We purchased an awesome vintage phone chair (or telephone bench) from Facebook Marketplace. It had, what appeared to be, the original fabric on it which was a peachy-pink vinyl. No matter how hard I tried to clean it, it still looked dirty so we decided to take it apart and recover it.
Easy DIY Chair Makeover BEFORE picture
If you are unfamiliar with a phone chair, gossip bench, or a telephone bench, it is a piece of furniture that many people used to have in their homes so they could sit while they talked on their landline phones. It was usually a comfortable chair that was connected to a bench.
Vintage phone chair
Our phone chair was unique because it was in two parts; one being a table with a shelf and drawer and the other being the chair. Because it was in two parts, it made recovering it super easy!
If you love this article, you may love our DIY Chalk Painted Furniture YouTube video on our channel “Carolyn Braden” or watch it below!
Modern phone chair
When you find a cool vintage chair online or in-store, but don’t like the fabric, don’t just pass it up. If it’s real wood and the part containing the fabric can be unscrewed, buy it and recover it. New chairs that have unique designs can be quite pricey and are often design copies of vintage furniture!
Reupholstering a vintage chair
We ordered a couple of yards of some really cool gray fur fabric from Amazon. It was called Shannon Fabrics Grey Frost Shannon Faux Fur Mongolian Fabric By The Yard.
Fur, in my opinion, is one of the most forgiving fabrics for re-upholstery beginners. Vinyl, velvet, and a good stretchy cotton blend is pretty easy to use too. Prints can get tricky, so try those if you’ve had at least a little experience recovering furniture.
Using a staple gun to attach the fur fabric
When purchasing fabric, you usually have to buy it by the yard, so take some measurements of your furniture before buying. I always buy a little more than I think I need because it’s better to have extra than not enough.
Long fur covered chair
After removing the chair back and seat (ours was just screwed in with several screws), we laid out the fabric onto a flat surface. We decided to keep the original fabric on the chair. It was nailed in really well and the batting was still very comfortable and plush, so it didn’t make sense to remove it.
Sometimes you’ll need to remove the original fabric. If you do this, it’s sometimes a good idea to add a little upholstery batting to fill in what has been broken down over time. It can make your furniture more comfortable and look more plush.
If you add more batting OR have a thicker fabric (than the original), make sure you’ll still be able to get it reattached to the chair. If the fabric or batting is too thick, you may not be able to reattach it.
Covering our vintage chair
After laying out the fabric, we used a staple gun (with heavy duty staples) and started stapling away. I had my husband do this part of it because he was able to put a little more force behind it. The wood of the chair was really tough!
We made cuts to the fabric as we stapled. We ended up covering the entire back of the chair top part because if I ever wanted to place it out in the middle of the room (and not against a wall), I wanted it to look complete.
We re-covered the top and bottom of the chair
Because fur is pretty easy to work with, you don’t need to worry so much about perfect corners. If you are using any other type of fabric, you’ll need to take a little time in making your corners look nice.
We love the long faux fur fabric
I learned how to fold perfect corners in my painting classes in college. We learned how to put together our own canvases and my teachers were very picky about them having perfect corners! If you are struggling with corners, do a search on YouTube and search “how to fold corners when upholstering” and you’ll find some good tutorials!
Re-attaching the reupholstered chair
After covering both the top and bottom part of the chair, we reattached them to the chair with the original screws. If your screws stripped when removing them (we’ve had this issue in the past), purchase some new screws (in the same size) when reattaching the pieces of the chair. You may need to slightly alter where you reattach the parts you recovered.
My husband reattached the chair pieces with the original screws
Here’s the outcome. My husband did an amazing job!
Completed phone chair makeover
The fur is a light gray with a dark gray base. It really matched my gray “coastal farmhouse” vibe of my Sanibel Island home. I think my love of fur in decor is inspired by my dogs. Keep scrolling to see how much they enjoy my fur decor too!
We placed the phone chair in our guest bedroom
I added my grandmother’s vintage milk glass fruit stand filled with wood coasters as well as a dining and shopping guide for our area. Since Sanibel is a tourist-loving island, I think our guests will enjoy browsing local guides in search for the things they want to do when staying with us.
This repurposed chair is very comfortable and functional
Our pets seem to think the guest room is their room. I always clean this room thoroughly before our guests come because our dogs and cats hang out in here when they get the chance. I guess it has a nice welcoming feeling, which is what I wanted…..but not for our pet’s sake. LOL!
Our dogs match our faux fur furniture
Our mini American Eskimo, Minnie Pearl, had to try out the chair before our guests did.
Our Mini American Eskimo dog on our new-ish chair
If you love this article, we know you’ll love this one too: Cozy But Highly Functional Guest Bedroom
Guest Bedroom Buying Guide
Our other mini American Eskimo, Johnny Cash, had to test the bed out. Our Maine Coon cats, Ross and Monica, have tested out the bed as well. The result? They love it!
It’s a Sleep Number and the guests we have hosted so far have loved it. Yes, it was expensive, but replacing guest mattresses over the years was getting expensive too. Our Sleep Number has dual adjustable sides, so each guest can make it fit their sleeping needs.
We place it on this cool antique-y looking bed frame we purchased on Amazon. It’s not available anymore, but this one is similar.
Guest Bedroom Shopping Guide
We have a Sleep Number mattress in our main bedroom too. We love them. This is not a sponsored post by the way. We are just sharing things we love!
Guest Bedroom Style
Here are some links to the other decor I have placed in our guest bedroom:
I paired this shaggy white bed coverlet set with this duvet as the insert
I love to layer, so I added this lightweight cotton blanket under the duvet
These guest pillow covers I purchased are super cute! FYI: You will need to order inserts for them.
I love this lamp set! They each have USB plugs so guests can easily charge their phones at night. I got the idea to use this type of lamp from a hotel we stayed in. I set them each on a wood slab for a nature-inspired look.
I had extra pillow inserts from older decorative pillows, so I ordered these cute pom-pom trimmed pillowcases and placed them on our vintage suitcase stand. Here’s a similar suitcase stand on Amazon.
This is our gray and natural jute rug. I originally had it in a high-traffic area, and it was not suited for that as our dogs caused it to shed a lot during playtime. It was perfect in our guest room though!
The mirror on the wall opposite the bed (see below) is from Amazon. I added two cut wood side panels from Target.
Other decor is from Target, Etsy and Lowe’s
Farmhouse style guest bedroom
Guest bedroom decor
Did you try this tutorial? Leave me a comment in the section below! I love to hear from our readers!