I have a lovely client and worked on her daughter’s bedroom furniture last year (Pure White and Fresh – Dresser Before and After). This year, Cindy is tackling her dining chairs. She actually owns the exact same Ethan Allen dining set as my own. The chairs are maple and you can see what they look like in the “before” pic of mine below. 
I painted my dining chairs a few years ago in Annie Sloan Old White. Using my chairs, I made video tutorials on the process (how to distress chalk paint and another is how to apply Annie Sloan clear and dark wax).
Tip: I wish I owned a foam cutting tool as my scissors were not the easiest tool to cut a straight line out of the foam. These chairs have a lot of curves to the seats which made it tricky and it is time consuming on a large amount of chairs. If I was going to replace foam again on a large amount of chairs, I would have the foam cut professionally in the store to save time.
This project is for 8 chairs and it is taking two rolls of 1″ thick foam plus the fabric (not sure how many yards, sorry as Cindy purchased it and dropped it off).
- Deconstruct the chair seat by cutting off the original fabric and prying off the stapled and glued on piping. Try to pry off the old staples on the back side of the seat using a flat head screw driver and pliers.
- Using the seat base as a template, trace around the seat shape onto the foam.
- Cut the foam to size.
- Take the foam and place it on the seat.
- Flip seat upside down and center it onto the underside of your fabric.
- Cut the fabric and allow 4 to 6 inches extra on each side.
- Tightly pull the fabric up and over and using a staple gun, apply a staple into the center of each side.
- Flip over and make sure the fabric pattern is straight on the upside.
- Flip over again and staple around, pulling the fabric tight as you go.
- The tricky part is the corners. Pull the fabric up tight and created a nice fold. Staple it in bit by bit and flip it over to make sure the fabric is tight and secure as you staple around the corner sections.
- Cut off the extra fabric and apply more staples around the excess.
Here the seats are now! Of course, this is placed on my white chair but imagine the chair in black – so sharp!
Hi Suzanne: Love your blog! Thanks for the Thanksgiving recipes! I enjoyed them! A Jigsaw (Ryboi at Home Depot or wherever you like to go) is the easiest way to cut foam. It saves your scissors and makes a clean even cut through the layers of foam!
Hi Carol, Thanks for the tip! I should invest in the jigsaw anyway as there are many times that I could use one on my furniture projects. So glad you enjoyed the recipes! Cheers 🙂
They look really nice. I miss my upholstered DR chairs. Mine are wood and I have to make cushions for them and they always slide offf. By the way I use an electric knife for cutting foam. They are cheap. I bought mine at a garage sale years ago and have used it for years. There were two sizes in the box so I use one for meat and the other for foam!
Hi Mari, That is so funny because I actually brought mine out and tried it. It didn’t work! I guess my blade was not big enough. Great minds think alike lol!
I have found cutting foam slabs w an electric knife i purchased at a thrift store. I wouldn’t use it on food but it works on foam reall well. You can get one very cheaply. Love the look you got.