Do-it-yourself padding of chairs and armchairs

Recommendation points

• DIY upholstery of chairs
• Changing the upholstery on the office chair
• At the end

In this article: what is needed to constrain the chair; stages of work on changing the upholstery; how to disassemble the back and seat of an office chair; how to change the upholstery on an office chair.

Any piece of furniture designed for our fifth point takes a special place in private homes and offices – both during rest and during work you need to sit on something, and with maximum comfort. Unfortunately, it is these pieces of furniture that fall into disrepair much faster than others … Their upholstery gets dirty, abraded and burst, the foam layer wears out, loses its elasticity and is pressed down – of course you can sit, but there is no comfort at all. There are two options for solving the problem – to throw out a chair or an armchair with worn-out upholstery and buy a new one, at the same time incurring significant costs, or to repair the furniture yourself or by contacting the appropriate company that provides hauling and repair services. We will always have time to throw something away – we will fix it!

DIY upholstery of chairs

Before starting work, you will need the following set of tools and materials: pliers, a hammer, a minus screwdriver, scissors, a knife, a furniture stapler and a package of 12 mm staples, foam rubber, pieces of coarse calico or knitted fabric for lining and thick fabric for outer upholstery. The list of these tools and materials, it should be noted, is common if the chairs are being repaired – in some cases, carpentry glue may still be needed.

We study the chair for wobbling, if found, we glue the frame. We proceed to dismantle the seat, for this we turn the chair upside down and unscrew the bolts that attach the seat to the chair frame. Separate the seat, then carefully, but with effort, without damaging the plywood, remove the old upholstery fabric by inserting a minus screwdriver between it and the plywood base of the seat, removing old staples and nails that can be used to secure the upholstery as you find it. Removing the upholstery fabric will expose the foam layer that makes the seat soft – if it looks worn out or is almost completely crumbly, remove it without much ado.

 

The next step is to replace the foam layer. Purchase 40 mm foam rubber for seats, the density of which should be at least 30 units – the layer of lower density will sag under the weight of the fifth point to the plywood base of the seat, i.e. there will be no point in installing it.

In order to cut the desired piece of foam rubber, put the plywood seat base on a sheet of foam rubber and cut along its edges using an ordinary kitchen knife – the foam rubber is easily cut by it, only the knife movements should be soft and practically without pressure.

Turn the seat upside down, place the cut-out layer of foam rubber on it and, spreading the lining fabric on top, cut its edges to fit the shape of the seat with scissors, taking into account the thickness of the foam layer and a 40 mm allowance around the edges for bending when tensioning and fastening. Turn the seat over with the wrong side up so that the foam rubber and the lining do not move, fold the edge of the lining fabric on one side and secure it to the edge of the plywood base with three staples in increments of 30-40 mm along the edge of the plywood using a furniture stapler. Important: do not overdo it with the fold of the fabric, otherwise it may not be enough to fasten on the opposite side!

Having secured a layer of lining fabric on one side, go to the opposite side – you need to bend the edge of the fabric, stretch it and secure it with staples. The tension is made as it is fastened with staples, from one corner to another, with a 50 mm indent from the corners. After pulling and securing the pad on two opposite sides of the seat, attach it to the other two sides in the same way, leaving the fabric loose at the corners. Once you have finished stretching and stapling, gather the lining fabric at the corners into folds, tucking the edges inward so that each fold is oriented diagonally towards the center of the seat. Secure each corner with one or two staples, then cut off the excess material with scissors – a particularly neat look from the fixed lining is not required, because it will still be hidden by the main upholstery weave. However, by pulling and securing the lining, you will gain experience that is very useful when attaching-pulling the main upholstery..

The queue for fastening the upholstery fabric – the fastening stages are similar to the previous installation of the lining fabric (alternate fastening-tension on opposite sides, then laying and fastening in the corners), only here you need to be much more careful and careful. On all surfaces of the seat, the upholstery should be stretched equally well – do not allow creases. After securing the upholstery, go over all visible brackets with a hammer to make sure they are securely fastened..

Now you need to install the chair seats back onto the frame. Lay the chair frame on its side, attach the seat and check if the threaded holes for the screws are covered by the fabric of the upholstery – if blocked, cut the holes in these places with scissors, determining their approximate location visually and by touch. Secure the seat to the frame by connecting them with screws or wood screws. That’s all, you can use!

Changing the upholstery on the office chair

An incentive to replace the upholstery on an office chair may be its wear and tear and a violation of its integrity or a desire to transform its unsightly appearance – as a rule, office upholstered furniture is covered with a fabric of some gloomy shades.

In principle, the process of upholstering an office chair coincides in most of the stages with the upholstery of a chair, only it will be more difficult to get to the hard base of the seat and the back of an economy swivel chair, because they are hidden by cover plates – plastic (seat) and metal, covered with plastic (back).

 

Important: before disassembling the swivel office chair, disconnecting the piastre (connects the legs and the gas-lift mechanism with the seat) from the seat and the back of the chair from the SPT mechanism (spring-loaded back frame) – take a picture of all the mountings, fixing their correct position in the photo. assembly, otherwise assembly after replacing the upholstery will create problems!

It should be noted right away that you will not succeed in the ideal hauling of executive-class furniture – do not even tackle it, contact the professionals. But the usual swivel chairs, widespread in offices, will be able to change the upholstery..

The following is a description of the stages of an office chair “Prestige”.

So let’s get started. Having removed the assembled seat fastening with a camera, detach the back from the spring frame, put it on the table with its front side. It is required to detach the back cover without damaging the snap fasteners that connect it to the base of the back – you will need either a short car mount with a flat end, or a flat and rigid metal plate. There are four latches, they are located above and below, left and right along the edges of the back of an office chair, on the same line against each other. We put a mount between the base of the back of the chair and the back cover in the area of ​​each of the latches, gently push, pushing them apart until it clicks, meaning that the latch at the point of pressure has come out of the groove. We move to the position of the next latch and so on until all four are completely unclasped, after which we detach the cover and remove it to the side.

At the next stage, we remove the old upholstery and foam rubber, if they are worn out, or we pull the new upholstery over the top – the process is similar to the hauling of the chair seat described above. The only difference will be that the back is in the shape of an oval, therefore, you will have to collect the upholstery fabric in folds before fastening with brackets around its entire perimeter. When replacing the foam rubber, it is better to pre-glue it, cutting it out in the shape of the back, using a special glue for foam rubber or ordinary PVA, however, in the latter version, you will have to leave it under pressure and wait three hours until it is completely glued. After tightening, it is necessary to return the back cover of the back to its place – make sure that the stretched upholstery fabric does not overlap the latches – by placing it on the back with the alignment of the positions of the latches and, gently pressing the cover at the attachment points, fix it on the base of the back.

Seat queue – the latches connecting the cover and its base are unclenched, depending on the degree of wear, the foam rubber is replaced, a constriction with new upholstery is performed in the same way as the back. Then the seat is closed again with the cover on the back..

When assembling the chair after the constriction, the positions of the mountings taken at the beginning of the photo will be very useful.

At the end

With the slightest uncertainty about the upcoming change of upholstery with your own hands, insufficient skills in using tools and, as is often the case, a catastrophic lack of time, entrust the repair of upholstered furniture to professionals who guarantee a high-quality result. And when instructing the change of upholstery to the appropriate performers, formalize the relationship in writing, do not ignore the “paperwork”, because agreements “in words” are often not followed …