Holiday makeover

Happy Holidays to Everyone!! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. 
We were lucky enough to be hosted by both families this year, but we did plan a dinner party post Christmas for our friends and neighbours.  We live on a great street in a wonderful neighbourhood and are happy to call many of our neighbours friends. 

So when it came time to host I had a look at the tired old dining chairs and decided there was no time like the present to recover them..."present" as in the morning of the dinner party.

I had picked up some really great burlap coffee sacks from a coffee shop and had been waiting to use them.

I thought they would look great as covers on our dining chairs.  The fabric is durable and each one is unique in design and colour.

Covering chair pads is relatively easy if you have a few key tools.  You really only need scissors and a good heavy duty staple gun and then screws to attach the pad to the frame.

Once you have detached the pads from the chair frame you will need to pull off the old fabric.  I realized I had done this project way too many times when I saw how many layers of fabric were on our seats!!  It is best to get the pad down to the base so that you don't have too much thickness of old fabric to deal with.  Take special care with loose staples and tacks.

Next, lay the cushion upside down on the fabric.  Make sure the pattern is on the bottom and is facing the correct way that you will want it once it is finished.  Cut the fabric so that you allow enough to wrap up and around the sides with enough overlap to work with.  Be generous as you can always cut fabric down to size and nothing is more frustrating than having cut it too small and wasting the piece.  "Measure twice, cut once" certainly applies here.

Then just start on one side and firmly wrap the fabric onto the backing and staple into place.  I start on one side, then go to the opposite side and keep the tension on the fabric so you will get a nice tight fit.  When you are working in the corners, staple to the ends and then wrap the corner piece and staple it up.  Once it is secure, cut off the excess overlapping fabric for a neat corner.

Continue this on all sides and on all pads til they are done.  Then secure them to the chair frame with screws that are long enough to grip into the pad, but not too long as to go through the padding.

Voila!  In a very short time you can completely change the look of the chairs and add interest to your dining room. 

I love these because now each chair is different and unique yet they all work together well.  You can use any fabric for this project as long as it is durable enough to use for upholstery.

The dinner party was great and the chairs were a hit!

Wishing you all a very Happy Holiday and best wishes for a wonderful 2012!!