Simple Upholstery, Recovering a Bar Stool

Welcome back friends. I know I’ve recovered a chair seat or two for you in the past but it’s been quite a while. So in case you missed it, I’m back with a simple upholstery project, recovering this pair of thrift store bar stools.

I’ve been finding a lot of wooden bar stools lately but these caught my eye. The wrought iron is sturdy, it will last forever and unlike wood, these joints will never loosen.

Many of the newer barstools come with a metal or hard wood seat. These padded seats are easy on the tush and they have a back for relaxing and reclining.

Have I sold you on these yet? While I didn’t have a need for a pair of barstools, they were only $5.99 each, I couldn’t pass them up.

There was a little bit of chipped paint on the rail where you would set your feet, but otherwise, the chair was in perfect condition. I’m not sure you can wear out wrought iron.

The seat covers were even in nice shape…maybe a little dingy.

It is so easy to recover seat cushions and if you’ve never done upholstery this is a perfect place to start.

Choose your fabric. The grey cloth on the right was leftover from some bench seat cushions and the one on the left was newly purchased from the thrift store in their remnants area. You could also try the curtain section. You’ll need a nice heavyweight upholstery fabric.

My pick was the thrift store fabric, the tan stripes.

Remove all the screws holding your seat cushion in place.

Sand off any rust if you have it and take your chairs outside for a quick spritz of Satin Rustoleum Black spray paint. I didn’t even have to paint the entire chair, only the chipped parts, as the color was a perfect match.

Time to remove all the staples. You can use either a staple removal tool or a flat head screwdriver to pry out all the staples. A needle nosed pliers will help pull the staples the rest of the way out.

If the seat backing is in good shape, save it. This black fabric is a dust cover or cambric. It serves to cover all your loose ends and give a nice professional look on your finished chair.

Pulling out all the staples is definitely the most time consuming and the hardest part of the entire upholstery process.

Once all the staples have been removed, peel off the old seat cover. This is the moment of truth, will you have to buy new foam cushions or are yours in good shape? Replace the foam if it’s permanently smushed or falling apart. My foam cushions were in excellent shape.

Use the old seat cover as a pattern for your new seat cushions but leave plenty of extra fabric. You can always trim off the excess later.

Because my fabric has a stripe, I had to make sure that went on straight. The two dark spots on the seat mark the center points where my stripes have to match up.

To complete this upholstery project, you will also need a heavy duty staple gun. I prefer the one on the left which hooks up to my air compressor. So easy to use and if you are planning on doing a lot of upholstery work, the $38 price tag is so worth it.

The stapler on the right will also get the job done. You won’t need an air compressor, but you will definitely exert more effort getting the staples to shoot and they don’t always go all the way in. A little tap tap with a hammer gets them the rest of the way in. If you’re only doing one project, this is the cheaper option.

Start stapling. Line up any patterns first and tack in place. Staple from the center out switching sides as you go. Pull taut but not so tight that the fabric puckers.

Stop when you get a couple of inches from the corner.