Recovering Dining Chairs

A new Ethan Allen flyer came in the mail the other day.  When I turned to this page, it was love at first sight.

I loved everything about this room... especially the fabric on the chairs.  So now the hunt for this fabric began.

Image from Ethan Allen

I went onto the Ethan Allen website and typed in "toile" in the search box.  The first fabric that came up was the one from the flyer.  Ethan Allen calls it Andover Chocolate.  I could see enough of the fabric that I would be able to search online to find it.  I went to google and typed in "toile fabric chocolate".  Sure enough I found the fabric.  It is made by Waverly and is called Idyllic Days in Chocolate.  The website I found it on was selling it for $18.99/yard.  I figured I would need 2.25 yards to cover all five of my kitchen dining chairs.  I started the checkout process, but it wasn't until almost the last step when they finally disclosed that shipping would be $10.  My grand total was going to be over $50.  I really didn't want to spend that much.
So, I went onto Ebay and typed in "Waverly Idyllic Days Chocolate".  Ten items came up, however most were valances and pillows.  Then I saw the fabric and they were selling 2.25 yard for $13.00 + $7.00 shipping for a grand total of $20.00!  I love these types of moments in life when you know something is meant to be.  The exact item I was looking for in the exact yardage.  So awesome (I was doing my happy dance at this point).

 Even better, I ordered it immediately and received it only two days later.

It's so easy to recover a chair.  I started by turning the chair upside down and removing the screws.

I'll tell you how easy it is...I had my ten year old daughter removing all the screws and then she would pass me the seat cushion and I would remove the fabric.  I didn't even have to use pliers.  I just pulled the fabric and it came off.  The fabric I removed was fabric I had recovered the chairs with when we redid the kitchen.  I never loved the fabric that much, but the colors had worked.

I needed a large area to work it, so I spread out the new fabric in my foyer.

Using the old seat covers as a guide, I laid them out on the fabric.  Since it is a toile pattern, I took some time figuring out the best configuration to get the most centered patterns I could.

Notice, I cut the fabric into a square (I did not cut out exactly as the old chair fabric).  It's much easier that way.  After I staple it to the seat cushion, I just trim away the excess.  I like to staple in the center of all four sides first, then I work my way to the corners.

For the corners, I pull the corner fabric and staple.  Then I take the other two sides and have them meet in the center and staple again.  I then cut off the excess fabric.

Now this is usually when I would just put the seat cushions back on the chair and call it a day.  Well not this time.  I kept remembering the photo from the Ethan Allen flyer.  It had a welted cord around the edge.  I didn't have much fabric left, but I knew I could make it work.  Sure enough I was able to get all five chairs done, and I only had to piece fabric together for the welting on one chair.

Using my favorite Fabric-Tac, I glued down the welting around the base of the seat.

Voila...new, beautiful chair covers.

I am so happy with how these came out.  It completely transforms the look of the chair and goes so much better with the kitchen.

Don't forget that my Swing into Spring party opens up tonight at 8pm EST.  Hope you stop back then to join in the fun.

Let me know what you think of my "new" dining chairs.  Do you love them as much as I do?

-Judy