3 Shortcuts for Recovering Chairs and Benches {RYOBI Airstrike Cordless Stapler}

 

 

This post has been a long time coming.  About six months coming to be exact.  Back in August of last year, I had the opportunity to meet the team from RYOBI Powertools and also attend hands on RYOBI workshops while I was at the Haven Conference for DIY bloggers.  I shared this picture on Instagram of the awesome RYOBI guys during one of my classes:

 

 

During this class, the RYOBI guys asked if there was a tool that was not on the market that us DIY’ers really needed.  I quickly responded that they needed to invent a high- powered cordless stapler that actually works and wouldn’t require a compressor.  You know, a cordless stapler that the ladies can use that doesn’t break your hand when you squeeze it and the staples go all the way in.  I about kissed the RYOBI guys when they told us that they had already came up with the tool and it will be on the market in January, 2014!   Halleluja!! I could be dangerous if I could finally squeeze a staple trigger!

Well January, 2014 is finally here and the new RYOBI One Airstrike Cordless Narrow Crown Stapler is out and it is  DIY life-changing for me because there is so much more I can do now!   I couldn’t wait to tell you guys about it and this is what it looks like:

 

 

So knowing that the Airstrike Stapler was coming out this month, I have saved all my upholstery projects over the last six months until the day I got my hands on one.  RYOBI sent me the stapler for free to test it out and when it arrived, it wasn’t even out of the box five minutes and I had pretty much stapled the whole house. The dog and daughter ran for cover cause mama was trigger happy!  (The instructions say that it can shoot 60 staples per minute!) Oh my…

So, during my Airstrike rampage, I recovered about five things in less than two hours! I thought I would share three shortcuts that I use in recovering chairs and benches that save a lot of time and also share how I always get those perfect corners.  You don’t have to have the Airstrike Cordless Stapler to do this but if you DIY a lot and recover/upholster on a fairly regular basis, I highly recommend that you guys take a close look because it will really save so much time and frustration! By the way, you can use 3/8 ” to 1-1/2 ” size staples.

One of the first things that I recovered was these two antique chairs in my living room:

 

I have had the zebra print for several years now and was ready for a change and wanted to cover them with a black and white quatrefoil chain fabric.

1) My first shortcut when I recover anything is that I recover over the existing fabric.  I don’t remove the existing fabric unless I have three layers already.  If I’m recovering with a thin or lighter fabric on the top that could show through the pattern, I use a thin piece of cut white sheet or thin white cotton in between.   Unless you are layer heavy, heavy fabrics like thick velvets, you can easily recover up to about three layers.

2) My second shortcut is that I never spend hours removing staples if I need to remove old fabric layers. I cut right up to the staples and then remove the fabric.  I just go over about a 1/2 inch more over the old staples when covering a piece that I just removed the fabric.  As long as I get the fabric off, that’s all that matters!

So for my zebra chairs, I removed the chair seat and laid out my new fabric with a piece of thin white sheet on top of it to block out the zebra:

I always pull the fabric up and over the seat on all four sides to determine where to cut.  I like to go in and beyond the edge of the seat about an inch and a half.

When I start stapling, I pick any side and like to staple one in the middle first and then one on the left and right side about 3 inches in from the edge.  Because the RYOBI stapler has this Mar Pad on the tip, it can use it to hold down the fabric while I position the stapler.  It makes it so much easier and faster, I can actually fold under the edge so it looks like a professional finish:

 

 

I don’t staple the edges yet (I will go into that in a second).  I do this same thing to all four sides, leaving the corners open.

3) My third shortcut is also how I always get perfect and professional looking corners.  When I get ready to fold a corner in, it should look something like this (I had to switch projects because it was too hard to see with the white fabric):

At the corner, I staple the fabric right at the very edge of the base (making sure the fabric on the other side is not underneath it:

 

 

Next, I tuck in the fabric in the corner like this and hold:

 

 

I then fold up and over the side really tight like this and staple to secure:

 

 

I then staple the rest of the seat:

 

 

You can barely see the corners and this is a pretty thick fabric.

 

Here is what my finished chair seat looked like:

 

 

I love that RYOBI realized that this tool did not exist and how frustrated so many of DIY’ers were that nothing worked well.  I have been so amazed how much time the Airstrike is going to save me for all of my upholstering and other DIY projects that require staples and I can’t thank RYOBI enough for sending me one to play with!

If you want to find out more info about the Airstrike Stapler, you find more the details here or your local Home Depot.

Thanks friends for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Cheers!

Cyndy