I don’t have to do it all over again any sooner than I have to!
This was my maiden furniture recovering experience, what about you–have you tried your hand at recovering furniture?
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
I think it looks awesome! I’ve not tried to recover any furniture but I have an ugly old ottoman that’s really begging for it. I guess I’ll have to break down and actually do it!
Love how this turned out. That green is one of my favorite colors too. Just beautiful!
Nice job! I recovered all my office chairs. PLUS I discovered that spray paint made for plastic is a great solution. My sewing chair is white now.
What a huge difference! I love that fabric—awesome job! This makes me want to tackle such a project.
where did you find that duvet??? I need one for my screen porch bed!!!
love the chair!
Ella, I found it at a local store that sells overstocks from Overstock.com (I know, who would’ve thought!) Any way I looked it up on Overstock.com http://www.overstock.com/Bedding-Bath/Green-Scroll-3-piece-Full-Queen-size-Duvet-Cover-Set/5249729/product.html It is out of stock right now, but might come back
Great job! What a difference. Thanks for sharing
I so LOVE this fantastic creative idea!!! It looks so easy I think I could even do this.
Thank you for sharing!
Oh my goodness, that looks great! I have an office chair that looks horrible but I didn’t know what to do with because the foam and chair are perfect aside from the gross fabric. Now I know what to do. AND it will go into my craft room so I can make it as girly as I like.
Great deal on the duvet cover, I love finds like that!
I just found you and this project from Pinterest, and I LOVE your chair! I’ve recovered chairs before, but I never considered an office chair makeover, what a great idea!
I’d love for you to come link your project up to my *Get Creative* party this week
http://www.justalittlecreativity.blogspot.com/2012/02/get-creative-linky-party-and-features.html
Hope to see you there!
Molly
I have an office chair that came with my house. It has to be from the 70′s but it’s got a big seat and arms and it is so comfortable I don’t want to get rid of it. It is just so ugly!
You made this look so easy I just might try it.
Thanks
Thank you so much for this post. I’ve been complaining about my office chair for too long and I’m going out and getting a duvet cover tomorrow!!!
Just so you know, you don’t have to use a duvet cover that’s just what I happened to find. Any fabric you like will work. Just be sure it is a high quality so it won’t rip!
I love this!! Hobby Lobby always has remnants of upholstery fabric in their clearance section or you can catch it when it’s on sale 50% off!! Saw some cute stuff the other day but didn’t know what to do with it! Going to get it today to make over a yucky office chair!
I absolutely love this. I will be doing this soon. I found this on pinterest!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing.
The chair looks great and comfortable. I’ll have to try this.
I love the front of the chair and the bottom wouldn’t show but what about the back of the chair? How do you hide the staples?
You can see the plastic chair back in one of the top photos that covers up the staples.
I totally used your idea and ran with it. Thank you for the inspiration!!!!
http://allforoliver.blogspot.com/2012/03/re-upholstered-computer-chair.html
Great job! I have one of these chairs from a second had business furniture store. Not too dirty but a yucky shade of satiny blueish color. Hard to describe color along with that odd embossed print they put on that kind of stuff.
My husband is not happy that I found this website! But I’m getting all kind of ideas! He did like this one though. His office chair is pretty nasty looking, but is still in otherwise good condition. So….
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