Nicole Crowder runs Nicole Crowder Upholstery in Minneapolis, where she revives secondhand (or just boring) furniture pieces with modern, one-of-a-kind reupholstering. Her work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, Domino and other leading design publications. In 2022, she released a furniture collection with World Market.
One of the fun things about being an upholsterer is that I get to play around with switching out the fabrics on my furniture at home whenever I feel in the mood for change, and dining chairs happen to be one of the easiest targets for a transformation. Their seat cushions can be reupholstered in just about any iteration you can think of. In fact, if you have a set of four or six or eight, you can do them all in various fabrics to complement your room’s color scheme and vibe — the possibilities abound!
A dining chair is also a perfect project for a first-timer, since tackling a single seat is a lot simpler than making over, say, an entire settee or living room chair. If you’re ready to try your hand at upholstering, follow along as I demonstrate, step by step, how to transform a basic dining chair into a totally unique piece.
