Tutorial - How to Reupholster a Chair Cushion

Reupholstering cushions has got to be one of my favorite projects. It’s always amazing to me how much a little time and fabric can update or give a chair a whole new look! I can’t count how many I’ve reupholstered, but I’ve enjoyed the process each time. Here are some easy step-by-step instructions on how to reupholster a chair cushion.

I got this chair at a yard sale last summer for $15. The seat was broken in two and the fabric had seen better days, to be sure. 😉

The first thing I did was take off the seat (usually attached and simply removed with screws and a screwdriver), paint the frame white, and have a whole new seat cut from 1/2 plywood.

Much better. Right? I love the clean look of it.

With some chair cushions the foam or batting is in good enough shape to re-use. That wasn’t the case with this chair, so I used some heavy loft batting folded over about 4 times to create a comfortable cushion

Cutting around the edges to the shape of the seat with about a 1/4″ overhang

Next I placed the seat with the batting over the wrong side of the fabric chair cover cutting around the shape another time and allowing a 1-1/2-2″ overhang of cover fabric.

Folding fabric over the edge evenly, stapling down every couple inches.

The most important thing about the corners is just making sure they are uniform so that they all look the same from the front of the chair. The following images show the step by step process I do mine with.

I don’t always finish off my cushions with a chair liner, but with this one, I felt it was suitable. Again I cut the fabric out using the seat as a pattern