Adding Flair to Worn Upholstery

A chair with its inner core exposed, seat covered in burlap stitched with twine, back and arms softened with creamy muslin held in place with charcoal black flat head steel tacks is a unique alternative to completely reupholstering a chair.

Although artistic, it is difficult to imagine curling up with a book in this chair.

These dining chairs in the Palace of Fountainebleau in France are covered in muslin, the raw edges pulled tight and tacked.

The look of furniture covered in cream appealed to me. When we moved to an open plan loft in an historical building we had much of our existing furniture covered in cream or white linen or cotton duck fabric. For me, this was a way to unite the pieces and devote attention to their shape. It also has a quieting effect. When we moved to the Texas Hill Country we brought our furniture with us and haven’t changed the covering. It is particularly appropriate as the large central room has windows on the north and south side looking into the hills and the monochromatic limited color palette allows the view to be the predominate factor.

As could be expected, fabric ages, sometimes not in the most attractive way. This bergère chair in the guest room is covered in dove gray linen. In its former home it sat in bright sunlight. When we moved here and unwrapped the chair there was a darker gray square on the back and a water stain near the top of the wooden frame. This chair is covered in the same fabric as another in the room.  Reluctant to recover them both and unable to find a fabric more appealing to me at this time, I decided to see what could be done in the way of a repair.

Placing a large sheet of tissue paper on the back of the chair and drawing around the wooden frame enabled me to create a pattern. Using a similar fabric, I cut two pieces 5/8 inch larger than the pattern, put the pieces right sides together, machine stitched the edge, turned the fabric right side out again and pressed it. My original plan of hand stitching the new cover piece to the back of the chair proved difficult. Instead, I cut six pieces of pale gray grosgrain Petersham ribbon, sewing three pieces to the back of the chair and the other three to the cover, and then tied it on!

A small lumbar pillow made from an unused bed pillow cut in half holds the back cover in place.

Soon after, the cream silk on the cushions on a bergère chair in the library began to split. This is my favorite reading chair – the kind you sink into and can read for hours on end as if floating on s cloud. The fabric had held up or a number of years, but again, I wanted time to decide what to do next and felt there must be something to do to repair the damage in the interim. Having read about the beauty of a well stitched repair, my first attempt was to sew the splits closed. Not entranced with the appearance, it seemed a good idea to peruse some of my design books for ideas.

This is a photo from Josephine Ryan’s Essentially French: Homes With Classic French Style. We have a beautiful cream and pale taupe matelasse bed cover purchased years ago in a shop called Carol Hicks Bolton Antiquities in Fredericksburg, Texas. Though much loved, it didn’t look right draped over the chair. Reminded me of the scene in the Pride and Prejudice film when Mr. Bingley and his sister depart their country home and the liveried servants drape everything in white fabric to protect it from dust.

(Lisa Fine, Near and Far: Interiors I Love, Vendome).

This charming arm chair is in the New York apartment of designer, Charlotte Moss.

London based interior designer Penny Morrison has draped lengths of fabric over the back and seat of two chairs in her home in Wales. The fabric is held in place with pillows.

This photo from the March 2025 World of Interiors shows an Arts and Craft chair covered in a Kuba dance skirt. Who would imagine! Another possibility…

My eventual decision was to create a thin feather cushion made of leftover cream upholstery fabric, similar to the fabric I had used to make the relaxed Roman shades in the room. Using the same technique of making the pattern from tissue, the process began.

Not wanting to buy down feathers in bulk, it seemed most practical to order a couple of feather bed pillows online. How beautiful and soft they are!

Using some leftover drapery lining, an inner pillow was made in the same shape as the final pillow. Wrangling the feathers into the pillowcase was quite a task. It requires a good deal of patience, slow movements so as not to disturb the feathers and set them flying around the room, and a good vacuum for clean up afterwards.

Ribbons sewn to the underside of the cushion and tied around the chair leg.

It seemed right to recover the also ripped small back cushion in the same fabric and to tie it around the larger cushion for a repetition of the ribbon.

The newly repaired chair should last for a good while and has a bit of quiet flair. Back to reading!