Weekend project - recovering chairs

Simon and I are busily working away to get our house ready for the new arrival. Its less than 6 months away, but I am sure time will fly! So we've been finishing off lots of jobs that have been languishing on our to do list for a while. On the top of my list was recovering our old, stained dining chairs (see before picture).

As you can see, they have nasty marks all over the fabric. I never wanted white covers, but it was the only fabric available at the time. I vowed to get them recovered right away, but baulked at the expense. Instead, I thought I would wait until they inevitably got dirty and recover them then. That time has well and truly come!

I found some gorgeous fabric at a little village market during our holiday in Provence, France earlier this year. Although we only needed 2 metres, the guy gave us the rest of the bolt, about 4 metres in total. It is a dark beige colour, with a red and white striped pattern - very cute.

Recovering the chairs was relatively simple. I just unscrewed the seat from the chair, removed the existing staples using a screwdriver, removed old cover (leaving padding in place). I used the old cover as a template for the new fabric to make sure I cut out the right sized piece. Then it is a matter of pulling the fabric taut (but not too tight) and securing onto the base using a staple gun. I also finished the fabric with some scotchguard spray to give it extra protection. Once dry, the base was screwed back into the chair, and viola - ready for our dinner party last night!