DIY: Louis XV Chair Makeover

Hello, everyone! I am back with a DIY decor project I have been SUPER excited to tackle: recovering some Louis XV chairs I got for a song on Craigslist.

I will briefly give some tips on how I went about this DIY project, but I am not going to go into to much detail because it's pretty straightforward, and let's just be honest: if you're like me, you just browse through the pictures.

So let's get on with it! The before:

Great, right? Eh, not so much. I got a set of two chairs, one is a side chair and the other has arms.

First we need to remove all of those nail heads! Tedious work, but sometimes I like busy work while I listen to Judge Judy,

The fabric should come off cleanly. Make sure you save the inner padding to re-use later.

Then all of the little staples in the cardboard backing need to come out. Save this piece as well.

Do the same for the seat. I removed the ugly floral fabric but was able to keep everything else underneath. it had been upholstered nicely and covered with a plain vanilla covering. Small blessings!

Use the old pieces of fabric to trace your new panels.

Make sure to leave extra around the edges, just incase.

Now drape your new fabric over the seat to make sure you have enough.

Tool time! This is what my husband had, so this is what I used. A little overkill, but whatever.

I started stapling in the back. I simple tucked he raw edge under itself to give it a "hem" and stapled as close to the edge as possible.

Just keep tucking and stapling.

Little pleats will happen, I just try to put a staple in those areas.

If you plan to use nail heads to finish, you do not need to place as many staples.

Next I moved torwards the arms.

Always be sure to keep checking that you still have your fabric evenly distributed. You don't want it to get wonky and end up short on one side. My fabric had a great amount of stretch which helped. I didn't need to pull as hard.

Seat is done!

Trace the back panel next.

Make sure the right side of your fabric is facing out on the back of a Louis Chair.

 Start stapling at the top.

Then down the sides.

After you've stapled all the way around the back, go ahead and place your cardboard and padding back in and staple in place.
Repeat the same process of rolling the edge under and stapling over the back cushion.

Ta da! Now you're ready for piping, trimmings or more nail heads if you choose!

 Isn't she a beaut??

"Black velvet in that little boy's smiiiiillleee... black velvet in that-" ok I will stop there.

This was an incredibly cheap DIY decor prjoect with a huge impact. The chairs were only $30.00 a piece and I got the fabric from Fabric.Com for $3.82 a yard! So go forth and make some ugly chairs pretty!