Office Chair Makeover – Easy Tutorial

I always spend so long looking at all the beautiful craft rooms and home offices on other blogs and on Pinterest that I thought it was time to get stuck in and make a start.

What better way to start than with a project that I have been wanting to do for a long time?

‘To Pimp My Office Chair!’

The chair I had was super ugly with burgundy upholstery and a badly scratched base that was covered in paint.

(oops I got carried away and resprayed it before taking any photos to show how bad the base was – but I am sure you get the picture)

I love recycling / up-cycling and since it was free (someone gave it to me) I figured ‘you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth!’

I used a lovely soft fur material to cover the office chair.

I looked at a few other great tutorials online where they had totally re-upholstered – removing old material, adding new padding, and recovering the chair.  Lots of inspiration.

But … as usual, me being me (Mrs super lazy), thought I could get away with just pushing the material in the crack between the seat pad and the plastic.  And guess what – it worked!

Here’s how I did it

1. Respray (if needed)

Since the base and plastic bits of the chair were already black this was really simple to do, it only took a couple of light layers to make it look good as new (except for a few deep scratches on the arms of the chair).

I left the chair in the shed overnight to make sure the paint was completely dry before beginning with the re-covering.

2. Measure and cut out pieces of material

I measured out and cut 2 pieces of material that covered the seat pad and backrest pad, plus allowed an additional 10cm (to tuck in).

3. Start fitting material on the seat and back pads

Next, I prised the cushion pad slightly away from the plastic backing using a couple of flat-headed screwdrivers then pushed the material in the gap using a dinner knife (I have all the best equipment;o) ).

4. Use staples to secure (this is optional)

I also used an upholstery staple gun to put a few staples in strategic places to make it extra secure (this step can be omitted if you don’t have an upholstery stapler – the material sits pretty snug when the plastic is pushed back in place).

Do this whilst the pad is still slightly pulled out with the screwdrivers, this ensures that you don’t see the staples when the pad is pushed back flush with the plastic backing.

5. Pimp the armrests (also optional)

At this point, I was already loving the chair but wanted to fix the problem of the scratches on the arms.

I cut 2 pieces of material to fit the arms of the chair allowing approximately 1cm seam allowance on both ends.

(doing this stops the raw edges from showing)

Next, I wrapped the material around the arm and sewed it together so it sat very snug on the arm.

Now your lovely chic new DIY Office Chair is ready to use!

I think in all this took me about an hour and a half to complete from start to finish (including intermittently seeing to the kids).

And here it is

I simply love this chair now – I can’t stop stroking it (not very productive – I know!)

Did you like this tutorial?  Why not pin for later?

Have you also ‘pimped’ your office chair (or about to and have questions)?  I’d love to hear about it.