AIBU to think there must be a cheaper alternative?!

[Celestia26]

Posting for traffic really as the decorating board doesn't get a huge amount...

I have 6 scroll back dining chairs completely upholstered in brown leather. They have taken a bit of a battering from my cat who likes to scratch them to pieces (bloody cat- he's lucky I love him)!

They were quite expensive originally so I don't want to chuck them and buy new as it would be such a waste- they are beautiful quality chairs.

I contacted a few local upholstery companies about getting them recovered in a thick hardier fabric, and was quoted £300 per chair!!! I certainly don't have £1800 to spare, and could probably buy a new set for about £500!

I'm wondering if anyone has experience of doing this sort of thing themselves? There are tutorials on YouTube but it all looks quite complicated.

Any suggestions gratefully received! I already tried seat covers and they look crap!

Not all over, but we had ‘leatherette’ seat pads on our oak dining chairs and they proved dead easy to redo, with replacement fabric from Dunelm and a staple gun. Cost about £20 all in.
Not sure about the full chair style though sorry! I imagine you would need neater edges... if they look really bad anyway why not try one and see what happens? (And leave it in the corner with a throw on it if it’s awful!)

Can you pot anpic of your chairs?

Atalune Here you are, sorry they're sideways!

Have you considered chair covers.

I got chair covers after the kitten attacked my chairs. Similar to this below

pollyparrot.co.uk/product/scheffler-home-leon-suede-chair-covers-for-dining-room-2-pcs-stretch-chaircover-bi-elastic-slipcover-cover-with-elastic-band-universal-fitting-possible-seat-height-coverage-22-25-cm-gray/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwuafdBRDmARIsAPpBmVWhSPC_hJZJ50KWqNs1xK0aXMkwAqYfyUUfDL1YySwyVPg_tUbWXyQaApXLEALw_wcB

If you can buy a new set for circa £500 why don't you just do that.
Whilst £300 a chair might seem expensive, they have to source matching leather for the whole set, so there may be a lot of wastage in the cutting, and the material has to be 'fireproofed', they can't just put any fabric on upholstery. Then some one has to strip each chair, clean it and then fit the new leather cover, looking this way £300 per chair may well be reasonable. Perhaps you could ask them to break down the cost of the materials and the labour.

tictac86 I did, they looked terrible and were very slippery!

allmycats I may end up doing that. I wanted to try to keep these as they are amazing quality, and a £500 set probably wouldn't be as good.

If you browse Amazon for chair covers, they do some stretchy ones that are really cheap. If you can't stand looking at them, maybe they're worth getting as a temporary solution?

Hmm

I actually think to get a good finish on these doing it yourself will be tricky.... sorry that’s not much help!!

Atalune I agree! Though I'm tempted to give it a go on the worst one, which basically has all the leather hanging off! It's not like I can make it worse! 😂

Last Christmas I recovered my kitchen chairs with a festive wipe clean fabric!! Still going strong!! Going to replace with chicken wipe clean pattern soon!! Cost less than a fiver for all 4!! From The Range.