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DIY IKEA Children's Chairs

A few weeks ago I posted about an IKEA hack of my son's table and chairs set. Of course I didn't get around to posting the chairs part of that table and chairs hack.... ANYWAYS, I didn't like the look the original chairs, new or used. I had seen many different hacks on the chairs themselves, mostly consisting of adding fabric to the seat or painting them. They all looked great, but I love upholstered and cushion seat chairs. I couldn't find any when I looked of what I was going for, so I decided to try it out.

The chairs themselves took longer that the table, only because it was trial and error based. I just wanted to be able to put the table and chairs anywhere in the house and have them fit in. I think I did a pretty good job at that, if I do say so myself. Just a forewarning, I apologize for the poor quality of pictures, I was trying to finish the chairs and it was night time before I was able to get to them. 


Not too shabby for someone who has no prior upholstery practice! All that it took was two yards of fabric, foam, a staple gun and staples. And voila! We have an upholstered and comfortable chair. It has pretty clean lines as well. 



I first found some old foam that my mom had lying around from a window seat project. It was 3 inches thick, way too thick for a child's chair. I decided to cut it in half, but first, I measured around the seat of the chair. 



After cutting the foam, then cutting it in half as well, I had a chair cushion. Don't worry about the overlap of foam at the top, I stuffed it through the back. 



Once I had the cushion cut, I also cut the fabric in half. Of course, each half was for each chair.




Now, this part is kind of confusing. I didn't cut the fabric at all at this point, meaning even the fabric for the top of the chair was still connected to the fabric.




Now, you want to pull the fabric taut before you lay it down on its' back. I wanted to make sure that I had enough fabric for the top and the bottom. I folded the edge of the fabric down, and used that trusty ol' staple gun to staple the fabric underneath.




I folded the fabric underneath and stapled it to the front two legs. You can't really see the staples because of the color of the fabric, so I decided not to do anything to cover it.


Next, I stapled the extra fabric on each side the the chair to the exterior. It doesn't matter how messy these staples are, we are going to be folding the fabric to the under side of the chair.



Before stapling the sides of the fabric down, I cut the back fabric and folded the excess under the foam. Stapling the fabric on the sides secured the fabric that was tucked in. 


Few! We are now done with the bottom! Onto the top portion. Take the foam for the back cushion and place it on the seat.


Take the rest of your fabric for the chair and start on one side. Begin stapling the fabric to the back side of the chair.



Staple to the top on each side of the chair.



You're going to want to staple that bad boy a whole lot! We're almost done, I promise! Take a little square piece of fabric and wrap it around where the seat and the back meet. fold all of the sides of the square down before you staple it to have even lines. This will ensure that the chair has clean lines and no gaps.


Once you've finished stapling the sides, take that extra fabric and fold it underneath the back bottom of the chair. Man, I feel like I am explaining this so horribly! 


Once you have stapled the back down, you're done!


Not too shabby for just fabric, foam and a staple gun huh! I'm pretty proud of it, and Little A couldn't be more ecstatic!

Have you have "upholstered" a piece of furniture? 
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