Chair Repair: Learn How to Recover a Broken Dining Room Seat

Chair repair….you can do it yourself! Let me show you how I fixed two of my dining chairs. This is a sponsored post with Fairfield World.

I’m really bummed that my dining chair seats are falling apart. I purchased them at Haverty’s nearly 6 years ago and expected them to last longer.  The vinyl seat cover was poor quality and kept splitting. I had purchased the additional warranty and had 3 chairs replaced.  Unfortunately, in the year since the warranty lapsed two more chair deteriorated.  Rather than pour more money into this set, I decided to try a chair repair of my own.

Pretty bad, isn’t it?

First I unscrewed the seat cover to take it off. That’s when I realized why the seat was sagging so much:  the particle board base had shattered and was coming apart. Yuck. I tossed this out and only kept the base fabric sheet that had the piping.

First I cleaned the chair. Then I used a roll of butcher paper (I bought a roll of kraft wrapping paper at the dollar store) to make a template of the seat base.

This cushion foam from Fairfield World is the best.  It is so much better than what was previously on the chair.  It is firm yet soft, and it holds its shape for a very long time. I traced my chair seat template onto the foam, then cut the foam. Use a meat cutter for best foam cutting results! I placed the foam on the seat again to make sure it fit.

I purchased a piece of wood and traced the chair seat template on it.  My husband helped me out by cutting the wood for me.

Hot glue the cushion foam to the wood base.  Place fabric right side down on your work surface, then place the cushion side on the fabric. Staple the fabric in place, then trim off the excess.

I saved the original chair base with piping and reattached it to the seat with staples.  This hides the wood base and gives the edges a more polished look.

My busted up dining chair looks so much better now!