Recovering/re-upholstering bar stools

[Phineyj]

I have 4 bar stools at a breakfast bar in my kitchen. They're chromed steel upholstered with pleather and are about 7 years old. The stools are fine but the pleather is cracking.

I cannot for the life of me find anyone who will re cover them. I've tried three upholstery businesses and one national repair service that I found online.

Anyone got ideas? I really don't want to throw out four perfectly good pieces of furniture.

Recover them yourself. I did our dining chairs, added extra padding then stretched faux leather over and stapled into place. They look great.

For the bathroom stool (round) I made a template and stitched a new one. OK it might not be as professional as a bought one but it looks pretty good.

Can you post a pic of the underside ?

I really don't think I can do an adequate job myself. I am pretty sure the professionals are saying no because it's tricky! The seat and back have four different sections.

I'd be prepared to have a go at a chair (especially if it spent most of its life tucked under a table) but these are a conspicuous feature of a well lit kitchen.

Hmm, I'm not sure I'd attempt that and I'm pretty experienced !

Actually, it's the curves and the join on the seat that make it look complicated. Assume you're using fabric rather than pleather, it's manageable. YouTube is your friend !

But I'd have to buy a sewing machine presumably? Sadly this is not looking possible.

Patches? You could either try and blend them in as closely possible or you could make a feature out of them and use some in different yet complementary colours.

Fablon?
Do you know someone who can knit or crochet a cover?

3 Ways to Fix Faux Leather Peeling - wikiHow

That’s such a shame that you can’t find anyone, have they given reasons?

No sewing machine necessary. Id take one apart and photograph it so you know what order the sections were fitted in

It looks like the seat was done last from the stitching. Have you got any upholstery evening classes near you? I attended for a couple of years and learned enough to do beds, chairs and even a chaise longue

I knew someone would suggest an evening class! It's a great idea but would easily cost more than simply buying four more stools. They were only about £50 each (although to be fair they are £70 now).

The painting is a definite idea though. I didn't realise you could get specific paint.

Thanks everyone.

I don’t think you’d find anyone to recover them for under £70
time and materials would cost more

This is all kind of sad isn't it really? Really illustrates why people advocate for a "circular economy". I shall definitely think about repairs more carefully when I do replace them (which is evidently my only option without large outlay of time and/or money). I hadn't bought anything with a fake leather finish before and in fact it seems, based on the link @FayCarew provided, that these were well made and lasted well for that material.

At the time I was thinking about hygiene mainly as this is a wipe clean finish and it's a kitchen, cats, sticky child fingers etc.

I sometimes drive by an out of town furniture shop that looks like it sells vintage and refurbished stuff so I shall ask their advice about what kind of chair/stool is easier to recover. I am guessing the "chair" style with the little back probably is, as just two pieces and no awkward curves. Unless we move house or do major renovations, we are always going to need this style of seating due to a small kitchen.

Your best bet is probably to replace them with a simple wooden stool. Wood can be wiped/sanded/repainted and last for 100s of years. For comfort get a seat cushion with feather pad, again sustainable, can be washed and patched up. Just ban anything made from plastic, it never lasts and is meant to be thrown away and replaced ASAP.

Dunelm currently has a spindleback bar stool reduced to 70ish quid.

I'm in the trade and we usually charge £200 labour per seat plus the cost of new vinyl/leather. We have to take apart, strip, make a template for the seat/back, cut the new material, stitch it then the upholsterer has to somehow try and get it back on again.

They're horribly labour intensive and are mass produced in a factory that's impossible to replicate in a small scale upholstery workshop.

@Bluebells1970 thanks, that explains a lot. I shall use it as a teaching example in A level Economics. @NellyBarney thanks, those are good ideas.

My sister has solid plastic versions of my ones which have lasted at least a decade and show no signs of wear. But not recyclable and also unmendable if they split I guess.

I get a lot of horrified faces looking at me when I explain the cost of recovering things!

@Bluebells1970 , that's because people think that handmade things should be cheap. They don't take into account materials, labour, skills and expertise.
They're used to paying for fast fashion in clothes and furnishing.

Thought I'd come back to update - I bought replacements, choosing carefully this time to get a design where the cushion can easily be replaced. I donated the old ones to the youth music theatre company my daughter is in. They were really pleased and said there were lots of scenes they'd be useful for, especially as they're adjustable. They can spray paint them and totally get away with that under theatre lights. Not in my kitchen so much.

Meanwhile I noticed at Xmas that my sister's solid plastic uncushioned ones are still going strong!

Just wanted to say - I repaired pleather using paint as someone mentioned below it was easy and cheap.

What did you paint it with please? Did you seal it to stop it transferring to clothing? Thanks