Hi! We are a husband and wife DIY team who documents our journey of homeownership one tutorial at a time. We hope you'll follow us on our journey!
This project has been a labor of love for sadly over two and a half years now! I finally finished the chair in September before we left for our vacation. I was determined to finish it because frankly I’m tired of hearing Mr. Woodsy complain about it not being done. We bought this chair used from a friend who was moving out of town for a whopping $25! The Tullsta chair retails at ikea for new for $200! I knew how good of deal we got; however, our friend had cats and the chair was a little beat up. I had been looking for a chair for the craft room for a while and figured we could easily recover this chair with a fabric that matched the color scheme I had planned in the craft room. Shortly, after buying the chair I fell in love with inexpensive canvas fabric for a whopping $3 a yard. I bought 5 yards praying that it would be enough to cover the chair. Thankfully, it was!
Please keep in mind that these pictures were taken over 2 years ago. My photography has improved immensely since then.
Supplies:
5 yards of fabric
Invisible Ink Pen
Ruler
Sewing Machine
Pins/Pin Cushion
Scissors
Staple Gun / Hammer
The first thing we did was remove the existing clawed-up covering from the chair. We used the covering as our pattern to recreate the new cover. I would like to make note that I think the chair sat like this in our pool table room for a good 6 months!
We laid out the fabric I chose and began tracing around each panel. This was Mr. Woodsy’s job in the project. I have no patience for this and got confused in less than a second. He did an amazing job tracing/cutting out to ensure all pieces fit together.
Mr. Woodsy would trace around the existing cover, and would cut out each piece as he drew it.
This is what it would like after he traced around the existing cover.
The first piece of fabric was cut! He would lay each piece of fabric on the chair where it belonged.
Then he cut out the two front arm pieces.
Next up, it was my turn to finally start sewing some of the chair. Mr. Woodsy traced, cut, and placed the fabric where I needed to sew it.
Almost, one year later and I finally began to sew the actual cover together.
Pins galore… I found myself constantly stopping and checking where I needed to sew next.
This is what it looked like as I sewed each part of the cover.
We semi-completed the chair back in May. That was until I attempted to finish off the last part of the chair. The cushion. Mr. Woodsy left it to me to cut out the cloth and sew it. MAJOR FAIL on my behalf. I put the zipper on the flat slide not the curved side and well… the rest was history. This is the only picture I’m showing of the cushion because I had made an epic fail. So I tucked in slip cover for the cushion into the chair and left it like that for a few months. In August/September, I finally tackled my fears. Well, Mr. Woodsy took apart what I needed to fix and well, it actually came out pretty good. Including the zipper on the curved back end.
Going back to the chair cover. This is what it looked like before we began stapling it to the frame.
Not gonna lie. I’ve impressed myself with this complex re-upholstering job!
The first thing we did was staple the cover to the bottom of the chair frame.
Next up, staple the inside of the cover to the inside of the chair.
This is how it looked almost complete.
Adding the bottom half to the chair made it almost complete!
Close up of all the staples. It was after this project when we wished we had a pneumatic staple gun.
Mr. Woodsy added the backing to the bottom of the chair. This is one thing we salvaged from the old chair.
Last of the staples!
We found that for some reason the staples were not going all the way into the chair. So after every few staples, Mr. Woodsy would use a hammer to push them down into the chair.
Place the legs on the chair.
So, what do you think? I don’t think most people who see the chair even realize that we re-upholstered it.
Have you ever re-upholstered a piece of furniture? Did it take you over 2 years like us?
Thank you so much Katie for sharing how you guys did this! Awesome!
Thanks Steph! It was a labor of love, but well worth it in the end!
yes! i had a small upholstering business for a long time. people around our small town would send me a lot of work. just wanted to let you know that i know upholstering and that chair looks greaaaaat. i love the fabric [where did you get it?], even tho it took 2 loooong years you did a wonderful job. looks professional, beautiful fabric, beautiful chair, you did one great job here..
Sandra. Thank you so much for the kind compliments. I’m pretty proud of our chair sans my cushion (I know I could have done better if I would have tried harder)! This was our first reupholstering project and we learned so much–hence why it took us so long. In the middle of this chair recovering madness we reupholstered and tufted a bench! lol.
p.s. we got our fabric from a discount fabric store here in town; however, I’ve seen this fabric at JoAnns for $12 per yard in the canvas area.
Wow, I don’t think I would ever take a project like this one, but you did a magnificent job! Congrats!!
Thanks Anne. Seriously, I think we bit off more than we could for our first reupholstering project EVER! We learned so much from this project.
It looks great! Great motivation to get me going
Wow! You guys did an incredible job on this. I am very interested in upholstery but have never attempted it.
I love that you and your husband work together on projects. My husband and I do the same thing and it’s so much fun!
Thanks Paula! This was our first official upholstery project (2 years ago). We learned so much from it and of course picked a very challenging item to upholster. Start with a simple chair bottom and then go from there. It is kind of trial and error!
Mr. Sew Woodsy is a great sport!
I love that fabric (I have some of it for my outdoor cushions) it is beautiful and a great tutorial!
Thanks Viv! He has WAY more patience than I do! lol.
WOW. I am super impressed. I have never tackled a furniture reupholster. You actually made me feel like I can do it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks Johnnie! You can do it… reupholstering just takes a lot of patience!!!
You had me at paisley. Awesome job, both of you!
suzy
Thanks Suzy!
You all seriously did an amazing job on this! That fabric is beautiful!
Kim, thanks for the kind words.
What a pretty and comfy looking chair!
Thanks Malia! It is comfy (when I don’t have stuff sitting on it) lol.
Oh this looks so great! Beautiful fabric choice and great tutorial. Love it.
Thanks for the kind words Taryn. Every time I look at it I’m still amazed that we reupholstered it!
All good things come to those who wait and this is a GOOD Thing!! I love the paisley print and the step out photos are great. Mr. Woodsy is now a master of upholstery
I am showing this to my Mr. who has a hankering to “make” a couch that our animals can’t destroy…I’m banking on the fact that this project will take at least 2 years…you are not alone.
TFS!
Amy*
Amy thanks for the kind compliments! Mr. Woodsy & I went to Haven back in June and he sat in on the upholstery class. Of course, he was the only guy there and had done the most amount of upholstery work! He was pretty proud of himself as all the women in the class were shocked at what he had accomplished! Good luck with your couch!
Wow – looks amazing guys! Love the fabric you chose too! You have waaayyy more patience than me! I have been thinking of making slipcovers for our wood kitchen chairs and I keep talking myself out of it – cause it seems way to hard and scary!
Heather you are too sweet. Mr. Woodsy has way more patience than me! If you have a pattern to follow I think its less scary than starting from scratch! Good luck!
I love, love, love what you have done with this chair!!!! I have been wanting to cover our tullsta but haven’t been brave enough. Did you happen to keep the pattern? and would you be willing to share?