a simple reupholstering tutorial

A gal I know asked me to recover two chairs for her.
It was a simple project & I love the results.

Here's how easy it is, with photos!

First I took out all the old staples & pulled off two layers of old fabric & old foam. Next, I fixed up the webbing (the middle, off white part, it's stretchy-very expensive). These were quite old chairs.
Then I took my 2 in thick foam & traced my wooden seat with a sharpie. I also went around the sharpie marking (free hand, again with sharpie) about a 1/2" from it, where I wanted to actually cut it.

Well, I'm not quite sure of the best way to cut the foam...but the hubs always has good ideas & his was to use our electric knife & it worked like a charm!!!
After cutting it out, I cut the edge on the top of the foam, to give it a slanted edge so it wasn't so square.

I cut out the cute fabric & made sure it was a perfect fit.
And stapled the first side on. It's easiest if you staple the BACK of the chair first. That way you can pull the fabric really tight on the front, to give it the rounded look. If you're using a manual staple gun (like me), you've gotta put all your weight on it to get those staples to go in real deep.

So, staple the back first, then the front. Always start stapling in the middle of each side & work your way out towards the corners. Next do each side & then on to the tricky corners...

You pretty much just need to play with the corners until you get them to lay correctly. You might have to cut some extra fabric off, but start small, you don't want to accidentally cut too much off. You want just one big fold in the corners. Then staple, staple, staple! To hold it all in really well.
Make sure to always be pulling tight! And be sure to keep an eye on the pattern of your fabric, if there are lines or circles (like this one) you want it to all lay correctly, so it looks symmetrical.

Notice the circles along the front, how they line up. That's what I mean.

Sorry, not the best pictures, but you get the idea.

Now, grab an old chair & recover!!!
If you have any left over foam, egg carton pads or anything of that sort use it! Foam isn't cheap. If you buy it, at least use the 40% off coupon in the JoAnn's add!