Besides dazzling upholstery jobs, people LOVE tutorials that teach them how to fix existing furniture that may be wearing out, or may have had an unexpected mishap.  Whether they love it or hate it and a new piece is not in the budget, something has to be done. Back in my custom upholstery business days, I was called out many times to figure out how a customer could stretch just a little bit more life out of that worn out ottoman, saggy side chair or shredding sectional. It’s not all that hard if the truth be known.

Here are some easy fixes that you can do that will extend the life of your go-to pieces until you’re sure of what you do want to put in its’ place. But remember, if you have a good solid piece of furniture that fits well in your house, then by all means, try to figure out how to get it shaped up so that it can stick around for another generation.

1.) Saggy sprung side chair. As with shingles on roofs, it’s not completely against the rules to add another layer of woven webbing on the bottom of a chair seat in order to hoist up the springs. You could completely tear the upholstered seat off and redo everything, or this could just be a stop gap measure to get you through. You’ll need to investigate the quality and condition of other parts of the seat.

Read the entire tutorial for:

  1. SAGGY SPRINGS

5 Tricky Chair Fixes | ModHomeEc

2.  TORN CUSHION TOP REPAIR

5 Tricky Chair Fixes | ModHomeEc

3. SAGGY CUSHION BACKS

This is for a sofa, but it works exactly the same way for a chair back.

5 Tricky Chair Fixes | ModHomeEc

4. FIX A LOST BUTTON ON A TUFTED CHAIR BACK

5 Tricky Chair Fixes | ModHomeEc

5. BACK CUSHION UPDATE: MOCK TUFTING

This little trick can really spruce up an out of date 1980’s style chair, loveseat or sofa. It’s about as easy as it comes and who cares if you have to take the buttons off to clean the covers? You can easily just tie them back on. This tutorial is a WINNER.

5 Tricky Chair Fixes | ModHomeEc

Other fixes that you might want to try:

If your welt cording is falling off, just get a hot glue gun and carefully reattach it.

If your cat has scratched off the dust cover on the bottom of a chair, just tack it back up, or get a piece of black cotton from the fabric store and cut it to fit, folding the edges under 3/4″ and staple in place

If a chair seat has endured an unfortunate mishap like pen poking through the fabric, purchase a coordinating piece of fabric and carefully reupholster the new fabric over the old. The trick is to get folds looking professional, no globby edges or frayed fabric showing. Do a super job and it will look like it was meant to be.

If a chair leg that is built into the chair frame cracks beyond repair, carefully cut off all legs so that the bottom of the frame is flush and add new legs that come with hanging furniture bolts.