reupholstery with fabric scraps

With a staple gun, every upholstered seat is a blank canvas!

Materials:

• Any item of wood furniture with an upholstered cushion (preferably something you already own, or sourced from a thrift store/secondhand marketplace! the rocking chair is from an antique store and the stool was $3 from a thrift store)

• Some kind of wedge tool, like a flat head screwdriver, the back of a hammer, or a paint can opener, to pry up staples/tacks

• Staple gun & staples

• Fabric (as always, our favorite options are thrift stores or your existing fabric stash)

  • Sturdier fabric is better suited for upholstery - though definitely possible, this would not be the ideal craft for reusing a fabric like old bedsheets

• Sharp scissors

The before: lovely items, but mismatched and not within our desired color scheme

Getting started:

• If the furniture is secondhand but new to you, wipe down any hard surfaces and vacuum upholstered surfaces

• Remove the seat cushion, if possible, by unscrewing where necessary. This was not possible without damaging the antique chair pictured here, so in this instance we left the cushion attached and will work around it.

• Remove the existing upholstery fabric. Most upholstery fabrics are secured to the underside using either fabric tacks or staples - pry these up using your wedge tool to remove the fabric.

  • It is generally fine to add new upholstery on top of the existing fabric if you're having trouble accessing the existing staples/tacks or are looking to skip a step - this is what we did with the footstool as the old fabric was partially glued on. Just make sure the old fabric doesn't show through if the new fabric is light or thin

• Prepare your measurements in one of two ways: measure and record the dimensions and shape of the old upholstery fabric if it's intact, or measure the dimensions of the cushion and add approximately 2" to each edge

• Measure and cut these dimensions accordingly using your desired fabric

• Staple the fabric to the underside of the board (if you're able to remove the cushion), or the underside of the chair frame (if you're unable to remove the cushion, like the rocking chair featured here).

  • Tip: start stapling midway down one edge of the board, then staple the opposite side by pulling the fabric taut against the opposing staple. Repeat with the other sides, then continue working your way across the entire board by alternating sides to ensure the fabric stays straight, centered, and taut. Fold the corners neatly, trimming any excess fabric as needed.

• Trim excess fabric with scissors (you can use pinking shears for a slightly sturdier edge if desired)

• If you would like, you can add furniture tacks/nails along the perimeter of the cushion at this stage - this is a purely aesthetic decision and is up to you! We didn't have any on hand, so we didn't use any here

The finished product: the chair and footrest may not be identical twins, but they're at least cousins now with matching upholstery to suit the room!

Our Note: Americans throw out over 12 million tons of furniture each year, and the vast majority of this ends up in landfills (source). The problem has worsened in recent years as cheaply made, rapidly produced furniture ("fast furniture") has risen in popularity, thanks to its affordable price point. However, manufacturing furniture so cheaply requires using materials like plastic and particleboard that have both a high carbon footprint and a very short lifespan. It's very hard to repair and refinish damaged particleboard furniture, which means consumers are even more likely to continue replacing cheaply made furniture with more cheaply made furniture - a vicious cycle of increasing waste.

Thankfully, more durable wood furniture is still very affordable and accessible if you source it secondhand! Thrift stores, garage sales, and online platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are great places to find extremely affordable wood furniture that will last you many decades. You will find a wide array of stylistic options - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and that's where this craft comes in. Many items of furniture have the potential to be reworked to fit your space and style, so we encourage you to think imaginatively about the potential each piece has to suit your creative vision!