Club chair tutorials
The final challenge, panel by panel
A real Art Deco club chair from my atelier, from dismantling to its new seat cushion.
Guide 3 · Club chair · The final challenge
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The club chair is one of the most loved armchairs, and one of the most demanding to cover well. Deep seat, rounded arms, generous volumes: every panel has to follow the curves without pulling or puckering. This project follows a real Art Deco club chair in my workshop, from stripping the old cover to sewing the new seat cushion.
This is a covering project. The padding and structure were in good condition: the goal was to change the cover. Like many club chairs, it is built with several removable parts, which makes the work cleaner if you take them apart in the right order. New springs or padding needed? Start with Guide 2. Its history and traditional leather: What is a club chair?
| Project | Seat |
| Piece | Club chair |
| Style | Art Deco |
| Technique | Both |
| Level | Advanced |
| Stages covered | Prepare · Covering · Finishing · Sewing |
| Covering & finishing | 17 h |
| Fabric | 5.5 m (6 yd), plain fabric 140 cm (54 in) wide, or basane leather |
| Trim | Piping, 6 m (6½ yd) |
| Decorative nails | About 200, if finished with 16 mm nails |
On a club chair, the order matters as much as the technique: each panel hides the fixings of the one before. Each step has its own step-by-step photo tutorial, many with video.
Step 0
Strip the old cover and dismantle the chair
Remove the old cover in reverse order and take off the removable parts and the legs. Keep the old panels: they are your templates, and they show you exactly how the chair was built.
Preparing a Chair Frame for Upholstery: Stripping, Repairing and Finishing the Wood
Step 1
Cut the cover and make the piping
Cut everything in one go: every panel and the piping strips at the same time. Laying out all the pieces together lets you place the pattern and the grain where they matter, and avoids running short at the end. Mark each piece from the old panels (on leather, with a ballpoint pen on the wrong side), cut, then make the piping right away.
How to make upholstery piping, step by step
Step 2
Cover the seat front
The first panel to go on, and the reference line for everything that follows: if it isn’t straight and centred, every other panel will show it.
How to cover the seat front of a club chair
Step 3
Cover the arms
The thick, rounded arms are the signature of a club chair, and the hardest part to cover cleanly. The fabric has to wrap around a full curve without puckering, and both arms must end up identical.
How to cover the arms of a club chair
Step 4
Cover the inside back
The largest panel you see when you sit down. It has to follow the curve of the back with the grain perfectly straight, and fit tightly against the arms.
How to cover the inside back of a Club chair
Step 5
Cover the outside back
It closes the chair and hides all the fixings of the previous panels. It goes on with no visible fixing, closed with a hidden hand stitch.
How to cover the outside back of a club chair
Step 6
Cover and fix the front arm panels
They finish the front of the arms and frame the whole chair. They are covered separately, then fixed back in place: the precision of their outline shows immediately.
How to attach the wooden front of an arm (like club chairs)
Step 7
Fit the bottom cloth
It closes the underside of the chair, hides the last fixings and keeps the dust out.
Step 8
Refit the legs
The legs go back on once the bottom cloth is in place. Only the seat cushion is left.
Step 9
Make the seat cushion
The loose seat cushion is the last piece. If the old cover is in good condition, unpick it and use its pieces as patterns. If it is missing, distorted or no longer fits, take a new template from the seat. Then sew the new boxed cushion, with its piping.
Plan your project
Materials and tools
Covering fabric
5.5 m, 140 cm wide, or basane leather
Add more for a large repeat, a directional velvet or piping cut from the same fabric, and order the full quantity from the same dye lot. Check with the fabric calculator.
Trim and fixings
6 m of piping cord, staples and tacks
Staples and tacks of 6 to 10 mm, thread, and a cardboard strip for back tacking if needed.
Stripping tools
Ripping chisel, mallet, tack lifter, screwdriver
See the basic manual tools. The screwdriver removes the legs and the removable parts.
Covering tools
Staple gun, scissors, pins, curved needle
A staple gun, ideally pneumatic, pins and a curved needle, a tape measure, and a pencil for fabric or a ballpoint pen on the wrong side of leather.
Not sure what a tool is called? See the complete tools guide and the upholstery glossary.
Premium Membership · Your club chair, together
Both arms identical? Show me
With the Premium Membership, you send me a photo or a short video of your chair on WhatsApp at any stage, and I answer you personally, as if you were at my workbench.
- Check your cutting plan before you cut
- Get your arm curves validated
- Advice on your own chair, not a generic answer
Club chair covering: your questions
Can I change the cover of a club chair without redoing the padding?
Yes, if the padding and the structure are still in good condition, as on the chair in this tutorial. Press the seat, back and arms firmly: if they hold their shape and feel even, a new covering is enough. If the seat sags or the padding feels lumpy, it needs to be redone first.
Is a club chair a good project for a beginner?
Not as a first project. The volumes and curves make the covering demanding. Start with a simpler piece from Guide 1, then come back once you are comfortable with fabric tension and corners.
Which fabric works best on a club chair?
Generous, sturdy materials with at least 30,000 Martindale rubs. My favourites: bouclé and other thick textured weaves, chenille, all kinds of velvet (wool velvet such as mohair for its depth, cotton or viscose velvet for softness), and wool fabrics, tartan included. The upholstery fabric guide explains how to read a Martindale rating.
What about a leather club chair?
Traditionally, club chairs were covered in basane, a supple sheepskin leather. Leather has no straight grain or selvedge, comes in hides of limited size, and every mark stays visible, so all marking is done with a ballpoint pen on the wrong side. Basane is worked wet: soaked with a sponge, stretched and shaped around the curves while damp, fixed, and left to dry for about two days. See making a leather club chair.
Keep going
After your club chair
Technique
Covering and finishing tutorials
Every covering technique, and the finishing tutorials.
Every complete project is in Guide 3.
The Hammer Club
Ready to cover your club chair?
Every step on this page, explained in photos, often with video, on a real Art Deco club chair from my atelier.
90+ tutorials, a clear learning path, and with Premium, my personal answers on WhatsApp.
Written by Céline Vanier, running her own upholstery atelier by Lake Annecy for more than 15 years.
