Little Bit Of A Before And After. My Recovered Brasilia Dining Chairs. Status: Two-Thirds done.

Between the 17 or so Brasilia dining chairs I've had in the last year or so I have been blessed with a full set of six that had the original upholstery in good condition, but I'm not a fan of the "birds" so I traded them to a buddy along with a pedestal table for my long "legged" table that he had already freshened up.


That left me with a lot of recovering to do since all the rest were pretty ugly.

Luckily I've been finding pretty cool upholstery material at our local Garden Ridge

and Old Time Pottery. I stop by these two places about once a month to see if

they have any new material to snatch up. They sell it in small pieces usually about

3-4 yards each for about $4 a yard. Perfect for recovering chair seats, making

pillows and other small projects.

I've gotten Four done and still have Two more to go. I have enough material to

recover maybe two extra chairs seats should I ever decide to get another pair. I've

spent about two hours on each chair, but I'm REALLY picky about doing a good

job. I don't like seeing all the pleats around the corners so I take my time and will

disassemble the upholstery and try again if I'm not satisfied. I don't do more than

one at a time so I don't get too tired / frustrated with the job.

I bought some new batting and doubled it up over the original "padding". The foam

batting on some of these was just orange dust. I guess it was biodegradable!

Buying a GOOD stapler is a must too. If you buy cheap (new) you get cheap. If

you don't want to pay full retail for a Craftsman, you might find a good quality

vintage(ish) one at an estate sale or a flea market. If you are even going to do

ONE set of chairs, it's still worth getting a good stapler. You'll find a good use for it

again sooner or later.