If you can find three mismatched chairs of identical heights, this project is a tricky yet strikingly beautiful addition to a hallway or living room.
Designer: Kate Pruitt
Cost: About €100
Time: 1 day
Difficulty:
What You’ll Need
- Two wooden chairs with arms, one without arms, each of identical seat height.
- Drill
- Pliers
- Sandpaper
- Stain or paint (optional)
- Measuring tape or ruler
- Half-inch MDF measuring 24in x 60in (may vary depending on chair size)
- permanent marker
- Clamps
- Safety goggles
- Jigsaw
- Two-inch thick foam measuring 24in x 60in (may vary depending on chair size)
- Box cutter or Stanley knife
- Fabric for the seat, measuring 36 x 68 inches (may vary depending on chair size)
- Heavy-duty staple gun and staples
- Scissors
- Screws (1 5/8 inches)
- 4 metal mending plates
How To
- Use the drill to remove one left arm and one right arm from the armchairs. Remove old or broken screws with pliers. Clean, sand, and stain or paint the chairs to your preferred finish.
- Assemble the chairs with the fronts aligned and front legs touching. There may be spaces towards the back of the chairs but this is alright. Measure the space between each chair cushion at the front and back of the chairs and write this down. Remove the seat cushions. Strip the seats of all foam and fabric to reveal the wooden seat pieces. These are templates for your new cushion.
- Lay the MDF on the ground. Place the seat cushion templates on the MDF in the same order as the chairs, with the front of the templates flush with the front edge of the MDF. Space the templates using the distances between them you measured in step 2.
- Trace the three templates onto the MDF with a marker, and then remove them. Double check your measurements, and clamp down the MDF. Wearing the goggles, cut the shape out with a jigsaw, cutting along the outer side of the line as a precaution. Once done, lay the shape on the chairs to check the fit. Remove more from the edges if necessary. The back of the shape may not be a straight line if you prefer the seat to lie snug against the chair backs.
- Lay the seat foam on a clean surface and place the MDF shape on it, top side up. Trace the shape of the MDF onto the foam with the marker and then cut the foam along your traced lines. Check that the two match. Mark the top of your foam with an x.
- Lay your fabric face down and place the foam and seat on top of it. Pull the fabric firmly and staple it to the back at even intervals, ensuring the foam stays perfectly aligned with the MDF. Cut slits in the fabric to accommodate corners, bringing the fabric in to create smooth folds. Visually check the overall shape and pull and re-staple uneven areas.
- Place your new seat cushion onto the chairs, checking that the front is perfectly aligned, and that the seat backs fit with the back of the cushion form. Now secure the new cushion with the drill, by screwing through the existing holes in the chair frames up into the MDF. For this, use new screws of the same size as those you removed earlier.
- Use metal mending plates or two-inch scraps of wood to reinforce the bench where the seat frames meet: two at the back and two at the front. Secure them with several screws to each chair. replace the seat cushion, which will hide the scrap wood/mending plates, and voila – a bench with a difference and an unlikely charm!
