Furniture Flip: Thrift Store Chair Makeover

Category: furniture

To make these chair makeovers as quick as possible, look for sturdy pieces that have solid wood frames.  This will make it easy to staple everything in place and not have to sew.  Also, if the cushions are clean and in good condition like the ones I used you can save a ton of time by just placing the new foam over the old one.  Stripping furniture takes a lot of time and energy, but for dorm and college furniture we can get by with just layering over the old cushion.

What you need to make this project

Materials
Thrift Store Chairs
Cushion Foam: NuFoam Pad .5" thick
Soft Support Cushion Foam 2" thick
Upholstery Fabric
Supplies
Paint
Staple Gun

Quick Shop

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NuFoam™ Pad – 27″ x 16 Yards x ½” thick

Quantity

Price: $99.99

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Soft Support Foam 36″ x 22″ x 2″ thick

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Price: $36.99

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Instructions

Step One

The process is the same for both of these chairs.

First, paint the wood parts of the chairs.  Use a good quality paint to save time.  I only needed two layers of paint to cover each of these chairs thoroughly.

Step Two

 

Next, trim the foam to fit the chair seat and chair back.  The thinner foam (which I used on the rocker) can be cut with scissors.  For the thicker 2 inch foam (used on the high backed chair) I use an electric meat cutter to neatly cut the foam.

Staple the foam to the wood frame.

 

Step Three

Cover the foam with the fabric.  Staple the fabric in place.  I cut rectangles of the fur fabric to add to the sections of the rocker.  The fur hides the staples well.  For the larger chair, I managed to cover it all with one long piece of fabric.  I started with the base, then stapled the edges around the cushion. I then pulled the fabric over the top and stapled it in place.  The staples are pretty well hidden, but you can add trim to hide them if you feel they are too noticeable.