How to Do Button Tufting on an Antique Chair

Determine where you want your button tufts to go. Most buttons tufts are placed in a diamond pattern, with a button on each point of the diamond, but you can place your tufts wherever you want.

Remove the chair's original upholstery to get to the cotton or foam underneath. On the cotton or foam, mark with a pen or pencil where you want each button tuft. If you are redoing an antique chair that had tufting before, you might notice the indentations from the chair’s original tufting.

Place the upholstery fabric over the cotton or foam.

Thread the first button with button twine, and place it on top of the fabric where the top-most button tuft should be. Thread the button twine through the button and then through the fabric, the cotton or foam and the back of the chair. Pull the button twine through another time. Tie the button to the chair using a basic slipknot at the back of the chair.

Attach the other buttons you marked on the cotton or foam, and tie them tightly at the back of the chair.

Trim the excess fabric from the chair, leave enough to completely cover the front of the chair. You will have a raw edge.

Staple the upholstery fabric to the edges of the chair to hold the fabric in place.

Wrap a double-welt cord around the raw edge of the upholstery fabric to give the chair a finished look and to hide the raw edge of the fabric. Use fabric glue to hold the double-welt cord in place.

Cover the back of the chair with a piece of upholstery fabric, and staple it to the edges, much as you did with the front of the chair.

Wrap another double-welt cord around the raw edges of the upholstery fabric on the back of the chair.