How Much Does It Cost to Reupholster a Chair?

Key Takeaways

• Professional chair reupholstery runs from about $71 for a dining chair to more than $2,000 for a large wingback.

• Labor is the biggest share of a shop's price, which is why DIY material costs land far lower.

• Covering a drop-in dining seat yourself costs roughly $25 to $40 in fabric, foam, and batting.

• Yardage is the main material driver: a dining seat needs about half a yard, while a wingback or recliner can take 7 to 9 yards.

• Reupholstering makes the most sense for solid hardwood frames, while cracked frames and failing recliner mechanisms often point to replacing the chair.

A worn chair seat looks like a small problem until you call a shop for a quote. So how much does it cost to reupholster a chair? It depends on the chair. A drop-in dining seat is a quick job, while a wingback or recliner involves several yards of fabric, new foam, and many hours of labor.

This guide puts professional price ranges next to what the same chairs cost to cover yourself, using our own prices for upholstery fabric by the yard and HR30 foam. Midwest Fabrics has supplied upholsterers and DIY customers since 1983, so we see both sides of the decision every week: people pricing out a shop job and people buying materials to do it at home.

You'll also find what pushes the price up, when reupholstering is worth it, and when a new chair is the better buy.

Chair Reupholstery Prices by Chair Type

The professional ranges below come from Airtasker's chair upholstery price guide, last updated in July 2026. The DIY column uses current Midwest Fabrics prices: $24.95 a yard for most indoor upholstery fabric and $25 per inch of thickness for a 24 by 82 inch sheet of HR30 foam.

DIY figures cover fabric, foam, and batting for a plain fabric. Add 10 to 20 percent more yardage for a patterned fabric that has to line up, and expect the high end of each range if every cushion needs new foam.

Across every chair type in the guide, the average cost to reupholster a chair lands at a median of $1,330, but that number leans on the big pieces. Dining chairs sit far below it, topping out at $260 each in the same guide.

Wingbacks and recliners sit at the top of the table for the same reasons. A wingback has wings, rolled arms, and a loose seat cushion, each cut and fitted separately, and it uses 6 to 8 yards of fabric. A recliner adds a mechanism that has to be removed and reinstalled, plus a pull handle and footrest panel to cover. Both are mostly labor, so a shop quote for either one rarely drops below $600.

What Drives the Cost to Reupholster a Chair

Two chairs that look alike can be quoted hundreds of dollars apart. These four factors explain most of the gap.

Fabric Grade and Yardage

Fabric is the cost you control most directly. A tightly woven synthetic at $24.95 a yard and a designer jacquard at three or four times that price can cover the same chair. Yardage multiplies whatever you choose, so a wingback in a premium fabric costs far more than a dining seat in the same material. Our guide to furniture fabric types compares the common options by look, feel, and wear.

Foam and Padding

Flat or crumbling cushions need new foam before the new cover goes on. Our replacement cushion foam is HR30 medium firm, sold in 24 by 82 inch sheets from 1/2 inch to 6 inches thick. A 2 inch sheet costs $50 and yields about four 19 inch dining seats, which works out to roughly $12.50 of foam per chair.

Frame Repairs, Springs, and Details

Loose joints, broken springs, and torn webbing add time before any fabric goes on. Tufting, piping, skirts, and nailhead trim all add labor too. A plain drop-in seat avoids nearly all of these, which is why dining chairs sit at the bottom of the price table.

Labor

Labor usually makes up the largest share of a shop's quote, which is why the answer to how much it costs to reupholster a chair depends more on hours than on fabric. Airtasker lists standard upholstery rates of $52 to $104 an hour, rising to $94 to $156 an hour for specialized or certified work. A large chair can easily take a full day once the old cover, padding, and staples come off.

DIY vs Professional Reupholstery

Doing it yourself replaces labor with your own time. Working out how much to reupholster a chair at home comes down to yardage, foam, and a few supplies. On a dining chair, that trade is easy: a seat comes off with four screws, and the new cover goes on with a staple gun and no sewing. Our step-by-step guide on how to reupholster a chair walks through the whole job, from removing the old cover to finishing the corners.

Armchairs, wingbacks, and recliners are a different project. They involve sewn cushions, piping, and fitted panels, and recliners add a mechanism that has to come apart and go back together. Many people split the work: they buy the fabric and foam themselves, then hire a shop for labor only. That keeps material markup off the bill while leaving the tricky sewing to a pro.

When you're ready to price materials, browse our indoor furniture upholstery fabric and order samples to compare colors at home.

Is It Worth Reupholstering a Chair?

Before you decide how much it's worth spending to reupholster a chair, look at what's under the fabric. Reupholstering pays off when the frame is worth keeping. Solid hardwood chairs, antiques, and family pieces usually come out ahead, especially when you'd otherwise pay several hundred dollars for a comparable new chair. It's also the only way to keep a chair you love in a fabric that fits your room now.

Replacing makes more sense in a few cases:

• The frame is particleboard or cracked beyond a simple reglue.

• A recliner's mechanism is failing and parts aren't available.

• A new chair of similar quality costs less than the shop's quote.

There's a waste angle too. The EPA estimates Americans generated 12.1 million tons of furniture and furnishings waste in 2018, and 80.1 percent of it went to landfills. Keeping a sound chair in use with new fabric keeps it out of that total.

Ways to Lower Chair Reupholstery Costs

• Do the dining chairs yourself and save shop labor for the complex pieces.

• Supply your own fabric and foam, then ask the shop for a labor-only quote.

• Choose a solid or small-scale print so you don't buy extra yardage for pattern matching.

• Reuse foam that still springs back and replace only what has gone flat.

• Pick a fabric rated for heavy use so the job lasts. Our guide to the most durable upholstery fabric covers double-rub ratings.