Reupholster with Drop Cloth
It’s time to talk about reupholstering with drop cloth! With a little bit of work, I transformed a vintage pink chair into a French Chic DROP CLOTH Dream Chair that I am madly in love with.
Reupholstering is a lot of work but when you have a limited budget and you want a certain *expensive* look….you must put in the time and effort. Covering or recovering takes time and patience.
So, if YOU want to reupholster with drop cloth (or any material)…guess what?? I believe in you! You will rock this! After reading the tutorial, please feel free to ask any questions in the comment section.
*But if you want to skip the process altogether, I’ve found a similar chair for sale HERE.
As a bargain hunter, you have to accept the fact that you’re not going to find what you’re looking for with ease. The hunt is not only fun, but it’s necessary. 99% of the time you can’t just click your Craigslist app and find what you want. You have to be patient. You have to wait. You have to keep looking. Everyday. I had been looking for a chair to go in our living space for a while. I wanted to replace our pink wingback chair.
I was ready for a change. I wanted a chair that screamed my name. “KENDRA!! SIT ON ME!!” I knew that I wanted the chair to be unique with lots of details. I wanted the chair to be as french as possible. I knew that I was going to have to wait awhile to find it. I searched and searched on Craigslist and finally found one that I liked at a local secondhand furniture store. I went in and found not only one, but two chairs that would have worked. They were very similar and they were both overflowing with potential. I ended up going with the one that had the higher back so that it was more comfortable to actually sit on. Now looking back, I should have bought both chairs. Live and learn. The yellow-ish chair is the one I passed on.
The fact that it was in good condition left me with options. Should I reupholster? Should I paint the fabric? Should I leave it as is? Since I really didn’t want a bright pink chair in my house (or at least not another one) and since painting over pink would be very difficult, I decided covering it was going to be my best route for success.
So let’s get on to the Tutorial!
What I needed to do this project:
An ugly chair waiting to be transformed
Drop cloth or fabric of your choice
Glue gun and glue sticks
Staple gun and staples
Edging
Paint
Paint brush
The How To:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prepping The Chair
First I cleaned the entire chair. When cleaning a chair, I usually just vacuum it and wipe it down with a damp cloth.
Then I took off the edging by hand. It came off relatively easy. Underneath were little tiny nails holding the fabric to the chair. I had to hammer a few of the nails back into the chair frame. I even had to staple the old fabric back on to the frame in some areas.
Painting The Chair
Painting the wood frame was very simple. But unfortunately, because I did this project before blogging, I didn’t write down the paint colors. I think I used Annie Sloan Duck Egg and Paris Gray. Sorry!
I wanted the wood to show through so I used the dry brush technique (tutorial coming soon) and only a few light coats. Here’s the chair with no edging and the painted frame. I did touch up the paint at the end.
My fabric of choice was a drop cloth from Home Depot.
This was a relatively easy upholstery project due to the wood frame. THANK YOU WOOD FRAME! There were very few tricky edges to figure out. I just had to staple as close to the frame as possible and the edging would be hot glued right over the staples.
Here’s how I did it. I measured one section at a time and cut it out. As you can see, I left a lot of extra cloth. Instead of tracing it, and most likely getting it WRONG, I stapled the oversize fabric and then cut it down. I’d rather use more fabric and not mess it up than try to be exact and mess it up. Remember to gently pull the fabric tight as you are stapling to avoid loose sections. I ironed afterwards so I wasn’t worried about creases.
I did that process to the entire chair. There were seven sections plus the cushion. It probably took me a few days of (off and on) work. I was pregnant at the time so I was moving slower than normal. 🙂
I then hot glued the edging all around each section. Well let me rephrase that. I didn’t glue the edging around each section because I ran out of the edging with two sections to go.
I’ve been to Jo-Ann Fabrics several times to see if they have my edging in stock. I don’t know the SKU number. I don’t know the name of the edging. I am at the mercy of Jo-Ann Fabrics restocking it and me just stumbling upon it. That has yet to happen.
Here’s a section that still isn’t complete even after all this time. 🙂 ^^^
The cushion was in bad shape and really needed to be replaced, not just covered. Because I didn’t have the tools (such as a sewing machine) to make a cover, I decided to be really lame and just hot glue some drop cloth straight onto the existing cover. Eventually, I will make a completely new cushion. 🙂
That’s basically it. This is a simple, yet rewarding, project. So if you want to reupholster with drop cloth, it just takes time and patience.
My goodness, I love the back of this chair!
So what do you think? This chair is not professionally upholstered so it doesn’t look like it. I am not a perfectionist. I encourage you to fight the urge to be perfect. Done is better than perfect. If I waited to do this chair until I knew how to reupholster like a pro, I would still have a bright pink chair in my living room. I learned as I went. I learned as I messed up.
Enjoy the DIY life and remember…you did it yourself and it will probably show!
If you have any questions, please ask them in the comment section below.
~Kendra
affiliate links included.
