Breathe New Life Into A Worn Out Office Chair With A Simple & Stylish DIY Upcycle

Well-used office chairs can be like old friends. The best ones provide comfort and great ergonomics that allow you to work for hours while seated. While their upholstery and finishes can wear over the years, you may still want to use your old favorite chair and be looking for a way to give it new life. You may also frequently stumble upon vintage or unwanted newer office chairs with great construction in places like garage sales, thrift stores, and flea markets, where they are usually priced with budget-friendliness in mind. While they may be damaged or not much to look at, reupholstering and rehabbing a chair is a great way to get a sturdy and comfortable home office seat on the cheap. There is an easy technique that requires only fabric, spray paint, and a staple gun to rehab these old chairs with style, making even the ugliest generic office chair into a beautiful and useful piece for your home.

Even better, this allows you to customize an older chair exactly to your decor, making this DIY a great alternative to newer store-bought chairs for your home office that may not last as long. Older chairs, particularly those with solid, plastic-free metal frames, like mid-century propeller chairs or antique wooden banker's chairs, typically have an endurance that makes them perfect to upcycle for many more decades of use if you can give new life to their more cosmetic elements.

The key to rehabbing any office chair is disassembling it completely. This often means unscrewing bolts and screws that separate the base, seat, and back, as well as any armrests present. Many chairs feature plastic or metal backing that must also be removed to reach the back of the upholstered areas. As you disassemble the chair, keep careful track of where things go for a speedy reassembly when you're done. After you have separated the pieces, this is a great chance to repaint the visible hard areas of the chair. This can mean touching up any metal with silver paint, coating plastic with white or black spray paint, or opting for a fresh pop of color or luxe metallic.

To reupholster the seat and back cushion, measure and cut two pieces of fabric, leaving 2 to 3 inches as a seam for the wraparound. To keep the fabric in place, add a couple staples on the back side of the upholstered piece as you stretch it, then go back to staple the whole perimeter. If your seat is vinyl or plastic, you can also apply a spray adhesive to keep the fabric in place as you staple.

To cover the chair, choose any sturdy fabric that will withstand daily use, including traditional upholstery fabric or upcycled textiles like blankets and quilts. You may also opt for more luxe materials like tweed, velvet, or fur. Selecting one with a pattern like florals, damask, plaids, or animal prints makes for a stunning statement in a minimalist home office and is a great way to create another decorative layer for more maximalist spaces. You could also decoupage harder surfaces of even the cheapest home office chair seat and back with fabric or paper under a coat of Mod Podge Gloss Sealer. 

If you still want the look of the original vinyl for your chair, there are spray paints designed specifically for the material that change the color and prevents cracking or smearing. To repair any existing damage, use vinyl repair kit patches that can be painted over to match. There are also many ways to customize your chair with upholstery tacks: cover the new fabric seam along the back panel for a classic finished look, outline the arms of the chair, or create a unique design with the hardware. For perfect rows, consider an upholstery tack strip, like House2Home Store Upholstery Metal Flexible Tack Strip, instead of applying each one individually. Seaming and corded trims along the sides, arms, or seat front also serve to add more character to a rehabbed chair for a unique home office setup.