We have some dining room chairs that are about 10 years old and the padding on the top has gotten quite uncomfortable. When we sit on them, the outer frame of the seat part of the chair presses against my thighs — it seems that the padding that's on top of the frame has worn out. My understanding is that the foam inside can get worn out, although it's possible the black mesh (see photo) has also stretched out. The white fabric that you see if the fabric underneath the outer slipcover (which is dark gray).
Is there a way I can make these chairs more comfortable without a major surgery to the chairs and also without changing the appearance?
My understanding is that the proper way to fix these would be to take off the white fabric and replace the foam, and then replace the white fabric with the staples. This would be a major project and I'm looking for a more expedient fix because we're not planning on keeping these chairs that long anyway. I'm curious if there's a way to add some foam on top of the white fabric, possibly securing it somehow, and then adding the cover back on top.
Please let me know if you have ideas about:
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an approach to adding padding without major surgery
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which type of padding / foam to buy
Best Answer
To replace the foam underneath the white cover you have to remove the white cover.
When you just have the wood frame, the first part that is added is the webbing that crosses left / right and forward / back.
Once the webbing is secured, then the foam padding is added and it can be shaped like a curve on the edges or slightly thicker in the middle.
Then there may be an intermediate cover and the final white cover which is secured with the staples. Getting the cover stretched appropriately so that there are no creases takes patience.
Then the base black cover is fitted to hide the staples and edges of the white cover - so that when you grip to pull the chair you don’t feel the edge of the white cover.
This is a project that can be very rewarding.