Can office chairs be reupholstered?

It’s actually very easy to reupholster an office chair, whether you’re bored of your boring basic black office chair or if the chair is falling apart. Upholstering your office chair can really give the chair a whole new lease of life. In today's blog, I’ll give you an easy step-by-step tutorial on how to reupholster your office chair and give it a whole new makeover.

How to reupholster an office chair

What you will need:

• Fabric, you will need a fabric that’s thick and sturdy.
• Office chair
• Screwdriver
• Scissors
• Pliers
• Stapler
• Eye protection
• Spray glue

The majority of office chairs have two cushioned pieces, a backrest and a seat cushion, you need to figure out how to take these apart from the office chair. You should be able to attach the cushions using a screwdriver and unscrewing a few screws, pretty simple. It’s important to remember how all the pieces were attached as you will need to put them back together at the end.

Once the stables on the fabric are exposed you will need to start prying them off, this task is the hardest and most time-consuming part of the whole day. You don’t need to be careful as you will be replacing the fabric anyway.

Once you have removed the fabric backing, you can remove all the staples that keep the cushion and fabric in place. Once all the staples are removed remove the fabric but leave the foam in place.

Next, you will need to place the cushion on the new fabric and cut it down to size, but remember to leave extra fabric that you can pull underneath and cover the whole cushion.

If you have spray glue you can use this to hold the fabric in place on the foam whilst you staple. Now it’s time to use your eye protection, once your eyes are covered you can start to staple the fabric in to the wood backing that is behind the foam. It’s important not to pull the fabric too tight or it will create wrinkles and that’s not what we want.

Next, you can fold the fabric that is hidden underneath to pleats to help hold the fabric tighter whilst you staple it into place. You will need to staple the whole way around the cushion making sure to pull the fabric tight and even.

You will need to repeat these steps with each part of the chair. Once you have completed this it’s time to put your office chair back together and you’re done.