Caned Seat Missing? Make a Padded Seat Cover
- By Joan
- March 9, 2017
- 2 Comments
Remember my pile of musty, moldy junk I scavenged from a farmhouse a couple of weeks ago. I’ve already made projects with the rake head and the drawer (it’s buried in there somewhere) and now it’s time to give the old oak chair some much needed lovin’.
This is his official, “take me home and fix me up” before picture.
The leather seat had seen better days. It was ripped and brittle and it’s innards were kind of falling out.
I pulled out all of the old tacks and staples and I sort of got a history of this old chair. The leather was not it’s original seat, judging by the number of nail holes, it may have been a 3rd , or even 4th seat covering. The innermost ring showed the remnants of a cane seat.
If the rest of the chair didn’t have so many nail holes I may have considered replacing the cane.
There was a time when I would never have painted an oak chair (so I apologize to all the wood lovers out there) but these days I have way too much wood in my house and I needed something a bit lighter, and what could be lighter than white?
After a coat of primer and two coats of paint I was ready for the seat cover.
Cut 4 pieces of upholstery webbing a few inches wider than your opening. I found mine at Joann’s where you can buy it by the yard.
Stretch the webbing horizontally across the chair, staple one end then pull as tight as you can and staple the other end.
Do the same with the vertical straps but weave them through the horizontal straps.
Fold over the ends of the webbing and staple again.
Cover the webbing with a layer of material. I used a piece of canvas drop cloth. This material will keep any of your padding from pushing down through the gaps in the webbing.
Before adding all the seat padding, make a pattern for your seat. Mine had to be large enough to cover up the previous nail holes.
I could have used a layer of foam for the padding in my chair seat but this is what I had on hand…polyester fiberfill and quilt batting.
A pile of the fiberfill for the middle of the seat…
…followed by 2 layers of the quilt batting. I stapled the edges of the batting down so it wouldn’t shift when I added my final layer.
Use the pattern you made to cut out your seat cover. I really wanted a faux zebra or maybe even cow, (wouldn’t that have looked cool?), but since I couldn’t find zebra I settled on a faux black leather. I’m still going to look out for zebra though.
Just like you would cover a chair seat, start stapling in the center, alternate sides, and work your way into the corners.
Try to keep your staples as close to the edge as possible and in a straight line.
Use decorative upholstery nails and trim to cover the exposed staples. I believe the official name for the trim upholsterers use is gimp, but mine was just some nice weight trim that I found in the ribbon aisle at Joann’s.
If you’re interested, I found these Large-headed Upholstery Nails/tacks 
Space your nails evenly around the border of your seat. Both ends of the trim were hidden under the last nail head.
If I hadn’t rescued him, this chair was headed for the dump. Now he’s a beautiful and comfortable side chair.
Have a great weekend, stay inspired.
Shared at Salvaged Junk Projects,
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Great piece and you did a fantastic job with it.
This was simple and direct and gave me more confidence to try an upscale project. Thank you!
By the way if you want to find animal hides many taxidermists have scrapes from customer orders. I have seen them repurposed in artisan boutiques. I feel bad for any animal killed for their hide but equally bad for the waste of discarded hide. It is an ethical dilema.