25. April 2026
Dining Chair Reupholstery: Price Per Chair and What's Included (UK 2026)
Dining chairs are some of the easiest pieces to bring back to life. The work is straightforward, the cost per chair is modest, and a set of six tired chairs becomes a transformed dining room for a fraction of the price of replacing them. If you've inherited a beautiful set, restored a mid-century table, or just decided your existing chairs don't deserve to be thrown away — this post is for you.
Here's exactly what reupholstering dining chairs costs in 2026, what's involved, and how to think about doing them as a set.
Quick answer
Dining chair reupholstery in the UK starts at around £35 per chair for a simple drop-in seat and goes up to £180 per chair for a fully upholstered seat and back. Fabric is on top — typically £30-£60 per metre, with a set of six chairs needing 2-6 metres total depending on style. A full set of six standard drop-in seats can be done for under £300 all in.
The two main types of dining chair
Almost every dining chair falls into one of two categories. Knowing which yours is changes the price significantly.
Type 1: The drop-in seat
This is the most common style and the cheapest to reupholster. The padded seat is a separate panel that lifts out of the wooden frame — usually held in place with two or four screws underneath, sometimes by gravity alone. Once removed, you can see a wooden base with foam, padding, and fabric stretched over it.
Drop-in seats are everywhere: classic Edwardian dining chairs, mid-century teak sets, ercol Windsor-style chairs, modern Parsons chairs, and most farmhouse and cottage-style dining chairs. If you can lift the seat out of yours without tools (or with just a screwdriver), it's a drop-in.
Our price for a standard flat drop-in seat: from £35 per chair.
Type 2: Fully upholstered seat and back
These are dining chairs where the back is also padded and covered in fabric — sometimes button-tufted, sometimes plain, sometimes with a separate inner and outer back panel. Common in dining sets from carver chairs at the head of the table, button-back styles, and many modern designer chairs.
Reupholstering a fully upholstered chair takes considerably more work — both seat and back need stripping, padding, and re-covering, and any decorative finishing (piping, buttoning) adds time.
Our price for seat-and-back chairs: from £180 per chair.
What a typical set costs
Most dining chair jobs come in as sets of four, six, or eight — usually a matched set or two carvers plus four or six standard chairs. Here's how the maths typically works: £35 each without fabric.
Set work is usually slightly more efficient per chair than individual quotes, and we can often turn around a small set within 1-2 weeks. For full pricing context across all our work, see our price list.
What's actually included in the price
Our standard dining chair reupholstery includes:
- Strip down — removing old fabric, staples or tacks, and aged padding
- Frame inspection — checking for loose joints, cracked timber, or worm; we'll let you know if any repairs are needed before quoting them separately
- New foam — usually high-density foam appropriate for the chair style
- Dacron polyester wadding — for soft, smooth contours
- New webbing or hessian if the original is perished
- Cut, fit, and staple the new fabric, hand-finishing edges where needed
- Re-attachment of any decorative piping or trim
- Cleaning and finishing the chair before return
What's not included by default but can be added:
- Frame repairs (loose joints re-glued, broken stretchers replaced) — usually £15-£60 per chair depending on damage
- Wood refinishing or polishing — quoted separately
- Fabric supply if you'd rather we source it
- Collection and delivery for chairs outside our standard local area
Choosing fabric for dining chairs
Fabric choice for dining chairs matters more than for living-room furniture because they take more abuse — food spills, drink spills, sliding bodies, occasional small children. Three things to think about:
1. Durability (Martindale rub count)
Every upholstery fabric has a Martindale rating measuring abrasion resistance:
- Under 15,000 rubs — decorative only, not suitable for dining chairs
- 15,000-25,000 rubs — fine for occasional dining chairs (formal room rarely used)
- 25,000-40,000 rubs — domestic everyday dining
- 40,000+ rubs — heavy domestic / light commercial
- 50,000+ rubs — true commercial (restaurants, pubs, hotels)
For everyday family dining, we usually recommend something at 25,000 rubs minimum.
2. Cleanability
Performance fabrics like Crypton, Aquaclean, and similar treated weaves resist stains and can be wiped clean with a damp cloth. They've come a long way in the last few years and now look indistinguishable from regular upholstery fabric. Worth the small premium if you've got young children or red wine drinkers.
3. Pattern and colour
Plain or small-pattern fabrics tend to age better than bold patterns on dining chairs because spills and wear are less obvious. Mid-tones (greys, soft greens, muted blues) hide marks better than very dark or very pale fabrics. Velvet looks beautiful but shows everything.
Should you DIY your dining chairs?
Drop-in dining seats are one of the few upholstery jobs we genuinely recommend as a DIY project — they're how most upholstery courses start beginners. The work is contained, forgiving, and uses minimal fabric.
Doable as a beginner DIY project:
- Plain drop-in seats (the "lift out and recover" type)
- Simple slip seats with a single fabric panel
- Replacing flat foam under existing fabric
Not realistic as a first project:
- Fully upholstered seat-and-back chairs
- Button-tufted backs
- Anything with piping, scallops, or decorative finishing
- Antique chairs with horsehair or hand-tied springs
If you're keen to try, our weekend upholstery courses teach drop-in seats as the foundation skill — a perfect starter project.
Common chair types we work on
A few classic dining chair styles we see again and again in the workshop:
- Edwardian and Victorian dining chairs — typically beautiful drop-in seats with carved wooden frames. Almost always worth restoring.
- Ercol dining chairs — solid elm and beech, drop-in or fully upholstered depending on model. Built to last.
- G Plan teak dining sets — mid-century classics, usually slim drop-in seats. Modern fabric transforms them.
- Stag and Younger dining chairs — common 1960s-70s sets, well worth saving.
- Parker Knoll dining chairs — solid hardwood, often with the same tension spring system as their famous wingbacks. See our Parker Knoll guide for more on the brand.
- Modern Parsons chairs — fully upholstered, common in contemporary dining sets.
- Carver chairs — the larger armchair-style chairs at the head of the table, often sold as part of a mixed set.
- Restaurant and commercial dining chairs — we also work on bulk commercial jobs for restaurants, pubs, and venues across Yorkshire.
Frequently asked questions
How long does dining chair reupholstery take?
For a typical set of six drop-in seats, we usually turn around in 1-2 weeks. A set of six fully upholstered seat-and-back chairs takes 2-4 weeks depending on workload and fabric availability.
Can I drop just a few chairs in to start?
Absolutely. Some customers prefer to do their two carvers first, see how they look, then bring the rest. Others bring the whole set in one go. Either works.
Do I need to remove the seat pads myself?
If they're easy drop-in seats with screws, you can save a small amount on the labour by removing them yourself and just bringing us the pads (much easier to transport too). For everything else, just bring us the chairs.
How much fabric do I need per dining chair?
For a standard drop-in seat, around 0.4-0.5 metres per chair (so a set of six needs 2.5-3 metres). For a fully upholstered seat-and-back chair, 0.6-1 metre per chair. Patterned fabric needs slightly more for matching.
Can you reupholster antique dining chairs?
Yes, and we love this work. Antique dining chairs often have horsehair stuffing, hand-tied springs, or traditional construction that needs proper craftsmanship — exactly the kind of work AMUSF accreditation covers.
Do you do commercial dining chair reupholstery?
Yes — we work with restaurants, pubs, and venues across Yorkshire on bulk commercial jobs. Commercial fabrics typically need 50,000+ Martindale rubs and we can advise on suitable options. See our commercial upholstery page for examples.
Can I supply my own fabric?
Yes, that's fine. Just let us know how much you've got and we'll let you know if it'll be enough for the job. We can also source fabric for you from any of the major UK suppliers if you'd prefer.
Quote my dining chairs
Send us a photo of your dining chairs (one chair is fine — we don't need all six) and let us know how many are in the set. We'll come back within 24 hours with an honest per-chair quote and a total for the full set.
📩 Email a photo to pat@greenwoodupholstery.com
📞 Or call us on 07882 014449
Free quotes within 24 hours, no obligation. Greenwood Upholstery is an AMUSF-accredited workshop based in Hebden Bridge, serving Calderdale, West Yorkshire and beyond. Collection available across the region for sets of four or more.
Greenwood Upholstery · AMUSF accredited · Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
