Reupholstering Old English Pub Chairs

Recovering Chairs- seems like a simple enough task. But, recovering old English pub chairs from the 1950's-1960's with metal springs is another story. Luckily while fabric shopping, I came across a wonderfully knowledgeable woman at Hancock Fabrics who REALLY knows how to upholster. She got me on the right track by helping me pick out all of the materials needed for this project!

Here is one of the chairs with the original fabric. As you can see, the seats were pretty dingy (as expected since they were in an English pub for who knows how many years). The fabric was actually very sturdy and beautifully embroidered. However, it needed to go.

I uncovered the chair seat by taking out all of these tiny nails- probably 100 + per chair. Then, remove the fabric. This is the underside of the chair once I got the nails out. Oh, a good trick for that is using a flat head screw driver and a hammer- get the flat head under the nail a little and hammer the end of the screwdriver and the nails pop right out. Be gentle though, otherwise you can cause big holes or splitting wood- no good!

Penelope wanted to help :/

This is after I took the fabric and padding out- leaving the burlap base. I took this to Hancock Fabrics and was told I should probably replace the burlap too since I was doing all this work. There were two layers of burlap on the base but they were about to give.

Here is the bare frame of the chair

Pretty cool right?!?! I thought so! Did NOT expect to find this under all of those layers. It definitely made things interesting. With the help of the wonderful store associate at Hancock Fabrics, we determined that I would need: burlap (enough for two layers), scrap vinyl (to help cushion the springs), 1" foam (for padding and only 1" because I still wanted the chairs to have that firm pub feel), bamboo batting (enough for two layers), and finally, the fabric! When I heard all of this, I was pretty overwhelmed and started thinking this project was going to take me a while. However, I ended up doing these chairs in about 6 hours- would've been less minus the wine breaks, etc.

These are all of the layers

Here is the bamboo batting being cut

I used a heavy duty staple gun with 1/4" staples (not too long) to attach the layers.

First, I did the burlap- two layers. You want to fold the burlap so it will hold better when you staple it. If not, the weave will come out and the staple will not do you any good.

Second, I cut the vinyl to fit over the burlap (a little longer on each side) and used the original nails, one on each side, to keep it in place.

Third, I cut a piece of foam to fit over vinyl and did not secure it with anything because the next layer of batting would hold it tightly.

Fourth, I cut two layers of the bamboo batting big enough to wrap around wood. I stapled them to the back side of the wood.

Fifth, I cut the fabric in the direction that I like the pattern the most and layered it on!

They came out perfectly!! In the end, I spent $43 on supplies at Hancock Fabrics thanks to coupons and sales on Veterans Day.

Here is the finished chair!

And, the before and after