Gorgeous!!! Love the fabric choice!

Quite a transformation. It went from blah to very attractive.

Wow!! Good for you that is so beautiful!

Thank you! I think I've put my shoulder out patting myself on the back :D I can't believe it turned out well enough that I'm not embarrassed to give these to my friend LOL!

I really waffled on that fabric. I've seen it so much on this forum and blogs that I was hesitant to use it. Then I thought, I NEVER see it in people's houses around here. I may have talked her into it but how can you beat $5 for something so pretty?

Great job! The chairs are beautiful and certainly don't look like a newbie job!

Nice job!

Beautiful! So, how do you put the piping/trim on? I've done simple reupholstery, where I just take off a seat and wrap it with new fabric, but I've not done anything where I've had to add trim. Did you just glue it on? Great job!

Oh, one of my favorite fabrics!!!

Laurie

What a change! And that is my all-time favorite print, Bosporus Toile in that particular color. I have a large swatch of it, still figuring out how to use it in our master bedroom. Your chair is so pretty now!

Me too Sable - I have always loved that particular toile and color.

Wow! Wonderful transformation. Go ahead, throw out the other arm now with some extra back-patting! :)

gobruno, hot glue! Piping is tacked on if you need to put a back on something like a chair, then you sew the back piece onto the piping. I haven't gotten that far :)
If you need trim between wood and fabric you glue it. I put a little glue on the ends to keep it from fraying, too.

Wow, that is an amazing job!

Absolutely gorgeous chair!!! Nice job!

What a beautiful job you did! I couldn't duplicate it in a million years. Congratulations!

Great job!! I have that same fabric. I'm making a throw for our bed with it. I paid a heckuva lot more for it than you did!!

Aside from the blatant desire for approval, this post is to convince those who doubt themselves to JUST DO IT. All I had was the desire and some books.

It wasn't a hard project, but it did require patience...not something I have a great deal of normally. I think I'm most proud of throwing my insecurity to the wind :)

Do that thing you want to do, ladies and gents. A little boost of confidence turned these last few days around.

Pesky, I totally lucked into that bargain. It's a pricey fabric and really perfect for my friend's house.

"Do that thing you want to do, ladies and gents. A little boost of confidence turned these last few days around."

Bravo!

WOW, that looks like an expensive and brand new chair, I can't believe you don't have experience in doing this, the job is gorgeous.

Stunning!

VERY well done! I know how you feel. I just finished my first ever slip cover for an upholstered Parsons-style dining room chair. I wouldn't attempt cording yet, but still feel so good I tackled it and succeeded. YAY for you!

What a beautiful transformation! Now,go ice your shoulder!

You really did a good a good job. It would be great to know how to do recover furniture, especially sofa's and think of the money you would save.

I know change is great, and it is. I have sofa's that I have had for almost twenty years, truly love the style. So I just have them recovered when I want a change. Wish I could recover.

At any rate, you should be very proud of your transformation and new skill.

Alex.....I have twelve dining room chairs screaming your name lol

Awesome! And what a great Craig's List find!

It looks really great with the new fabric! Nice job!

Thanks, Alex! I need to muster up the courage to take on something like this. Thanks for sharing!

Just absolutely lovely and for such wonderful prices as well. I think the hardest part is actually going to give them to your friend. Before you complete the next chair, could you take some more pics of the different steps of the process? I've recovered my DR chairs before with foam, batting and fabric; but this looks like you made some other changes from a detached piped cushion to an attached cushion. Did you have a wooden base that you attached everything to and then did the trim?

You did a great job! It does look very professional. Funny that I saw your post todayâ¦A friend of mine was just asking about a pair of armchairs he purchased. Beautiful, frames in good shape but the upholstery shot. (I am NOT volunteering to do the work for him, as it is way over my head! LOL). The biggest issue is the springs.

IâÂÂd like to know, if you don't mind, how did you replace those? Thanks!

Wow! Your tailoring is beautiful. I can imagine designing a whole room off of that fabric. Scrumptious!

Great job breathing new life into a tired chair :-)

WOW Alex, that is such a good job. Keep patting yourself on the back, you deserve it.
Love the fabric on the chairs.

Both chairs are complete! I didn't take photos of the process, sorry Val! I did take photos while I was taking the first chair apart, so I'll post those as soon as I get them uploaded.
It turned out I didn't have to replace the springs, just retie them. None were broken, just uneven from loosening over time.
I would love to keep these chairs, but part of the deal with DH when I bought them was that they would leave the house when finished. "We don't need any more furniture", according to him...hmmmph He did say he was impressed with the the finished product :)

Well, not as many pics as I thought but it shows the chair's construction well.
The first pic is taken after I removed the glued on piping. You can see that they used upholstery tacks to hold the fabric onto the frame.

Pulling the fabric away from the tacks you see the layer of cotton felt batting and the foam cushion. I couldn't find the cotton felt locally. The foam was dried and crumbling...what a mess! I had wanted to use the foam for a template but it was in pieces and powdered. Take the chair apart outside or in a space that you don't mind getting dirty.

Here are the springs under the foam. A real upholsterer would also remove these and the webbing underneath, redo the webbing, sew the springs into the webbing, tie the springs together and tack onto the chair frame. Next time I'll do it the right way.

The bulk of my time was spent removing the old tacks alternating between tack lifter and screwdriver. I traced out the shape of the frame onto the foam (2 in high density) and cut it to fit with an electric knife. This also took some time. It's the shape of the end product so you want to get this right. I lay dacron over the foam to soften the edges. Through error I found that you don't want it to fall below the area you are tacking into.
Cutting a notch in the front and back of the fabric and centered on the design, you lay the fabric on top and hammer a tack halfway in on each of the four sides. While tacking you pull the fabric taut making sure the weave is straight. When I had it the way I wanted, I tacked starting in front moving from the center. Then went to the back, removed the temporary tack and pulled taut again. Starting in center and moving outward, tacking the fabric. Same with the sides. I cut notches in the fabric where it had to fit around the arms of the chair. This is just folded and tucked into the area and tacked into the frame on either side of where the arms meets the seat frame. This area is tacked last. Check to make sure tacks are all hammered in. Cut excess fabric off close to the tacks and then glue on your trim to hide tacks.
I had books to reference, which was VERY helpful.

Wow! Thank you so much for those work in progress pics! You have been so helpful! IâÂÂm sending this link to my friend. Plus bookmarking it for myself!

Congratulations - it's beautiful!