DIY

Tulip Chair Re-Upholstery

upholstery
I have been DIY ing away these last few weeks and have gotten a lot accomplished. The desk chair upholstery for the “Man cave” has been checked off the list and I am loving the results. The style of the chair is mid-century so I tried to be true to the original design (and respect my husbands masculinity) when I chose the fabric. The fabric I chose is HGTV Home Flower Tower Slub  in Malachite from Fabric.com my all time favorite fabric source.

beforeI started here with these great mid-century swivel chairs I found at a flea market here in Germany for 30€ ($42.) I just loved their shape, unfortunately the upholstery was kind of gross. I don’t mean the color, although some may argue that, I kind of felt like they had a “so ugly it’s cool” vibe. It was more of the condition I was concerned about. One had a big stain on the cushion and they both smelled of musty old cigarette smoke and I do admit the orange didn’t really work with where I wanted to use them. I actually only needed one but since they came as a pair I bought them both. So although I did re-upholster one the other is still in its original orange condition for those who were sad to see it go.

I started with the un-upolstery first which I will show you in pictures. This is a good idea for any upholstery job since you will have a reference on how the piece goes back together only you will be working in reverse.  The thing that comes off first will go back on last. You get my drift…

The upholstery itself was rather simple since it went on much like a slipcover. I used the old upholstery as a pattern piece and sewed up a new one that would slip back over the frame and be stapled on. Okay so there was a little wresting involved to get the seams lined up and all the fabric tight but basically pretty simple.


I reused the under cushion liner from the original chair since it was still in good shape but being it is just a thin piece of foam it would have been easy to replace. For the cushion I also used the old cover as a pattern and reused the original foam insert.

Here are the views from all angles, what do you think? Pretty sweet!

Linking up with VMG206

3 Comments on “Tulip Chair Re-Upholstery

  1. I kind of want these chairs in my new living room! I usually shy from fabric like this, but I definitely am going to open my horizons on my next shopping trip!

    1. I think chairs are always a great place to get bold with your fabric. They are small enough to be bold with out being TOO much and if you change your mind later down the road they are fairly inexpensive to give a new look. Go for it!

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