How to upholster a simple fabric covered square seat or stool top fixed to a board

Here’s a little video showing how to make a very simple but professional looking fabric cover for a square shaped board that could make a seat or stool top.
This works for any sized piece as long as the sides are all square.
High density firm foam works the best and you will want to oversize it by roughly a quarter of an inch more than your base board.
Make sure you add enough allowance to pull around the bottom, add more than you think you may need rather than not have enough.
If you use shorter staples they are easier to remove if you find you want to add more tension or adjust the cover.
Here are some links to some of the tools we use
Staple gun
ebay.us/69Z70n
Sewing machine
ebay.us/5m2jd6
Hand tools
ebay.us/dJu3iD
Silent compressors
ebay.us/R4USMK
Thank you for watching and feel free to ask any questions.
Please subscribe and share.

[@j.quandt2943]

Short & precise demo. Just perfect!!! Thanks

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

You’re more than welcome 😄 thank you for watching and the feedback 👍🏼

[@bradydegrasse]

That's pro bro! 😏

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you very much and thanks for watching! 👍🏼

[@noorlee8810]

Thank you so much. Very helpful, and no waste of time with endless talk. My table bench looks awesome because of your help!

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you for watching! We are very happy to be able to help people with their projects and will add more videos whenever we can

[@johnparker2636]

Fantastic video-not many people showing how to do square edged seat covers. Just followed this to do 4 chairs and your video made it really easy to do- very pleased with the results. Thank you

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank for for watching and the great feedback, we are happy to be able to help out and appreciate hearing back from happy viewers

[@joannebarrette9]

Fantastic job. I have 4 chairs to upholster. I will definitely use your method. Thank you so very much for this video :) Have a nice day!

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you for watching! We are happy to be able to help, all the best with your chairs

[@ramanshah7627]

Ohhh this is perfect 😍 I need to reupholster a set of four acoustical treatments in a different color and have never done upholstery. From the factory, they look to have been wrapped like a present and are a mess on the back. Now I realize I need to do a little sewing to get a great finish all around. Thanks so much!

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

You’re very welcome and thank you for watching. Hopefully if you follow this it’ll work perfectly. If you need any help just email us [e-mail] or feel free to send us a picture of your finished pieces!

[@hisclarkyness]

Coming to a Land Rover near me. Thank you.

[@emmaline79]

Just what I needed and so clearly explained - thank you.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you very much it’s great to get feedback, and thanks for watching!

[@rebeccasexton5142]

Perfect video for beginners! Thank you!

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thanks for watching and the comment it’s exactly what the video was made for 👍🏼

[@liliangeurts8400]

Good teaching, step by step, great job!

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Happy to be able to help, thank you for watching 👍🏼

[@vickyewilliams5764]

Beautiful job! So precise!

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you, and thanks for watching 😁

[@robineggblue-bp3rq]

Very nice work. I had to watch the video a couple times to understand the captioning. Here's my understanding of clearer instructions for first timers. Clearer to me, anyway. >>After you measure the foam and board together, and allow some extra inches of material to pull around the back of the board to staple, you will draw out this measurement on the back of your vinyl/cloth. In this case 3.5 inches was added to the depth of the cushion. (If you measure the top of cushion that you sit on, and it was a 24x24 inch foam piece, 3.5 inches was added to ALL sides of this measurement. So you would end up with a 31x31 inch piece of vinyl/cloth. Height of cushion and board 2.5 inches + 1 inch extra to pull around back and staple + 24 inch wide foam + height of cushion and board again on opposite side 2.5 inches + 1 inch extra = 31 inches). As shown in video, measure IN from the outside of the edge of vinyl/cloth 3.5 inches.(He started out with a piece that had a squared corner on the right side. If you have vinyl/cloth with no squared corner, you just lay your board and cushion on the vinyl/cloth and measure out from it 3.5 inches all around). TO CUT SQUARES OUT OF CORNERS: As was shown in the video, your squares will be created when you add the 3.5 inches to all edges and draw those lines. Instead of just cutting out the first square you draw, you will actually make the square smaller by adding 1/2 inch line past the edge of your cushion as shown in video. He used a 1/2 inch of trim to do so. In other words, you will measure into the square 1/2 inch from the inside lines, which will give you extra material for a 1/2 inch seam allowance (since the stitching will be directly on the first line of the square you drew). You will cut along this second inside line as shown in video. You will do this to ALL 4 squares (not clearly shown in video, but he took a shortcut drawing his lines). >>>And the rest is pretty clear.

[@gwendolyncaughn9214]

Great job. Glad I found one simple enough for me. Ty

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Happy to be able to help and that we’ve made it easy to understand, thank you very much for watching

[@juancho661]

Nice FINISH !!!!!!! so Professional !!! Thanks for share

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

You’re very welcome! Thanks for watching and the nice comments

[@asbisi]

Very nice!

[@dreamie9868]

Amazing work

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you very much and thanks for watching!

[@ntoshbaskiti-ug1wp]

Hi thank you so much very sharing very appreciated 🤩

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

You’re very welcome, thank you very much for watching 👍🏼

[@mr.backbencher5892]

Really Nice Work. Thank you dear.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you very much and thanks for watching 👍🏼

[@stevelutwyche]

Thanks for posting this, I’ve got six box cushioned dining chairs I need to reupholster, was wondering about how to do the corners, I shall give this a whirl.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Brilliant! Thanks for watching and all the best with your project 👍🏼

[@gwendolyncaughn9214]

Yes! Was also glad to come across

[@MsEmpyrean]

Thank you!

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you for watching!

[@cazfromoz1]

Perfecto! Brava! Grazie

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

grazie e grazie per la visione

[@marchellahall9730]

Wow that's a very good technique.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you for watching, we hope this will be helpful for people looking to find an easy way to cover a basic box shape.

[@sherywills6665]

Woow nyc

[@lightning55412]

Wonderful video. Had to play it a few times, and wrote step by step instructions. I'm wondering if could use this same technique for a 36X16 camper cushion. Thanks so much for sharing.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you for watching! Yes this will work for any square/ rectangular pad which is being fixed to a board underneath. We regularly do this for pieces over 2mtr long

[@lightning55412]

Do you only make one seam allowance line inside the square? I wished the cutting part would have lasted a minute longer as there were two lines inside the square on the third cut.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

@@lightning55412 if you mark out your square, then add enough extra to pull around and fix underneath, and then put your sewing allowance on each corner as in the video it should work just fine. Some of the lines are just for reference when marking out and don’t get cut or used when stitching and it can help when starting out to use different colours for marking the lines which will be cut or not. Hope that helps 😄

[@laurens178]

Do you have any examples like this but in a longer bench style. Im trying to do 3 long seat cushions for my outdoor furniture and this would help a lot if its helps save half rhe material xx

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi and thanks for watching. No this is the only size that we’ve done a video for but if you copy this with the larger size you need it will work out just fine. Fabric is usually 140cm wide so you might just need to turn the pattern 90° and go up the roll so you don’t have any joins. Hope this helps.

[@donnasven4433]

Great video! Would have liked to see how you attached the stool to seat.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi, thanks for watching. This was just a demo and didn’t have any stool frame to attach it to however will be making a video in the future showing a stool from scratch including frame and legs.

[@eleazaralipio1727]

Perfect work...what adhesive do you use??

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you very much, we use a generic general use spray glue, it doesn’t need to be high temperature etc. You will find it available at diy and craft stores. Hope this helps and thanks for watching.

[@joziboy8673]

Hi awesome video .. can the board and the foam be the same size if using dacron on top of the foam?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi thank you and thanks for watching. If it’s only a light Dacron we would keep the foam oversized slightly and if it’s a heavy one maybe only put it on the top as the heavier weight ones tend to make the sides bulge out rather than a strait clean edge. If it has to go all the way down the sides then make the foam the same size so that the fabric doesn’t end up too tight.

[@joziboy8673]

Thank you again for sharing your knowledge.. its liberating able to learn new skills ..South Africa 🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦needs more business based on real skills not tons of degrees.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

@@joziboy8673 you’re very welcome😁 we’re very happy to be able to he’ll people all around the world! We’ll be making another video soon so please keep an eye out for it, we have to make them whenever we have spare time with isn’t very often 😅

[@HickLif3]

how much of an overhang did you use for the foam? looks like ¼" all the way around

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi and thanks for watching. Yes that’s pretty much right, we use the width of the sharpie pen which gives around 1/4”

[@cphawaii]

Thank you. What kind of staple gun is that?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you for watching. It’s a pneumatic staple gun and it uses type 71 staples which are the most widely used ones. We have added a link in the description which will take you to eBay page showing similar guns. We like to use either Omer or BeA which are some of the best ones, however for starting to learn you don’t need to spend too much on a gun and we would recommend buying second hand to save money. Just be sure to buy a gun that uses 71 type staples so you can get supplies easily. All the best!

[@TheEvankeir]

How much wider would you estimate the finished cushion is than the board?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hello and thanks for watching, we will usually make the foam about 1/4 inch wider than the board all the way around and the fabric will pull it in.

[@judyhuang8779]

Nice corner but are you going to blow the ballon?😂

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you 😁

[@MrTeknotronic]

Why does it seem like you didn't mark the seam allowance on the corner nearest the camera (at 2:45)?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi, thanks for watching. It’s because we only mark out the actual board on 2 of the sides so on the others there is only the seam allowance marks, if you do it and mark out all 4 sides of the board then you’d have the double lines to show the board and allowance. We do it like this to save time as we’ve made thousands and it’s second nature.

[@jevonterance5787]

Do you add seam allowance to every corner?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi and thanks for watching, yes you need to add it to all corners so that when you sew them together your cover finishes at the same size as the panel your fitting it to

[@jordanperez6530]

Good job... buy how I can stick it on the stool???

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi, thanks for watching our video. It will depend on the stool or seat, most times it will be screwed on from underneath the stool or seat. If you copy how the original was made it should work fine, if you’re making a new one you’ll have to allow for fixing it down when making it.

[@jordanperez6530]

@@premierupholstery-upholste90 Thanks

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

@@jordanperez6530 no problem, feel free to email us at [e-mail] if want more specific help

[@luissepulveda9005]

Tienes que darlas medidas oor escrito solotu te entiendes y lo que estas ocupando fijate en otros videoo

[@devonvalastro2308]

What size staples did you use?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi, we use type 71 staples and for this we would usually use 6mm long ones

[@devonvalastro2308]

@@premierupholstery-upholste90 When you are doing the first guides, what is the measurement of it?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

@@devonvalastro2308 it’s the combined size of the foam, board, and enough to pull and staple around the back

[@jameskid81]

what fabric is that please?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi, thanks for watching. It’s a faux leather/ vinyl.

[@gwendolyncaughn9214]

What type of material are you using?

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi and thanks for watching. In this video we used vinyl but it would also work the same with any fabric or leather

[@gwendolyncaughn9214]

@@premierupholstery-upholste90 Ty for the quick response

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

@@gwendolyncaughn9214 you’re more than welcome, best of luck with your future projects 👍🏼

[@freewayforfree9736]

You forgot to drill breather holes in ply board.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hi and thanks for watching. It’s just a demo to show how to make this style of cover and not for a customer so wasn’t needed.

[@freewayforfree9736]

@@premierupholstery-upholste90 kool.

[@laurens178]

What thickness is the foam please x

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Hello and thanks for watching our video. This was quite a while ago so hard to remember but would assume it was about 1.5 inch thick or possibly 2. You can use whatever thickness you want for your project and just have to allow more or less to pull around depending on which thickness you use.

[@laurens178]

Question again sorry. The first line you make on the material how did you work that out? I got the other sides but mot the first line as al you said was make guide lines like I'm unsure how wide I need the guidelines

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

@@laurens178 no problem at all, the first line marked is the thickness of the board and foam put together with enough allowance to pull the fabric around the board by an inch or so. Hope that helps!

[@freedomtrailamerica2981]

This was not clear to me. A lot of lines, but not sure what every one was for.

[@premierupholstery-upholste90]

Thank you for watching and comment, next time I will try to make it clearer and simplify it a bit more.