How To Reupholster A Chair Part 2 | The Makings Of A Deconstructed Chair

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I’m back with Part 2 of the How to Reupholster A Chair series!!! If you haven’t read Part 1 yet you can read that here.

As you can see from the title of this post, this ain’t no ordinary reupholster How To.

This is a How-To Reupholster A Chair Deconstructed Chair edition!!

If you don’t know what deconstructed furniture is let me explain.

Deconstructed furniture is where some of the frame and other inner structural material that shapes a piece of furniture is exposed and used as a part of the decor and functionality of the overall piece.

Here are some of the deconstructed furniture I’ve been loving for a while now that I used as my inspiration for this chair.

You can find all of the sources to these photos on one of my Pinterest boards here.

Part 1 focused on how exactly to go about taking apart an existing chairs upholstery.

This is what our chair looked like before we started demolishing it.

And this is what our chair was looking like now at the end of Part 1.

There are a lot of parts to a piece of professionally upholstered furniture and sometimes knowing where to start can be overwhelming.

Putting the chair back together and reupholstering is an even more daunting experience. Because of that in today’s post, Part 2 of How To Reupholster A Chair I’m going to take you step-by-step of how to reupholster a chair with tufts.

Not only will Part 2 cover the reupholstery steps.

This chair is going to be a deconstructed chair.

I’m going to be sharing some tips on how to achieve the perfect deconstructed look and showing you how to reupholster with tufts!

Yay, I’m excited! Let’s get down to it, shall we?

So in part 1 we took all the existing upholstery off the chair and made sure to take lots of pictures along the way and labeled all the different pieces.

Most of the steps will be pretty straight forward when it comes to making new panels for your chair. Pretty much a tracing and cutting game.

The really difficult and time-consuming part of this project will be the back panel that has the tufting on it.

If you don’t have any tufting on your chair, you’re in luck.

In my case, the entire back panel was tufted and not in the typical diamond shape you often see. The tufting had a very specific flow to it where the lines followed the shape of the wood that ran up the sides.

I hadn’t done anything like this before so I was pretty nervous and very hesitant to start. I tried finding some tutorials online that had similar tufting like this but couldn’t find anything that matched really well or went into any good detail.

On top of that, I was using this really pretty green velvet fabric for the upholstery and it was on sale because there were only a couple of yards left so I didn’t have much room for mistakes.

Talk about pressure am I right?!

I’m really obsessed with velvet and dark green and have been wanting more of this in my home decor so this project meant a lot to me to turn out right.

In cases like this, the photos I preached about taking like crazy come in handy. What you really need to study however is the existing back panel you carefully removed in Part 2.

I had to be very careful because the upholstery fabric was actually sewed onto the burlap fabric on the back and the stuffing inside of the tufting was incredibly delicate.

What you’re going to do it very carefully using a seam ripper start ripping the seams from the burlap.

Try your hardest to keep the stuffing in the place where it sits on the burlap!

After you’re all done you’ll have something that probably looks something like the picture below. Two pieces, the burlap with the stuffing and the, back panel that is the actual structure of the tufting.

After close inspection, I noticed a couple things.

First, I noticed there were actual markings on the burlap that acted as a guide for where each seam used to lay. If you have this that is great because this is going to be incredibly helpful when you need to attach your new tufted upholstery.

However, if you don’t have those don’t panic, you can still do it, you’ll just have to be a bit more careful.

Second, as I looked at the detached tufted panel I realized that with the exception of the two outer side tufted panels it was all one piece.

This really surprised me because I had assumed each row of tufts were cut individually and sewn together, but that wasn’t the case.

Luckily I hadn’t started cutting my fabric so all was good.

As I pulled the fabric slightly it expanded like an accordion and I could see they were simply seams.

To copy the tufted pattern do the following.

Lay the old pattern over the new velvet fabric, with both fabrics face down.

Try to expand the old pattern as wide as it will go so you’re sure to get the full width of the pattern before sewing the seams.

While expanded you will trace all the way around the old pattern onto the back of your new fabric. It’s a good idea to add a little extra fabric to the pattern I think I did an inch or so extra.

Next, you need to mark the center of each seam at the top of the pattern.

After that’s been done you need to measure the distance from the top of the seam to the bottom before the tuft starts to form the triangle. After you’ve measured that trace it on your pattern and do the same for the other row tufts.

Note this next step is very important!!

You’ll need to measure the width of the existing patterns tufts, right before it starts to form a triangle.

You might have noticed that the top of the chairs tufts are wider up top and get smaller as it goes down.

This is because the seams that create the individual tufts are not perfectly parallel to each other they angle inward slightly.

Because of this, you’ll need to measure the widths and account for that when you trace the seams from top to bottom.

Next, you need to make the triangles. Measure from where the end seam is to the point of the existing patterns triangle. Find the middle measurement of the two side seams and mark a dot to indicate the new existing triangle point.

From here, use a straight edge to evenly attach the point of the triangle to the two sides. When you’re done you should see the outline of your first tuft. Nice job, give yourself a pat on the back. Now repeat this process until you’ve traced all but the two side tufts.

I should mention one thing about this process. I HIGHLY recommend starting from the middle and working your way out. This will help you keep both sides of the pattern even.

You will do this same process for the smaller bottom tufts. When you’re done your pattern will hopefully look something like this.

The next step is actually pinning your pattern.

Creating the seams that will make up the whole structure of your pattern.

Again I highly recommend starting with in the middle and working your way outwards.

Here’s a quick tip.

Be sure to check your tuft rows as you pin and constantly adjust as you go when needed. Don’t just pin away without checking.

Because I almost guarantee when you flip it over the pattern will look off to you.

Then instead of having to adjust the one row, you’ll have to adjust multiple because it’s all one piece.

When it comes to determining how wide your seams need to be. This also depends on the seams of the original fabric, mine was around 0.5″.

However, I had thicker fabric than the original.

Keep in mind you’ll be attaching this pattern to the burlap later from the seams. So you don’t want them to be too small.

Also, keep in mind we added a little extra width to the pattern when we traced remember? So, you do have some room for a little more seam allowance if needed.

Just a friendly reminder again. Check and adjust often!!

The backrest of the chair is the focal point of your chair.

Especially when you have tufts like this, so mistakes will be obvious. I know this step is time-consuming but trust me it’s worth the effort.

The last thing you want to do is rush through this step.

You spend all this time on reupholstering a nice piece of furniture, spend money on quality fabric to have it look patched together and unfinished.

A good way to check that your new pattern is taking the appropriate shape is to lightly lay it over the burlap and stuffing rows.

If the new pinned pattern covers the rows nicely and the way it’s supposed to you’re on the right track!

If you had the marking on the burlap like mine did you can also check that your pinned seams are laying at least in the same general area as where those markings are.

All this being said, don’t freak out if it’s not exactly the same.

Mine definitely didn’t match the original exactly. After it was attached to the burlap and then the actual frame it looked great!!

After you’re all done pinning turn your pinned pattern right side up and hopefully it looks similar to this.

This is about the point where I was feeling pretty good about myself. It finally started to look like the original pattern!!!

Now it’s time to sew your tuft seams!!

Just like the previous steps start in the middle and work outwards.

I started at the top of one side of the seam and stopped right where the triangle started to form and then switched and sewed the other side of the tuft seam.

Next, I would usually move onto the two seams that made up the triangle but it really will depend on whatever is easiest to sew next.

Continue this process until once again all that’s left are the two side tufts that we haven’t shaped yet.

As always, check often and adjust in between each tuft.

Obviously, it’s a lot harder to adjust something you’ve already sewed, then it is to simply readjust a pin.

Actually, because I was using velvet readjusting wasn’t really an option for me.

I learned this the hard way when I accidentally sewed in the wrong place.

I had to get the seam ripper out and try to remove everything. I actually wasn’t even able to get all the thread out. And because of the fabric, if you know where to look you can see where I messed up and you’re able to see where the stitches used to be.

Long way of me saying go slowly and pay attention.

I didn’t have an upholstery sewing machine, luckily though I was able to still sew the seams with my normal sewing machine I just had to go very slowly, help my machine guide the fabric and replace a few needles along the way.

If you also choose to use thick fabric, just know it can be done. Just learn from my mistakes!

The last step in completing the back tuft panel is to attach it to the burlap.

Before doing this you need to carefully move the stuffing off of the burlap and onto the original pattern for safekeeping.

You’re going to start in the middle just like before and as best you can line up the markings on the burlap with the edges of the sewn seams of your new pattern and pin them together like shown below.

After everything, all looks right and securely pinned, go ahead and sew the two pieces together. Be sure to sew right below the existing seam and not above it. Be sure to remove the pins as you go.

After your done attaching the pattern to the burlap. You’ll have the shell of your backrest.

All that’s left to do now is insert the stuffing that you set aside earlier.

This is going to require a little bit of elbow grease and a little bit of creativity.

Luckily for you, I went through the trial and error for you and came up with a solution to make inserting this very delicate stuffing so much easier.

So ideally you sewed your tufts so that when it’s all stuffed the fabric hugs it nice and snug. On the other hand, everything is nice and snug. And since the stuffing is delicate it’s going to make simply sliding the stuffing in there nice and easy pretty much impossible.

Unless you tare it off in pieces and shoved it in. Which by the way, don’t do!!

The one part that is ok to be broken off is the triangle ends if you need to. and since it’s the smallest portion you should be able to place it down in there snuggly with your hand. So do that part first.

Now for the rest of it.

Look around and find a large empty paper towel roll or some other hollow tube that will fit inside your rows.

Luckily I had a cardboard tube that fit perfectly. It came from an old roll of bubble wrap that coincidentally I had just finished off and had laying around.

If you can’t find anything, you can use newspaper to make a solid tube the right size. It needs to be sturdy enough so that it doesn’t bend much with pressure.

Working from the middle out stick your tube inside the row then carefully stuff the corresponding stuffing into the tube until it meets the stuffing for the triangle.

While pushing your stuffing inside the tube, pull your tube out in the opposite direction. Do this slowly to make sure your stuffing is staying in place, and that there isn’t a gap between the triangle stuffing and the rest of the row.

Repeat this process until all but the two ends are stuffed.

When you’re done, take a step back and enjoy what you’ve created so far!!

I gotta tell you I was feeling pretty proud of myself at this point. I can’t believe how well it was coming out for my first really more intricate reupholstery projects.

Alright because this post got way longer than I originally thought I’m going to end it here.

In the next post Part 3 we’ll finish it all up so stay tuned.

I hope you guys enjoyed Part 2 of this How-To Reupholster A Chair series.

If you haven’t read Part 1 yet you can do so here.

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