Office Chair Makeover: Paint and Upholstery Tips

We can definitely cross cheerful desk chairs off the office wish list. With a little paint and simple upholstery, these thrifted seats turned into bright, happy additions to the workspace.

I prepped, primed, and painted the chairs first, then tackled the upholstery. Below are the quick and practical steps I followed to re-cover the seats.

I had leftover fabric from the dining room curtains, so I draped a length over the detached seat cushion, centered one of the patterned motifs (the “grellow thingy,” as we called it) and trimmed the excess, leaving enough fabric to pull and staple to the underside. If you want the exact fabric, it’s available on Amazon, but you can use any upholstery-weight textile you like.

To keep the pattern centered, flip the cushion over and drive in four staples while pulling the fabric taut. I used a basic manual staple gun (about $20 from a home improvement store). Staple at the cardinal points — noon, three o’clock, six o’clock, and nine o’clock — so you can flip it back, check alignment from the front, and adjust if necessary.

Once the front looked straight, flip the cushion again and add about six staples per side, pulling the fabric tight as you go. This staged approach avoids excess staples and keeps the pattern crisp.

For the corners, I treat them like wrapping a present. Fold the fabric into small triangles along the cushion edge and staple until the corner looks neat from the front. The underside can look messy — that’s fine, since only the front matters. Here’s an example of how a corner might look underneath after stapling:

As long as the front is tight and centered, you’re good to go.

I repeated the same process for the second cushion, matching the motif so the seats read as a pair. About thirty staples later, both cushions were finished.

The entire upholstery step took roughly thirty to forty-five minutes, including a few commercial breaks. I only recovered the existing cushions because the foam and structure were fine — there was no odor or flattening that would require replacing the foam.

After upholstery, I waited for the spray-painted chairs to cure fully so the finish would be hard-wearing. I gave them two sunny days outside to speed up drying and off-gassing, followed by a day in the sunroom with ventilation to ensure they were completely dry before bringing them in.

Late one night I reattached the newly dressed cushions using the same four screws removed earlier, and the result felt like a small interior-design miracle. The painted green paired with the patterned fabric created a lively, coordinated look without being overwhelming.

This photo below shows the colors most accurately: the green chairs look great with white cabinets and dark wood counters.

We love how the stronger green-yellow tones in the chairs echo the softer pop of color in a nearby stencil. Instead of competing, the chairs enhance and draw attention to that wall detail. Colors can vary on screens, but in person the combination is really striking.

Because the stencil is subtle and the chairs are bold, they layer well without creating visual chaos. A good rule is to keep design elements at different levels — for example, bold pillows on a subtly textured sofa — so one element doesn’t fight another for attention.

The best view is from the dining room. I also like that the table runner can be changed if I want to dial back the green, but for now it complements the chairs nicely. I’m planning to add large-scale art above each chair for height, keeping it simple so it doesn’t compete with the chair and wall stencil.

Here are a few close-ups of the finished seats so you can see how the fabric pairs with the paint:

These $35 secondhand chairs have come a long way. Here’s what they looked like the day we picked them up from a local secondhand store:

Because I already had the fabric, the makeover cost was only $18 for three cans of Ivy Leaf spray paint. If you factor in the original chair price ($35 each) and the fabric cost (about $12.99 per yard), the total comes to roughly $50.50 per chair — a big savings compared to similar chairs priced between $200 and $250.

Have you painted or reupholstered any chairs recently? If you have extra fabric sitting around, this is an easy weekend project that makes a big visual impact. For the full paint and prep process that preceded this upholstery step, see the first half of the chair makeover for more details.

Note: See the first half of this chair makeover for the painting and preparation steps.