Any ideas for titivating dining room chairs.

[HappydaysArehere]

Daughter has dining room chairs where the leather seat coverings have "felted" and look terrible but chairs are good ones. We can't take the seats out to attempt some kind of recovering and are not sure of what to do. Has some brainy mumsnetter got an answer? Ideas would be gratefully received.

Are you sure you can't take the seats out or do you mean you haven't been able to take them out? Could you post a photo so we can see what you mean?

Could you get some nice fabric and upholstery tacks and tack it over the old fabric then hot glue gun a trim over the tacks.

These chairs are miles away at the moment. We are visiting again next week. Will have another look next week to see if it is possible to remove them but the general opinion last week was that they were well and truly in. I am afraid I am not up on upholstery techniques but will enquire about upholstery tacks. Wonder if the whole seat can be covered! As you have gathered by now I am pretty useless but thank you so much for your help.

If you can't remove the seat pads then I would look at covering them and fixing the fabric underneath so you don't see anything and the wood of the chairs is not damaged - a staple gun is perfect for this. Or loose covers that slip over the backs of the chairs and cover the seat - they can be smartly tailored and do not need them to be those floor length things you see at weddings!

Take some photos if you remember.