Reupholstering Secondhand Seating with Fern Velvet

Photo by Sarah Lyon

When Sarah Lyon stumbled upon a beautiful, plush accent chair on Facebook Marketplace, she knew that she wanted to weave it into her home somehow. Follow along to hear about her reupholstering experience! 

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I was immediately drawn to the ridges on the back, the ample size, and the fact that the chair swiveled. However, I wasn’t wild about the existing blue, red, and beige upholstery, which didn’t match my living room color scheme and was just too busy for my space. Since I like to weave plenty of books, artwork, and decorative accessories throughout my home, I knew that I wanted to recover the chair using a solid to prevent my living room from appearing too chaotic.

I turned to Pepper and decided to explore the collection of velvet fabrics available before landing on the gorgeous Fern colorway. I’ve been majorly loving greens lately and appreciate that this color isn’t too dark—my living room walls are a deep blue, so I wanted whatever fabric hue I chose to pop against them.

Fern Green Velvet Fabric Close-Up

I was sold on this green from the get go, but I do generally recommend ordering fabric swatches to your home before committing to a shade. Colors often look different in real life than they do on a computer screen, and you will also want to examine them throughout the day as light flows in and out of your desired space. Pepper makes it easy to order fabric swatches of any textile you’d like for just $3 so that you can evaluate all of your possible contenders from the comfort of your home.

I worked with my upholsterer to determine how many yards of the fabric to order and then delivered the chair and the velvet to him so that he could work his magic. A chair of this size required six yards of fabric to cover. Keep in mind that had I been working with a busy pattern with a repeat, I would have likely needed to order even more. 

Photo by Sarah Lyon

Within a matter of weeks, the completed chair made its way into my home, where it shines in my living room. I love how elegant the Fern Velvet makes my chair look; it truly transformed the piece and made it into something that much more accurately reflects my style.

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