Dining Chair Cushion Makeover

Do you know what I love? Using patchwork to recover dining room chairs. It’s makes them so fresh and full of personality, and is rather easy to do.

I’ve been doing this since 2013. Patchwork dining room chairs are my favorite way to enjoy patchwork, right after quilts!

Our dining room chairs are an eclectic mix of natural wood and white wood, in a variety of shapes. Two of the chairs that had covers needed freshening up. Keeping in mind the blue wall in the room and the black + colorful palette in our adjoining kitchen, I pulled these fabrics from my stash for this project.

Bright and scrappy!

Over the weekend I had fun cutting 3.5” squares for the patchwork.

How many squares is a factor of the size of the chair cushion. Measure the cushion with a soft tape measure, so it can wrap around the visible sides. Measure the height and maximum width. Then, make your cover a few inches bigger, to give yourself wiggle room and something to attach to the chair underneath.

I needed a 7 x 8 grid of 3” finished squares to accommodate my 20” x 22” cushion. To add some of those extra inches, you can sew a thin strip of fabric along the sides of the assembled patchwork. That fabric strip won’t be seen, but helps to attach the cover to the cushion.

Next, quilt the patchwork! Quilting really increases durability. You don’t want to skip this.

Quilt the patchwork cushion cover with a layer of batting, but no backing fabric. Trim off any extra batting, before attaching the cover to the chair.

My covers are permanently attached with a staple gun. Many chairs with padded cushions have removable cushions. Just unscrew the cushion to separate it from the chair, wrap your new cover around the cushion top and staple it to the bottom of the cushion, which is typically a wooden base.

Easy, peasy - with a little help.

This is the first cushion cover I composed over the weekend. The colors are scrappy and randomly placed, with an emphases on blues.

I chose a more intentional layout for my second dining chair cover. This time the fabrics form a grid, alternating between gray/black fabrics and colorful fabrics. My chairs are eclectic, so I figure my cushions will be too!

Here’s how that turned out. And you can peak at the blue string cushion cover I made last year.

Adding fabrics and patchwork to our home is something that always makes me smile. If this is something you’d like to do someday, I created an image that’s handy for saving the idea to Pinterest or whatnot.

Don’t wait too long though! This is truly a weekend project. Why not enjoy fresh new patchwork goodness right away?

Stay safe and stay well!