DIY Project: Re-upholstering a Chair

I am overwhelmingly happy to report I have completed my first ever re-upholstery project.  A few weeks ago, my boyfriend found three of these chairs at a dumpster when visiting his Grandma.  He sent me a text message with a picture of them and I encouraged him to bring them home so I could teach myself how to re-upholster chairs.  So I scoured the web and fabric stores for some cute fabric and read every internet site that even mentioned re-upholstery.  It was incredibly nerve-wracking, but I set out on re-upholstering my first of the three chairs during Spring Break.

First, I took the chair completely apart, including removal of the seat and all of the fabric on the seat back.  The seat cushion was in great shape, so I decided to go ahead and reuse those.  The batting on the seat back was also in good condition still, so I figured I'd reuse it too.  Next, I stripped the chairs using an easy-to-use spray and wash called TSP.  Once the chairs were dry, I did a small amount of sanding in areas that were particularly rough or had splinters.  Then, I applied several coats of wood stain letting the chair dry completely before each new coat.

Then, it was time to put the chair back together.  First, I re-attached the seat cushion using a fresh set of screws (since the old ones were worn), and used the fabric I removed from the seat-back as my pattern for cutting out my new piece of fabric.  Using spray adhesive, I placed the new fabric over the batting and began   securing it with a staple gun.  Once complete, I used glue to adhere the cording cutting the ends at an angle and slightly overlapping them to try and make the seam....seamless.  And ta-da!

I am very happy with the finished product and am planning on using this chair as an occasional chair in my living room.  The next two are going to be totally different and go at the heads of my dining table (fingers crossed).  The one thing I know I need to work on, however, is the cording.  It was a little tricky and didn't come out as clean as I'd like it to, but overall I'd say it was a successful first upholstery project!