Do It Yourself Furniture Upholstery

Because so many of you have asked, I’m going to show you how I upholstered my first piece of furniture. This method is not how a professional would do upholstery, but I want to show you that you can upholster a chair with nothing but a staple gun, a glue gun, and about $25 worth of fabric remnants. It’s a quick, inexpensive, and fun way to upgrade an old piece of furniture for your home.
 
Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the process while I was doing it because I did not know I would have this website. But in this video, I walk you through the steps I took to re-upholster this whimsical-looking chair. I did not remove the original fabric, but upholstered right on top of the existing fabric.
First, I painted the wood a cool blue with a shimmery glaze. Then I used a glue gun to secure the fabric between the vertical tufts on the back of the chair, and then it was pretty much the use of a staple gun to secure the remaining pieces of fabric to the wood frame. In case you’re worried that the glued fabric might come undone, at one point I tried to pry a piece free so I could re-do it, but no matter how I pulled at the fabric–even prying with a screwdriver–the upholstery would not come free. So, yes, this method is secure.
If you liked this chair, you may like my rocking chair reupholstery too.