Upholstering an unupholstered chair

First, the blasted vermin that is about to put me over the edge...

Gorg, huh? My azaleas are my pride and joy! Luuuurve them:
But. Last year, some blasted, nasty, hateful vermin dug into the ground and ate the root of my middle azalea. CRY! I don't think I'll ever find the exact bush I have, let alone one this big. These have been growing for five years now.

Here's a picture of the hole -- the rascal is back:

Looks like a snake hole huh? Here's another:
PLEASE help! Anyone have any idea what this is? We thought maybe a chipmunk? A vole? Help!

OK, onto the chairs! I've reupholstered many a chair in my day --in a matter of minutes, and with very little fabric, you can transform the look of a room by recovering your chairs. I did our SIX dining room chairs with less than two yards (and the seats are big!).

I wanted to do the same with our kitchen island chairs, but kept hesitating because they weren't upholstered to begin with. I don't know why I was worried -- I've covered headboards the same way, and toy boxes. Then I saw Kate did it too, and I was sold.

You'll need foam, batting, a staple gun, screwdriver and fabric. First, turn over the chair and you'll see at least four screws under the seat -- take those out to get it off of your chair. Trace around the seat on the foam:

This was thin foam, so I just used scissors to cut it out. I like to use spray adhesive on my foam and the surface, just cause HGTV says so:

Use your staple gun to cover the foam and chair with batting. This part does not need to be perfect:

Then cover everything with your fabric. If you are using a print or solid, this will be easy. If it's a stripe, like mine, it will take a little more care, to make sure the stripes stay straight:

See that price tag? Garden Ridge baby! (Buy one get one half off -- total of $120 for two counter height chairs.) Reattach to the seat and you are DONE folks!
Two tips to keep in mind -- pay attention to the screw holes when you cover the seat. Cut the fabric around them so you can easily get the seat back on the chair. Also, make sure you have enough to cover it so that when you put the seat back on, there's no fabric hanging out. You don't want this:

You do want this:
ARGH! I hate when I forget my own advice!! I'll be touching that up with hot glue. Dang.

And again, because I know you just haven't seen enough of my island just yet...the before:

The after:

The chairs were always too tall for the island, so I cut down each leg two inches with my Lovah Miter Saw. Awwww yeah...

Stay tuned -- next week is the one year anniversary for my blog! I have a fabulous (I think anyway!) giveaway planned!