Updating seat covers ...

Hi all - time is marching on & Spring is on the horizon which always brings a spurt of energy.

I have recently changed my conservatory table & chairs with this set from an elderly relative.  Even though dark furniture is not in vogue at the moment, it is a heavy, solid mahogany set that needed a home so it found a home with us.

The table has two leaves that it can be pulled out to fit a few more when needed so it replaced the large IKEA table which we have used for a long time. It is much nicer but the green leather chair seat covers were just so dated it so I decided to recover them in brown leatherette to modernise them.

I am always up for a challenge & so a free evening was spent on this.  First task - getting the seats out of the frames. Fortunately, they lifted out of their frames with just a little coaxing ….

The next task was getting the old covers off the seats - a pliers, claw hammer, a flat screw driver & some muscle did the deed.

The frames are solid & heavy so the chairs are definitely worth recovering … The old green covers taken off the seat shapes.

Several sets of nails & tacks mean that this is not the only time these seats have been recovered.

Some of the seat shapes show signs of being mended & so they vary just a little so I marked the seats to match the chairs they have come out of - hopefully they will fit back in again ….

The original seats had a little cotton wool type wadding to very lightly pad them - not enough in my view, comfort is needed.  Fortunately I had some foam left over from doing a headboard so this was marked & cut to fit each.

Do you have a supply box for all your glue guns, tacks, staple guns etc? I love having my bits together to save time when I start a project.

 A plain pen marks the foam easily for cutting ….

Progress ….

Evidence that this seat was repaired at some time. Time to add a thin strip of glue to keep the seat pad from moving & also to give a neater finish.

Then time to staple the leatherette over the foam pad & neaten the corners. HINT - decide how you are going to do the corners to make sure that all 4 chairs are done the same way.

Some of the corners were slightly thicker so the seats wouldn't go back in to the frame. I gently prised the staples out again, trimmed the folded corner fabric, then stapled them again. This solved the problem (as did slotting them in the front first & gently using the knees to push them in to the frame ….

The table has always been used as a compact table with the leaves almost never exposed. This has resulted in the leaves being much darker (the original colour). I polished the top & will leave it extended in the conservatory so hopefully it will even out the tone a little as I don't really want to sand the top.

The seats look smart again …

The conservatory table is our most used family table so I know the padded seats will help us to linger around the table. The dated seats are modernised & I am hoping for a more even tone on the table top. Do you have any suggestions for the table?

This has been an interesting fairly quick project - I am always up to try something new & to make changes to my living space to make it more pleasing.  I was tempted to do fabric seats but because this space is used so much, I decided that practical will be much more relaxing & living is about being relaxed about your environment.

One more project ticked off my list - that is always a good feeling.  Do you also have a steady to-do stream of things that need doing? What is on your list?

Thanks for stopping by, I have I have inspired you to just do things, make those changes & enjoy!

Dee ~♥~