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Covering an office chair

I have this old office chair I got on sale several years ago. Honestly, I hate how traditional office chairs look and those that are nicer tend to also be much more expensive or simply too big for little me. So I end up with those rolling task chairs that never hold up or are boring gray or black when I yearn for a pop of color.

This was my task chair. My husband took the back off since I don't really use it, but it was still kind of blah.




This was my task chair. My husband took the back off since I don't really use it, but it was still kind of blah. In my stash, I found a yard of striped home decor fabric, which looked to be more than enough to cover the chair seat.



Now, there are plenty of proper ways to cover or reupholster a chair. My way is not the most durable or neatest, but it's quick!

1. Set the chair upside down on the fabric. Since it was a wavy stripe pattern and I knew I wouldn't get a perfect straight across doing this quickly, I set the chair on the bias. That way if the stripes don't go across perfectly, it's not obvious.

2. Pull at the fabric in all directions to make sure there aren't any big wrinkles.

3. Loosely cut the fabric around the chair leaving a lot of excess in case it has to be adjusted.

4. Staple on one side a few times, then staple on the opposite side (keep it taut). I worked around kind of back and forth around the chair to make sure I was pulling evenly on all sides. Around the corners, I folded the fabric like I would for a bed corner and most of those wrinkles are underneath where no one would see.

5. When it's all secure, cut off the remaining excess. I used pinking shears to hopefully keep the fabric from fraying over time. Since it's not getting washed, this is not a huge concern.


6. Flip the chair back over and see if any fabric hangs down where you could see sitting or standing near the chair and trim that back.

That's it! Less than 10 minutes and it's a whole new chair that looks way more awesome in my office.

Now, if you don't often sew and don't have a stash of fabric, you could go to the local big sewing store, but you'll have more selection and greater access to nice home decor fabrics at a low cost by looking online. My favorite site is Fashion Fabrics Club. Shipping isn't cheap but they have really sweet deals on fabrics in their discount section and have a huge variety of home decor and apparel fabrics.

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