Sometimes in life, you just need a new place to park your butt. If the last two years of the pandemic have revealed a smidgeon of a silver lining, it’s motivated you to get off your butt and start a project or…well…fifty seven projects (in my case). It’s true – the pandemic has led to people spending more time at home. That means DIY’s are at an all time high, guys! If you’re like me, you enjoy a good DIY that doesn’t leave you overtaxed and yelling obscenities at inanimate objects. I try to keep it simple whenever possible. One of my fifty seven projects provided me with both a reason to get off my butt (as if I’m ever on it with this circus circus-ing about) and a new place to park my butt! Take a gander at this simple seat deconstruct in four easy steps!

Simple Seat Deconstruct in Five Easy Steps

So, why rip the seat off a chair and make it look worn and ragged (lived in, if you will)? Well…I’m not a professional upholstery artist. I give major props to them – it’s an art that takes skill, accuracy, and patience. Unfortunately, I can only be one of those at any given time. It’s funny because it’s true. Anyway, I love that I can give pieces a refresh without a ton of work. Keeping things uneven and frayed adds to the character of the piece (even if it’s mostly an excuse to forgo perfection). We picked up this particular chair off of an auction. It was in rough shape but it was cheap and had great wood detailing!

Step One: Remove Old Fabric

Before getting into ahead of ourselves, we’re going to want to remove the old, shabby fabric. For this project, I simply cut it out. The seat filling was still in decent shape overall, so I left the majority and added a little shredded foam filling. At this point, you may also need to grab yourself an extra pair of hands. My hired help wasn’t much help – but she did keep a close eye on the hammer!

Step Two: Place New Fabric

Select a fabric that has some weight to it. You can use upholstery fabric – but my favorite for a deconstruct is a simple square of cotton drop cloth. For this project, I ended up grabbing excess linen fabric I had left over from a pillow project. Place your fabric of choice over the seat and cut, leaving about 3 inches of overhang on all sides (you’ll be able to trim this up once the fabric is secured).

Step Three: Secure Fabric

Here comes the fun part! Use upholstery tacks to secure the fabric to the wood base of the chair. Use a small hammer – I love this one – and hammer in a couple tacks on each side, pulling fabric tight enough to smooth any wrinkles. Continue hammering tack in every inch or so (more of less depending on the look you want). My hired help was very handsy during this step (so it took me quite a while to make it all the way around…

Step Four: Fray Fabric

Once you’ve finished hammering (and cleaned up any blood, sweat, and tears), take the edge of a pair of scissors and fray the edges all the way around the seat. This creates the shabby deconstruct look that we all know and love (and if you don’t love it, that’s okay….I guess :P). Tailor this to your taste – I pulled and tugged a lot of string for an extra shabby look.

There you have it, friends! A simple seat deconstruct in four easy steps that is just right for a little refresh. I love how this chair turned out. It’s a pretty piece that’s also functional so after I’m finished working the ol’ butt off, I’ll have a nice place to rest for a bit. Though, I’ll be honest, the cats have taken this chair and claimed it as their own. So…I guess I’ll have to settle for the floor.

As always, thank you for stopping by, reading, and following along with me! I am forever grateful for the support, the laughs, and the encouragement. Until next time, peace, love, & light (after coffee)!