How to Reupholster a Dining Chair With Piping

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Have your dining room or kitchen chairs seen better days? Are you tired of the fabric on the seats and want an easy-to-DIY refresh? Then keep reading! In today's blog, we'll show you how to replace the existing, outdated fabric on a dining room chair with modern and stylish fabric from Sailrite®. Piping adds a polished look to the chair and is the perfect finishing touch to this project. Even if you're new to sewing, you'll be able to master this simple upholstery project. Let's get started!

Video Chapters:

Intro — 0:00 min.
Removing Old Fabric — 0:35 min.
Stapling New Cover to Seat — 3:29 min.
Making Piping — 10:22 min.
Stapling Dust Cover & Piping to Seat Bottom — 14:10 min.
Materials & Tools List — 17:20 min.

Materials List:

Décor & Upholstery Fabric from Sailrite^® — we used Crypton^® Home Enzo Slate #123489
21 Gauge 3/8" (10mm) Staples 10,000/Box (Galvanized) #8010GZ
Foam Piping/Welting Cord 5/32" #122259
Tex 70 Silver UV Bonded Polyester Thread 4 oz. (1,350 yds.) #106138
Cambric Dust Cover Black 36" Fabric #122512

Tools List:

Staple Lifter #120037
Professional Stainless Steel 10" Scissors #123615
Sailrite^® Long Nose Upholstery Staple Gun #121411
Clear Acrylic Ruler 6" x 24" #102400
Chalk Pen White #123131
Soft Grip Rotary Cutter 45mm #123114
Sailrite^® Double-Sided Cutting Mat 36" x 24" Extra Large #123113
Sailrite^® Ultrafeed^® LSZ Walking Foot Sewing Machine #311602
Sailrite^® Ultrafeed^® Industrial Sewing Table #120934

Once you have the chair seat removed from the frame and have removed all the staples, it’s time to inspect the foam. If the foam on your chair has bottomed out and you’re feeling the wood, it needs to be replaced. For dining room chairs that get a lot of use, we recommend 1" CushionRite^® Premium high-density foam in either Firm or Extra Firm. High-density foam has the longest lifespan in seating foam (up to 12 years!), so we recommend it for seating that experiences daily use.

Next up — fabric. We chose Crypton^® Home upholstery fabric for our dining chair. We like using Crypton for home décor projects because it’s an easy-to-clean indoor fabric with high abrasion and stain resistance. It keeps up with your family — kids, pets and all. With hundreds of fabrics to choose from ranging from understated neutrals to fun stripes and bold abstracts, there’s a Crypton fabric for your home.

How to Reupholster a Dining Chair 3 — Close-up of the new piping we made for our upholstered dining chair.

Hang on to your old seat fabric — you’ll use it as a pattern to trace and cut your new seat. Once you have the fabric stapled to the chair seat, it’s time to sew the piping. Watch the video for the full tutorial and get started on your own dining chair upholstery project.

Did you enjoy this easy upholstery DIY? We’ve got so many more upholstery projects waiting for you in our blog section. Just search “upholstery” on our website and click on “DIY Projects.” We can’t wait to see what you make next! Post your project photos on social using #Sailrite so we can see what you’re DIYing!