In August 2019 I was on a run and this chair was sitting on the side of the road, so I carried it the last mile home on my head. My mom has been known to pull similar stunts.

We took it apart, sanded down the arms/legs and poly coated, rebuilt the back in Grandparents garage shop over Thanksgiving, made patterns from the existing nasty upholstery, picked out new fabric, bought new padding, and then it sat in a corner of our 700sq ft apartment for a year. OPE.

(*Just look at all the potential!!!!*)

I finally buckled down and just finished it! Other than waiting for some wood glue to dry, the work was over in less than 24 hours. (*Also the hammer in my staple gun just quit working near the end so I've got some final attaching to do. Some extra fabric is visible on the underside of the chair.)

Still as happy with the fabric as I was the day we picked it out! I believe it's actually outdoor fabric from SR Harris which is actually nice and sturdy and softer than one might guess.

This fabric frayed easily, so I serged all the edges before assembling.

The back originally had just a piece of corregated cardboard as a support. I wanted something a little less flimsy and luckily I had this scrap of rigid upholstery velvet from another project that was EXACTLY the right width. And I mean EXACTLY. what you see below is the exact width of the piece, I only had to trim some of the length off. I think canvas or webbing strips would work well here too — something solid with no give!

I would feel worse about "wasting" velvet on the innards of a chair but 1. The nap actually helped grip the padding nicely and 2. This was cheap from SR Harris and is honestly pretty nasty with a ton of bizarre and gross flaws. I'd already used every salvageable bit.

Seat

I tied/looped the zig zag springs together to keep them in line.

First layer was a cut up pillowcase/muslin/medium weight cotton directly against the screws to protect the foam/batting from direct contact.

Next was a layer of foam (I think 1/2" foam), and a few layers of cotton batting. Originally the batting was just sitting on top of the seat (like the foam) but I cut pieces large enough to wrap under and staple to the underside of the seat.

Both seat and back with padding attached.

Super happy with how it turned out!