How to Reupholster Your Old Folding Chair

When you think of folding chairs, you probably don’t see a fun upholstery project. Folding chairs are these basic, utilitarian pieces that you pull out when you have extra guests over. They’re usually bland colors like brown or black. But they don’t have to be boring.

It’s actually quite easy to stick some exciting fabric selections on them, and maybe even give them a paint job. The photo above shows how snazzy a folding chair can look with some new fabric. Read on to learn how to reupholster a folding chair.

1. You’ll start by taking the padding off the chair. There are usually some screws on the underside and backside of the chair holding those on. Unscrew those to remove the padding. For this to work, make sure the padding is backed with a material you can staple fabric to.

2. If you’re going to paint the chair, do so now. To make it easy, you can use a basic spray paint.

3. Measure the padding sections you removed from the chair. Add four inches to each edge.

4. Measure and then cut the fabric to size.

5. Wrap the fabric around the padding sections, with the padding laying face down.

6. As you’re wrapping, staple the fabric onto the back of the padding. Trim the fabric off of any screw holes.

7. Once the chair is dry if you’ve painted it, attach the padding pieces back onto the chair by screwing them back on.