Project Fifteen: Re-Upholstering an Old Ugly Swivel Chair

Four great things about this project:

1. It was really really easy
2. It only took me one hour
3. It looks fantastic
4. It cost less than £4

The boy has been after a swivel chair for his workstation for ages, and he finally found one in a charity shop in Bournemouth for £1.99 so we took it back to Cambridge with us. It’s just a run-of-the-mill child’s swivel chair, black plastic, blue wooly upholstery, you know the thing, and when I first told the boy I would recover it his response was “but I like it now, I don’t want it covered in your girly flowery fabric”.

I didn’t mention it again, but while he was on a Beavers sleepover this weekend I took my screwdriver and staple gun into his room and got to work. I think he will be pleased with the result. No flowery girly fabric in sight.

First I unscrewed the screws holding the back-rest to the frame, and once this was off it was easy to pop the padded bit away from the main frame. I left the old fabric on and just covered it with the new fabric, pulling it tight around the frame and securing it with a million staples. Getting the seat pad off the frame was a bit trickier, but a bit of brute force set it free and the seat was then re-upholstered too.

 

I used some fabric from Ikea that is white with colourful blue and green trees printed all over it. I had this left-over from making the boy’s blind, so it worked perfectly in his room.