upholstery

Continuing on with my first upholstery project, today I am going to show you how to build the cushion of a wood framed side chair. Take careful notes and pictures when you disassembled your chair and follow those steps again to reassemble. I’ve found that each chair I research is put together a little differently. So if you try this, take lots of pictures! I did; however, I am having doubts about the method. I’ll share those as I go, but for now, let’s jump into adding some fluff to the chair!

Here’s a quick summary of Part 1: I started with just the wood frame of the seat, nothing else attached.

Burlap was stapled to the underside of the frame. The frame was filled with high density foam and Dacron, then a tight weave of jute webbing was attached on the top of the frame. The chair ended up looking like this.

The chair is now weight sustaining but far from comfortable! In this post, we’ll add burlap, an edge roll, horse hair, cotton, and Dacron to pad the chair then hold everything down with a layer of muslin.

Burlap Layer

First up is to cover the jute webbing with another taut layer of burlap. Staple this layer to the frame using 9/16″ staples because this layer will bear weight. Cut a layer of burlap roughly the size of the chair seat plus a few inches on each side. Lay it over the frame.

Using a pneumatic stapler, begin stapling the burlap to the frame. Start at the center back of the chair (north) then pull the burlap taut to the front of the chair and staple the front frame piece (south). The burlap should be taut between these two staples.

Then move to the left side of the chair (west). Pull the burlap straight but not so tight as to warp the shape of the burlap. Next go to the right side of the chair (east) and pull the burlap very taut and secure with a staple.

The burlap should now be attached with four staples: one north, one south, one west, and one east. The burlap is taut between those staples and fairly loose otherwise. Continue on in the same pattern (north, south, west, east) to pull taut the burlap between opposite staples. When finished, the burlap layer should look like this:

Trim off all but 2 inches of the burlap all the way around the chair. Fold the burlap over the staples (toward the middle of the chair) and staple again with 9/16″ staples.

A close-up:

Attach Edge Roll

An edge roll is needed all the way around the edge of the wood frame. The edge roll holds  functional purpose: the underside of your knees don’t rest on a hard wood edge and an aesthetic purpose: it allows the exterior fabric to go smoothly from the top of the seat to the side where it is stapled to the side of the wood frame.

I chose to re-use original edge roll that was on the chair. It had one part that was a little frayed, but the rest of the parts were in good shape.

The edge roll should sit flush with the outside edge of the wood frame. It should be stapled securely, not wiggling. This is the first place where I didn’t do it quite right. I held my stapler wrong when securing the edge roll. Follow this tutorial to get the edge roll stapled in a more secure fashion (check out step 9).

You can see in this close-up, my edge roll is not quite stapled close enough to the edge. This happened because I held my stapler with the nose into the roll with the handle of the stapler in the middle of the chair. The proper way would have been to have the stapler handle on the outside of the chair with the nose of the stapler over the edge roll toward the middle of the chair. This would have gotten the staples much closer to the roll resulting in a more secure finish.

Horse Hair

Next I put a layer of horse hair on top of the burlap and inside of the edge roll. I’ve read that using horse hair in upholstery is a lost art, and I hate “lost arts” so I re-used the horse hair from the original upholstery.

How thick should this layer be? Since this horse hair is used, is it matted down? I don’t have an answer for you, so for reference sake, this horse hair layer is about 3 inches thick.

Tack Horse Hair

When I disassembled the chair, there were large stitched tacks holding the horse hair to the burlap beneath it. I’m assuming this is to keep the horse hair from shifting when sat on. I decided against using regular thread as I thought it wouldn’t be strong enough, and instead, I used wax thread (used for upholstery buttons). It is very thick and strong. The wax helps give the thread extra hold.

Using an extra long upholstery needle, sew large stitches through the horse hair and into the burlap layer underneath. Sew one or two large stitches then tie the string in a not on the top side of the horse hair.

The tacks are not as evenly spaced as intended, but I had to lift up the horse hair to thread the needle through the burlap the back up through horse hair. This lifting and threading made for very uneven stitches. A curved upholstery needle would have been the right tool to use, but I chose to make do with what I had on hand.

Pad with Cotton and Dacron

With the horse hair secured, put on a layer of cotton and a layer of Dacron. (I don’t have pictures of the cotton.) Cut the Dacron roughly the size of the chair seat plus a few inches on all sides then lay it on the chair.

In order for the Dacron to lay smoothly around the legs and arms of the chair, you need to make some relief cuts.

This is a vertical cut going into the center of the arm/leg to allow the Dacron to lay on either side of it.

Make relief cuts for each arm and the back legs of the chair then tuck the Dacron around the horse hair.

If I was doing this over again, I would secure the Dacron with staples instead of tucking it, like in this tutorial. The next step, securing the top layer of muslin, was a little difficult since I didn’t staple down the Dacron. The Dacron kept popping out when I pulled the muslin taut.

Layer of Muslin

The last step to build the cushion of the chair is to staple down a layer of muslin over the entire seat. Cut the muslin to roughly the size of the chair seat plus several inches on either side.

I barely bought enough muslin, so the depth of the seat barely had any extra. I didn’t have to go out to buy another cut though. That’s a win!

Pull taut and staple the muslin in the same North/South/West/East pattern as the burlap layers.

Continue working around the chair until the muslin is smooth and taut.

Trim the muslin very close to the staples, all the way around the chair. When finished, this chair will have the wood frame on the sides, front, and back exposed. I was careful to not staple the muslin too close to the decorative edging. The top layer of upholstery will need to be secured right up against that trim, so I needed to leave room for those staples.

The chair is now ready for the pretty stuff: the upholstery fabric and nail head trim!

To build the cushion of this wood framed side chair, I started with a firm, taut layer of burlap covering the jute webbing. An edge roll was secured all the way around the outer edge of the wood frame to improve comfort and aesthetics. On top of the burlap came a 3 inch thick layer of horse hair. It was secured with large tacks into the burlap layer. Next came a layer of plush cotton (not pictured), and finally, a layer of springy Dacron to finished off the cushion. Holding all the layers together is a layer of muslin, stapled securely into the sides of the frame, covering all the padding, edge roll, and burlap.

These steps to build the cushion came together surprisingly quick. Once again, I’m kicking myself for delaying this project so long! Up next is the final layer of upholstery and a row of nail head trim. I have a feeling I have my work cut out for me in this step!

Thoughts on putting this cushion together? Should there have been a layer of foam on top of the jute webbing? Did the horse hair replace the need for that? At the end of the day, the chair will be functional and comfortable, so I’m not overly worried. I do like to know the proper way to do things though. Do share if you know!

For anyone new to Flawed yet Functional, DIY and home projects are my happy place. It is therapeutic for me to paint a room. I get great satisfaction sewing a Roman shade for a window. Making wood beautiful with my own two hands is downright fun for me. It gives me great joy to make my home beautiful with my own elbow grease.

Doing and sharing these projects though are two very different things. It takes a lot of bravery to share home projects when I’m not a professional, an interior designer, or anything like that. I’m a reader and a life-long learner who likes to work with her hands. This post is me being brave. I’m not a trained in upholstery, but I like to learn to create beautiful things with my hands. I love Myquillyn’s tagline: It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful. I couldn’t agree more. Let’s be brave together and re-upholster a chair!

Quite a few years ago, I purchased this wood side chair off Craigslist for the desk in my home office. The seat of the chair was ripped when I purchased it so the plan was to reupholster it at some point. Although I loved (and still do!) the mid-century modern lines of the chair, I wasn’t fond of the blond wood. After I removed all of the old upholstery, I gave it a couple coats of Minwax Special Walnut and a couple coats of polyurethane for durability.

Since I put this project off for years, I mean YEARS, and I’ve worked on this project in stages, I don’t have good photos of dismantling the chair and staining the frame.

The removal of the old upholstery and re-staining took place in early 2017, and then I let the cost of new foam for the seat allow me to procrastinate with finishing the chair. I’m really good at procrastination when I’m not feeling confident in a project. So there my chair sat for months and months while I “saved” to buy the foam and other materials for the seat of the chair.

I finally purchased the rest of the materials for the seat of the chair a couple weeks ago. The purchase only occurred because I happened to check the Jo-Ann’s coupons to find I had a 50% off one cut of fabric which included foam. Score! Guess how much it cost me? I should tell you I didn’t just buy foam. I bought the dust cover, burlap, burlap webbing, nail heads, AND the foam for $55. This chair has been sitting unfinished for over a year for just $55 (or over 7 years if you go back to the original purchase!).

I finished the chair back insert in the summer of 2017, and I failed to take any pictures to document it. So this is the starting point for finishing the chair seat. The seat of the chair only has the wooden frame, nothing else.

I took pictures of how the chair was put together as I stripped off all the old upholstery. I followed the same pattern, method, and materials to build the new seat. I’m not an upholstery expert, so I don’t know if I’m doing this right, but I think it will turn out sturdy and comfortable. That is a good enough result for me for my first upholstery project!

Let’s jump into the project!

Trace the Shape of Chair onto the Foam

Before beginning to staple anything to the frame of the chair, get a pattern of the seat shape traced onto the foam. Lay the foam piece on the seat of the chair as snugly as possible without buckling the foam piece. Then trace around the inner side of the underside of the frame to mark the shape  to cut the foam.

Does that make sense? Kneel down and trace from the bottom of the chair. It is a little awkward, but it is a quick thing to do.

Cut the foam

Cut the outline you just traced using an electric knife or a serrated bread knife. Don’t try scissors or a flat knife, it will tear up the foam. If you have access to an electric knife, it will cut through the foam like butter. Please be careful not to cut yourself or your floor in the process!

Dry fit the foam

Before moving on to assembling the chair, put the foam into the frame of the chair to make sure it fits. Make additional adjustments as needed.

I kept my foam insert tight, but I did have a gap at the back of the chair. To fix this, I ended up cutting a thin piece of foam to fill in this gap before putting on the batting (see the Cut the Batting step below).

When I removed the original upholstery, there were large gaps between the foam and the seat frame, and these gaps were not filled with anything but air! So I don’t necessarily think every square inch of the frame needs to be filled with foam, but it seemed like the right thing to do, so I went for it.

Staple burlap to bottom of the chair

Now it’s time to start putting the chair back together. Start from the bottom up, except leaving the dust cover until the end just in case something needs to get removed.

Turn the chair “on its knees.” With the back facing you, tip it forward so the bottom is exposed. This makes the stapling of the burlap much easier. I used 9/16″ long staples (long!) because this layer is structural. It will partially hold the weight of the person sitting on the chair. I laid my roughly cut piece of burlap on the bottom of the chair then stapled in a north/south/east/west pattern to keep the burlap centered and taught. Continuing working around the chair bottom in this pattern (N/S/E/W) pulling the burlap taught as you go.

I trimmed all the excess burlap, but an inch or so, around the chair bottom. Then I folded the burlap back over the staples (toward the middle of the chair) and stapled it again.

Cut batting

To make a pattern for the batting, I simply laid my foam insert on top of the batting and used a permanent marker to trace around the foam leaving several inches clearance from the edge of the foam. I wanted to maintain the rough shape of the foam, but the extra inches were needed to tuck around the foam, between the foam and the frame of the seat of the chair.

Put the foam into the chair and tuck the batting around it.

It is at this step I decided to fill in the small gap left between the back edge of the chair frame and the foam I originally cut. Based on how the chair was originally put together, I’m sure this gap was ok from a functional perspective, but I like everything to be as perfect as possible, so I filled this small gap with a scrap of foam.

Attach Jute Webbing

Next comes a tight weave of jute webbing. I attached this by securing the back side of the chair with four strips of webbing. Then I attached three strips of jute webbing to the left side of the chair. Then wove them together before fastening the opposite sides.

These next steps required both my husband and I. I did not buy the proper tool for this step nor enough jute webbing to be able to use the tool. My solution is as follows:

1. Attach the back and left side of the chair webbing and weave the ends together. First staple 5 staggered staples into each strip ( _ – _ – _ ) then fold the end back over the staggered staples and secure it with three more staples ( _ _ _ ).
2. Have your super strong husband pull each piece taught while you staple 5 staples into the finishing end of the strip.
3. Staple again in a staggered pattern ( _ – _ – _ ).
4. Repeat steps 2-3 until all jute webbing strips are taut and stapled to the chair.
5. Fold over the ends of each strip and staple three more times ( _ _ _ ).
6. Trim excess jute webbing.

The finished webbing should look like this:

Those jute strips are TIGHT. Both my husband and I sat on it, and it barely gives. Looking back at the old webbing when I stripped the chair, the webbing was loose and buckled. This should make the chair much more sturdy and comfortable!

Since I’m not an upholstery expert, more of a learn-as-I-go kind of girl, why is the foam in the middle of the seat frame? Does the jute webbing defeat its purpose entirely? I couldn’t find a tutorial of my exact type of chair so I really don’t know the proper way to approach this upholstery project. Thoughts?

I must confess that I cannot believe how quickly this portion of the chair came together. Why did I procrastinate this long? We’ve had this sturdy piece of furniture, that I really love, sitting useless, half-finished in our basement for so long! I’m so glad I took the plunge to finish it now! I can be brave, and you can too!

This completes the weight-bearing portions of the seat of the chair: burlap, foam, batting, and lastly the jute webbing. With a pneumatic stapler, this comes together very quickly! If I can do scary things you can too! Stop procrastinating and start doing!

Up next: the soft and comfy part of the chair!

What are you procrastinating on lately? What scares you about starting a project? Do you find those scary items are actually no big deal once you start to tackle the project?