Seat Pads

Dining seats, hall chairs and bar stools often have just one upholstered seat pad. 

Seat pads are neither fixed upholstery, where the pad is attached to the chair frame layer by layer, nor a loose pad, which could just be tied to the chair frame.

While one approach would seem adequate, furniture designers have ways of making things much more interesting! The images here are all of finished pads, all using slightly different styles and fabrics.

The page Seat Inserts covers the Restoration of these three inserts finished with a pale blue cover. Seat inserts are built up on a frame using webbing and various fabrics and stuffings, occasionally with springs, to form the pad. That then sits inside the seat frame – simply pushed in.

This example with the gold coloured fabric differs in having a front lip – so the stuffings appear much deeper than they really are. A wooden pin at the front stops the pad from sliding off.

This blue seat insert was moulded around the front arms of a carver chair.

These two dining seat sets consist of a simple board with stuffings added and covered to make the pad. The pads are screwed to the chair frame. Both of these were originally covered in faux leather and while one was recovered in new faux leather, the other set used a geometric patterned fabric.

This version was also screwed on to the seat frame but using metal brackets protruding from each pad. They were moulded around the frame on all four corners.

These three bar stools had their original reeded seat frames converted to upholstered, fabric covered pads.

Do note the attention to detail for all of the patterned fabrics on these seats – whether geometric or not, they are all positioned and matched very carefully!

There are surely many more versions of seat pads out there! All variations on a theme. If your seat pads are a little the worse for wear and this note has inspired you to do something about it, then please contact JBerryUpholstery!

JBerryUpholstery has many examples of furniture Recovering and Restoration and also Soft Furnishings to add to or complement the finished items. You can see pictures of these in the Galleries – Recovering Gallery, Restoration Gallery, Soft Furnishings Gallery and Transformations.

If you have some upholstery that is in need of a bit of TLC or you are interested in Soft Furnishings then please contact us.