I have a patio set in the back yard where the fabric on the chairs was ripped and coming apart. Not only was this unsightly, but it was allowing water to reach the wooden seats as well. I decided to reupholster them as soon as possible and was delighted when I found a set of vintage curtains whose fabric I could reuse, check it out:
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This post shows what the tiled top of the patio set looks like. I don't think the fabric of the chairs is visible in any of the photos, but at least you can better see the set!
Here is the set of large, vintage JC Penny curtains that I found while thrifting for only $7.99. I don't know what it's called exactly, but they are made from that fabric that was soft but also waterproof. That kind that back in the day would always turn ugly yellow when used in public because of everybody smoking, know what I'm talking about? Well thankfully these came from a non-smoking home and were soft, clean and still bright white!
Also in the picture is a pile of quilt batting that I already had on hand. Doubled up this makes a nice, soft cushion for the chairs in between the wooden seats and the waterproof fabric. Because my outer fabric is waterproof, I can get away with this. If your fabric isn't waterproof and you use batting, your chairs are going to end up as a soggy mess.
If you peek closely at the bottom, right hand corner, you can see a bit of gray wood sticking out from beneath the curtain fabric. I didn't get a picture of the process but before starting on the fabric I removed the old seats from the chairs, took off the ruined fabric and gave them a coat of paint to seal them from any stray moisture.
I cut the curtain fabric into four large squares and placed it on the floor with the good side of the fabric touching the floor and the bad side of the fabric facing upward. I then layered quilt batting on top of the fabric's bad side.
Because the curtains were so big, I only needed one for all four of my chairs and was able to be very liberal in my cutting. If you are short on fabric though, you will want to cut as close as possible to avoid waste.
I then positioned the wooden seats from the chairs on top of the quilt batting and trimmed the batting close to the wood. I wanted enough batting left that it would cover the edges of the chairs, but not so much that it would be in the way of trying to staple the fabric in place.
Using a staple gun I pulled the fabric tightly and stapled in place, working around until everything was secure and continuing to trim as needed. Keep in mind here the thickness of your wood and the length of you staples. If you use staples that are too long they could end up poking through the other side and making a very uncomfortable seat!
After that it was a simple as screwing the newly covered seats back in place and I was all done.
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I hope you enjoyed this furniture post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer
© Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams 2024
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Thank you for sharing your wonderful tutorial. Our patio chairs are in desperate need of something like this. They're so bad that the old grungy foam pokes through the covers, which used to be waterproof many, many moons ago.
ReplyDeleteMine were just as bad!
DeleteWow! Great job. It looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing this post with us at the Will Blog for Comments #43 linkup. We hope to see you at #44, too. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Delete