Second office chair makeover, stripped screws and a trip to the hardware store

Meet my very expensive Merit chair that I’ve had for probably 20 years.  Ask any transcriptionist, our chair is our life.  We spend hours upon hours firmly planted in a chair working and if the chair doesn’t fit, your body will tell you all about it.  I love this chair, but I’m notoriously hard on my stuff, and she was showing wear.  The seat was very dirty, and probably 10 years ago I attempted a  “slipcover” of sorts and wound up with this very baggy, ugly plaid thing, making a dirty chair dirty and ugly.

Today I took apart her apart, and the only difference from the last makeover I did was this chair has a finished back on it, requiring fabric for both sides.  Taking the back apart required a pry bar and some gentle but firm coaxing.  Taking the screws that held the front of the backrest to the backrest support bar was a MAJOR challenge.  The screws that were originally used were machine screws and I swear they were glued in as they were screwed down.  I wound up stripping the Phillips heads while trying to take them out.  So, I also highly recommend a little device called the Grabit Damaged Screw Remover, which was easy enough that even I could work it.  A couple of new machine screws — thank you Lowe’s guy for helping me find the tool and the right screws — and the project was smooth sailing from there.

This project required:

• Mallet
• Pry bar
• Pliers
• A magnet to clean up all the staples you wind up removing (optional)
• Phillips and flat head screw driver
• 3/8″ staples
• 1/4″ staples
• Electric staple gun
• Fabric, and fabric shears
• Grabit Damaged Screw Remover and power drill (really optional)