Sitting Pretty Chairs

Let’s talk about seats!

Personally, I like a big puffy seat on a chair, not only because it is usually more comfortable to sit on but I find it more aesthetically pleasing.

But having a big puffy seat doesn’t always work, as was the case with these rescued dining chairs.

Let me explain.

If you look through my photo gallery of all the other Sitting Pretty Chairs that I have styled you will notice that they have a thicker foam (two to four inches depending on the chair), and the fabric wraps down the front, sides and back of the chairs. I love this look and am very happy that I learned how to achieve it.

These rescued chairs have a wooden seat that is screwed into the frame. My plan was to discard the wooden seat and staple webbing to the frame before building up the seat with a thicker foam. In essence, I was planning on reupholstering these chairs the same way I have reupholstered all my other chairs.

However, I realized this plan would not work on these dining chairs because a thicker foam would cut off or cover up the bottom part of the top back panel. Are you confused yet? Stay with me.

We have all seen or had chairs with wooden seats screwed into frames and probably many of you have updated the look of them by wrapping new fabric around the wood and stapling it in place. It really is an easy and very cost effective way to update your own chairs. I have done it in the past before learning how to reupholster chairs the other way.

Anyway, with these chairs, I had to stick with reusing the wooden seat and then replaced the old one inch foam with new. And then of course I carefully wrapped the new fabric around the foam and stapled it to the bottom of the wooden seat.

Even though it is not my preference to reupholster chairs this way, I did have a lot of fun styling them.

Now let’s talk about the tops!

As you can see from the before picture there was cane in the middle panel of the top of the chairs. This cane was not in good condition so I cut it out and designed the top with a beautiful fabric of blues and greens and birds. By just upholstering the middle panel it looks like a framed picture.

You can see that the birds on the back of both chairs are the same, but the birds on the front are different, giving it a fun and whimsical look!

Of course the chairs really make a statement with the vibrant yellow paint. And then to finish them off and give them a professional look, I made and attached double welt chord to the top front panel and single welt chord to the seat.

Don’t you think these chairs would entice a child to want to sit at the table for dinner?

I also think they would brighten up a dark corner of a room or be a sunny addition to a breakfast nook!

What do you think of flat bottom seats vs thick puffy seats? Do you have a preference? Let me know in the comments below!