Does upholstery work intimidate you? Wondering if you can do it yourself? We’ll show you how easy it can be to reupholster furniture. After you see this NO SEW upholstery before and after, you’re sure to get ideas that will have you transforming the furniture in your home!
Ready to get started? First lets go over the list of supplies you’ll need.
1. Tack Puller
5. Pneumatic Staple Gun OR
8. Hammer
9. Hot Glue Gun
10. Measuring Tape
11. Permanent Marker
12. Staple Setter
15. Batting
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Here’s a look at the ottoman before we dug into it. My Mom picked it up years ago from the local classifieds with a matching chair.
At one point she had the intention to paint them with chalk paint, which explains the darker coloring on the right edge.
Needless to say she didn’t like the way it was looking so it sat in the basement for years. That is until we embarked on the Inexpensive Master Bathroom Makeover!
She wanted a little stool or bench in this makeover. She’d looked on the local classifieds for something to refresh, but we ultimately ended up shopping in her own basement!
It’s amazing what you can find to re-purpose and refresh by shopping your own home!
(Be sure to watch this ottoman transformation in our quick video tutorial below. Sometimes it’s a little easier seeing the visual in action, along with still pictures.)
No Sew Upholstery Step 1: Removing Piping & Staples
Using a tack remover, insert the tip behind the piping and pry away from the ottoman.
Once you get a little bit removed, you can pull the rest off with your hands. It should come off fairly easy.
After all of the piping has been removed, use the tip of the tack puller, or a flat head screwdriver to pry each of the staples loose.
Then use a pair of needle-nose pliers to remove each of the staples.
Sometimes the staples may break when prying them loose. In that case it’s easiest to remove them by grabbing hold of the end of the staple, twisting the pliers a quarter turn and pull.
No Sew Upholstery Step 2: Secure New Batting
This step is optional, but we like to cover the existing piece of furniture with a new layer of thin batting.
(It makes us feel better to cover up any old grime from previous use.)
Using the heavy duty staple gun attach this layer of batting. It’s only necessary to secure the batting with a few staples, this will simply hold it into place.
We placed about 3 staples evenly spaced across the front and back sides, and another couple on the left and right sides.
No Sew Upholstery Step 3: Measure For Fabric
Now we’re getting to the fun part, adding the fabric!
To determine how much fabric you’ll need, use the measuring tape and take measurements from side to side and front to back.
You’ll want to allow about 4-6 extra inches onto each measurement. This will give you plenty of fabric to work with.
You can see that the fabric hangs a couple of inches below the wood trim all the way around the ottoman.
(If you’re working with a pattern that needs to be centered on the furniture, use the measuring tape and mark the middle on the foam with a permanent marker. Now you’ll easily be able to get your pattern centered.)
No Sew Upholstery Step 4: Attach New Fabric
The piece of furniture you’re working with should have a groove where you removed all of the staples from.
This is where you’ll be securing the new fabric with staples.
Pulling the fabric tight insert 1 staple in the center of the piece of furniture. Then insert 1 on each side. At this point you will have 3 staples evenly spaced across the front of the furniture.
Be sure to insert the staples into the groove.
Repeat this process on the back side of the furniture and each of the sides. All four sides will have only the 3 evenly spaced staples at this point.
We’ve been doing upholstery work for years, and have achieved great results using a heavy duty staple gun. This particular piece of furniture however had a narrower and slightly deeper groove which was making it difficult to insert new staples.
We ended up getting a pneumatic staple gun that was small enough to fit inside the groove. It was awesome! After giving this new tool a whirl, I’d use it over the heavy duty staple gun any day! It just made the job so much easier and quicker!
But like I said, you’ll get great results using the heavy duty staple gun! This is a great option if you don’t have access to an air compressor or pneumatic staple gun.
Heavy duty staple guns are also less expensive, so there’s that plus!
(If you’re having a hard time getting the staples inserted all the way into the wood you can use a staple setter tool and hammer or rubber mallet to tap them into the wood all the way. We did this for a while on this piece before we purchased the pneumatic staple gun.)
After each of the four sides have a couple of staples holding the fabric into place, you’ll then start inserting staples across the entire piece, one right next to the other.
Do this on all four sides, leaving about an inch or two of fabric without staples as you get to the corners.
Finally, secure the corners. Somehow we 🤪inadvertently missed taking photos or video of the actual corners of the ottoman. So, we are showing the corners on the matching chair, using the same fabric and technique. It has the same leg, shape and groove to attached the fabric in.
It may seem intimidating to finish off the corners. There are multiple ways to secure corners and have them look professional.
For this project, the faux fur fabric is pretty forgiving. First we placed a finger right in the middle of the groove above the leg, and inserted a staple.
Then we folded the fabric from the left toward the center making a pleat and secured it with a staple.
Create a 2nd pleat, by pulling the fabric from the right toward the center, place a staple and secure it. Then add several staples across the entire grooved area to secure into place.
This fabric is a bit thicker than a typical upholstery weight fabric. We ended up placing staples below the pleated areas as well as on top to ensure everything was secured well.
Here’s the finished pleated corner. As I mentioned earlier it’s kind of hard to see the pleats due to the fabric choice we used. But it is very forgiving fabric, which pretty much means you don’t need to worry about it being perfect! As long as all of the fabric around the corner is secured well, it will be great!
(Watch for another upholstery tutorial next month where we use a specific folded corner method where we DO need to be pretty neat and tidy! )
No Sew Upholstery Step 5: Trim Excess Fabric & Attach New Piping
Once the corners have been secured with staples, take the sewing scissors and trim away all the excess fabric.
Try to get as close to the staples as you can. You don’t want any excess fabric below the groove where you’ve secured it.
We’re in the home stretch now! The last thing you’ll do is attach the new piping.
Place some hot glue on the edge of the piping to prevent from fraying.
Beginning on the backside of the furniture in one corner secure the edge of the piping down with a hot glue gun.
You can use a craft stick to hold it into place while the glue cools a little, to avoid burning yourself.
Continue to glue the piping over the grooved area all the way around the furniture.
Hold the piping to meet the edge of where is was initially begun and trim with scissors.
Then add hot glue to the end of the cut piping to prevent it from fraying and secure the remaining piping into place over the groove.
So, what do you think? Is this something you think you can try for yourself?
You can see another upholstery tutorial we did that was featured on hometalkTV! We’ll be adding a written blog post with step by step directions and pictures in a couple of weeks. For now, you can watch the video to see how we transformed these barstools!
Does the thought of sewing a box cushion intimidate you?
Then checkout our post How to Make a Simple Box Cushion with Piping and a Zipper.
Thanks for spending some time with us today! We hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are a little less intimidated to try reupholstering a piece of furniture yourself!
Do you have any great thrift finds you want to tackle now?
Maybe you even have something waiting for a little refresh in your basement like we did? 😆
Let us know what you plan to work on, we’d love to hear from you.
If you’re new here, WELCOME, we’re always glad to get new friends! You can learn more about us here.
Thanks again for stopping by!
And as always here at Sunny Side Design
WE HOPE TO BRING YOUR HOME TO THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET!
If you missed the reveal of the Inexpensive Master Bathroom Makeover then click here.
Are you looking for some FRESH ideas for Spring? And FREE Spring Printables? Then click here.
We have a fun Easter craft you will not want to miss. Create a weathered stone look bunny with thrift store finds.
Be sure to follow us on Pinterest for even more DIY projects!
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Thanks Hannah for bringing this to our attention. We are sorry you are having troubles viewing posts. We have checked on Firefox and Safari, both on mobile and our laptops and it seems to be working fine. Is this occurring on a mobile device or on a laptop or PC? What browser are you using?
Thanks so much for passing this post onto your colleague! Sweet! Getting treated to lunch is always nice, you’ll have to share more of our posts with him 😁
Merely a smiling visitor here to share the love (:, btw outstanding design and style.
Oh my goodness, you’re the sweetest! Thanks for your happy comment, and for taking the time to write us! We hope you’re able to get a lot of ideas to incorporate into your own home!