Happy Monday to you! I hope you had a great weekend. I worked on upholstery projects all weekend, just as I said I would. I only got one chair completely finished. Well, it still needs a pillow, but all of the upholstery parts are done.
Remember how these chairs started out?
Honestly, they weren’t terrible. I joke about them having brittle, crunchy, old velour fabric, but really the fabric wasn’t in terrible shape. The color was just a bit…well…GOLD for my taste, and they wouldn’t have worked in John & Alice’s family room with the gold fabric. So they definitely needed a makeover.
And I stuck with my original plan, also.
Here’s how it turned out…
It’s definitely an improvement, right? I love damask fabric, and the color of this one is so pretty.
I still need to make a little lumbar pillow for each one, which will be out of the damask fabric also.
Now I know that many of you are interested in learning how to do the tufting. I promise that a DIY tutorial is coming, but you might have to wait until next week for it. But I promise, I’ll get it done! I took many pictures of the process so that I could show you.
And here’s my favorite part…the back…
There were only two things I left off off of the chair from the original. The first was a bit of cording on the front of the seat cushion. I just really liked the way that the fabric pattern met (almost) perfectly, so I left the cord off.
And I also left off two buttons from the back. This actually wasn’t intentional. I didn’t realize that I skipped right over them until it was too late, and there was ABSOLUTELY.NO.WAY. that I was going to take the back off just to add two more buttons (which are blue, by the way…can you tell?)
So, once I get the lumbar pillow finished up, this thing will be officially complete (and the seat cushion will make a bit more sense).
But for now, this is what I have. You’ll see the whole thing, with the lumbar pillow, once John & Alice’s family room is complete.


Update: I got the pillow finished! Here’s what it looks like now…
This is an incredibly long D.I.Y. tutorial, so I’ve divided it into six parts:
- Intro – Materials and supplies list
- Part 1 – Stripping the chair and prepping the frame
- Part 2 – Covering the back side of the seat back
- Part 3 – Button tufting the chair back
- Part 4 – Covering and reattaching the chair seat
- Part 5 – Upholstering the loose seat cushion
Need to make a throw pillow? Click here for a basic throw pillow tutorial.
17 Comments
Laurenzstamper
June 20, 2011 at 1:28 pmWow! I love this and I am so surprised by the combination of pattern and solid — would never have thought of that — really a great makeover!!
Kristi
June 20, 2011 at 4:30 pmI have almost that exact chair. I love what you did with it. Are you going to show us how you did it? Purty please!
Kristi @ Addicted 2 Decorating
June 20, 2011 at 4:32 pmI will, but it'll probably be next week before I can get to it.
Stephanie
June 20, 2011 at 4:48 pmLove Damask! Nice job and looking forward to the tutorial. 🙂
Felicia
June 20, 2011 at 4:58 pmI love it!!!!!
Amber Peters
June 20, 2011 at 8:00 pmI can't wait for the tutorial! I was hoping you would do one soon because i have a similar chair that is in desperate need of reupholstering!
CA_Powell
June 20, 2011 at 9:17 pmOh they've turned out so well! Was this your first time doing upholstering?
Kristi @ Addicted 2 Decorating
June 20, 2011 at 9:34 pmThank you! No, I've upholstered other things before…mostly chairs, but one sofa (possibly two).
Stephanie
June 21, 2011 at 12:30 amI LOVE the back! I am actually working on re-upholstering a rocking chair that has a similar back to this one, its my first re-upholstery project and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do it and make it look good – like you did! I hope you include that in your tutorial, waiting anxiously 🙂
Michelle
June 22, 2011 at 11:48 amAwesome chair!!! Love the black!!! — I want one!
L.Lane Designs
June 25, 2011 at 2:02 pmIt turned out great! I love the touch of the blue buttons to bring the two fabrics together! 🙂 New follower from TT&J.
Macy
June 28, 2011 at 4:45 pmI LOVE the fabric! I would love it if you would link up to my Tuesday Confessional link party going on now: http://www.craftyconfessions.com/2011/06/tuesday-confessional-link-party.html. I hope to see you soon!
~Macy
sandra mendoza
July 18, 2011 at 6:25 pmI look at your blog once a week, but I never comment…I had to comment on this one – WOW! What a lovely chair! I recently bought one @ the thrift store for $10 and am looking for ideas — the chair is very similar to yours. I will definitely link up to your party once I am done w/my chair! Thanks for sharing.
Blubabescreate
July 25, 2011 at 10:02 pmI am impressed! I like all of the tiny details! Come see my dollar chair I gave up on!
Layne
December 29, 2011 at 7:55 pmI love it!
Thank you for sharing.
Melony
August 28, 2012 at 11:12 amI got a chair exactly like this one, the fabric is ugly burnt orange? Orange is fine but this has to go. Gonna paint the chair white and find some lovely blue/teal fabric.
Part 5 -- How to Reupholster An Occasional Chair With Cane Sides And Tufted Back
January 10, 2014 at 4:00 pm[…] << Return to the beginning of this tutorial […]