Rewebbing a Sagging IKEA Chair
- By Joan
- April 24, 2019
- 8 Comments
I found my next project at son #2’s house. These are his kitchen chairs which he has had since he graduated from college. They don’t get a ton of use but the seat has a serious case of the sags. My daughter-in-law can’t even sit in the middle of the seat so she just props herself on the edge. If she sits in the middle of the cushion she sinks so far she barely reaches the table.
While most people call this a Parsons chair, IKEA calls it a Henriksdal. These particular Henriksdal chairs are less than 10 years old. The leather covers and the frames are still in good shape so the chairs are definitely worth saving.
At first glance they don’t look that concave, but when you sit in the chair you sink another few inches. What used to be nice table height chairs are way too low for the average height sitter.
If you turned the chair over it looked like a big soft fluffy pillow, the webbing that once supported the tush had failed. That should have been a flat surface.
If you pushed the foam back to where it should actually have been, you’d see how stretched out the webbing actually is.
There is a fix for this webbing fail. Turn your chair over, we’re about to take out all the staples.
While the chair is turned over, if your webbing is fine but your chair is wobbly, get out the allen wrench your chair came with (All IKEA furniture comes with an allen wrench 🙄 ) and tighten the 4 screws that hold the legs on.
Remove all the staples on the bottom of the chair. With a flat head screwdriver, pry the staple up then finish removing with a needle nosed pliers.
FYI, from start to finish each chair took about an hour to an hour and a half, most of that was staple removal.
The foam is lightly glued to the frame of the chair. Use your fingers to gently lift it off.
With your allen wrench, remove the two screws holding the back of the chair on.
You may want to take pictures as you go making sure you know the order everything went together.
Unfortunately, the black cloth sitting on top of the webbing was ripped all along the sides. When the webbing stretched the fabric did not, so it just tore. It would have to be trashed, but not before I used it as a pattern to cut a new cloth.
The webbing in its current state really was useless but I did end up using all the vertical strips. I didn’t trust the old webbing to completely hold any tushies in place. With that in mind remove the staples on both sides and just the top of the seat.
If you’re replacing all the webbing, then all the staples will have to go.
Stretch the vertical webbing as far as it can go and staple in place. Fold over and staple again. Trim off the excess.
New webbing is weaved in and out of the old stuff. Again, stretch as tight as you can and staple. Fold over and staple the ends again. Trim off the excess.
Staple a new dust cloth in place.
Replace the foam. You don’t have to reglue, a couple staples will hold the foam down until you reattach the cover.
I haven’t restapled the cover yet but I wanted to show you the top when everything was put back in place. The leather seat had been sat on a few too many times and had stretched out. No amount of pulling will get rid of the extra bubble.
This is where you may have to wing it. Tuck a little cotton batting or a piece of 1″ foam underneath the first layer of foam in the center of the chair making sure it sits flat. Go back to the top to see if the buckle in the fabric was filled out. You may have to add a little more.
Pull the sides of the fabric down and restaple.
After taking the entire back off the chair the first time, I left it on for the remaining 3 chairs. If you are replacing all the webbing this would not be an option. Otherwise, the only thing this would prevent you from doing is stapling the black fabric to the back of the chair. It still gets stapled onto the remaining 3 sides.
The chair is so perky now and I don’t feel like I’m sinking down to the floor.
Time to prop up all those sagging tushies. Until next time, stay inspired.
By the way, I’ve been spending more of my days babysitting grandbabies and doing some much needed spring gardening so I’m going to reduce my posts to just 1 a week. If you still need projects to inspire you I hope you explore some of my past project galleries.
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What a wonderful, USE FULL, post…I love it! So many furniture pieces like this end up in the trash and it should be against the law! I wish you could find a chair that is missing an “arm” on one side and show everyone how to make it a regular chair, sans arms.
I don’t want to get on a roll about this but I see so many chair sets go to the landfill because they are all “loosey goosey”. Many chairs made and sold now are put together with screws and the screws come loose…people don’t tighten the screws and the chairs get damaged. It is a darn shame!
Joan, this post couldn’t have come at a better time. We gave our daughter the exact same parsons chairs and they too are sagging. She’s moving soon and I’d like to refinish them for her new home. I’ll definitely be referring to this post!
We are living parallel lives. I think we would be best friends if we just lived a little closer. 🙂
Thank you for this post. I am considering attempting a similar project, but am new to this. What make of staple gun do you use? There are so many out there, and I can’t seem to find advice on the right kind for a project of this sort. Thanks!
Any heavy duty stapler should work. My manual stapler is a Dewalt which will also take really tiny brads. I also have a pneumatic staple gun, an Arrow PT50, which is really good if you’re going to be doing a lot of upholstery but you would also need to invest in an air compressor. For the rewebbing, the manual stapler is fine. Good luck with your project Kate
Where do you get the replacement webbing from? Is there a specific type, size, thickness, etc..?
I purchased mine at Joanns fabrics where you can buy it by the yard, but you can also find it online. Just look for upholstery webbing. Most upholstery webbing is about 3 1/2″. Good luck with your project.
Thank you! I’m about to tackle this same project. My chairs are in a screened ocean front room with salt air and high humidity in a remote location. I was thinking of using seatbelt or polypropylene strapping. Which do one do you think would be a good choice? Also what size of staple would you use? Would you choose out door 1” foam to replace the existing foam if necessary? I have to pack all my supplies in my suitcase and am flying out soon. Buying and importing furniture is very expensive so I would like to be able to repair these 4 chairs for the long term.
I would very much appreciate your opinion