A Tale of Two Wingback Chairs

*Edited to add tool list below

I had some wing back chairs that were in real need of an upholstery job.  Having never done this before, I went to the internet to see how it was done.  After looking at a site or two I was convinced that I could do it (although, in all my searching I did not find "how to" info on wing back chairs with pleated backs, the kind of chairs I was about to tackle). 

I started by estimating the amount of fabric I would need.  I found https://www.fabric.com/sitepages/reupholstery.aspx to be helpful, however, I could not find an exact match for my type of chair.  I ended up estimating 5 yards per chair just to be safe.  I could always use extra fabric for pillows.  Of course, the fabric I fell in love with was on the pricey side...so much for an affordable fix.

Fabric, meet chair.  You are going to be great together!

When the fabric arrived, I was eager to get started.  I knew I would need a staple gun and staples, but I could tear apart carefully remove the old fabric with tools I already had on hand, so I got right to it.  Because I had two chairs, I decided to tear apart only one at a time so I could use the other as an example when putting it back together.  Best. Decision. Ever.  If you don't have an identical piece of furniture, just take lots of pictures prior to tearing it apart.  I also took pictures of places that I thought might be difficult to reassemble.  Another decision that helped tremendously was to number each piece as I took it off (it's not like you are going to keep the fabric, so go ahead...use a Sharpie :)).  When reassembling, you just put them back in the opposite order (Piece#1 is going to be the last piece you put on when you are done).

Be prepared to remove lots and lots and lots and LOTS of staples.  Working at it a couple of hours a day, it took me about 3 days...I thought my hand would never be the same.  Also, the sites I had looked at for tips said to save the tack strips and furniture tacks, but I soon realized that none of my tacks would be reusable, and the tack strips were in no shape to be reused.  Thank goodness for Amazon...I ordered those right up.  I also ordered new trim, some new batting, and new dust cover fabric for the bottom.

Once I had everything removed, I placed each piece on the new fabric (making sure both the old fabric and the new fabric are facing the same direction, either both facing up or both facing down) and cut each piece out leaving 1/2 to 1 inch extra fabric around each piece. I just wanted to make sure that I had plenty of room for error...you know, this being my first time and all!

I started with what I thought would be the trickiest part...the pleated back.  I was very careful to leave the old back as much together as possible, removing only one piece at a time when cutting out the new fabric.  The pleats were made by sewing strips of fabric together.  They were just straight lines, so I figured I could handle it with my very basic sewing skills.  To make sure I sewed it like the original pleats, with it bulging more in front, I measured the distance from seam to seam on the bottom piece of fabric, marking it with pins, and then did the same with the top piece.  Then I matched each set of pins up and pinned them together removing pins that would end up under the fabric so I wouldn't run them over with my sewing machine.  It was tedious work, however, it worked! I ended up with a pleated back that looked identical to the original.

Re-stuffing the pleated back turned out to be the tricky part.  The old batting was in perfect shape, but trying to push it in proved to be difficult.  In the end, I wrapped paper around the batting, pushed the paper and batting in together, and then pulled the paper out.  It was still a little tricky, but it worked.

And then all that was left was to put it all back together! This part was definitely more fun than removing staples, so it went quickly.  This is the point where I recommend using and electric or pneumatic staple gun.  I can't image what it would have been like to staple it manually. To make sure I didn't get bunching or pulling of the fabric, I would tack the fabric with a staple or two, and then pull the opposite side tight and tack it.  And then another corner/side and its opposite.  This way if it bunched or pulled awkwardly, I could take just one or two staples out to fix it.  I added in some new batting where needed, like in the seat and on some of the edges where the old stuffing just wouldn't go back nicely. 

The last thing to do was the tacks and the trim.  The tacks and the trim covered staples that were exposed, so when you are putting your staples in, keep in mind that spacing will matter if you don't want your staples to show.  And also, tacks are so finicky! I don't know how many times I almost had a tack in and suddenly it would bend and shift way out of place.  Some of them I could redeem, however, many bent and in the end I had to purchase more tacks just to finish the job.

In the end, I was completely thrilled with the way they turned out! I am not sure that I saved myself anything by doing it myself (it took a significant amount of time and money), but it sure was satisfying to be able to say "I did it!"

*I forgot to mention the tools I used to remove the staples.  On the first chair I used only a flat head screwdriver and a pair of pliers.  After my hubby saw me struggling with those tools, he raided his tool shed and brought me a pair of wire cutters to help grab and pull the staples, and found a very small flat head screwdriver bit in his Leatherman that worked wonders at getting under the well embedded staples.