Cleaning fabric dining chairs? 2 November 2005 at 10:37AM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Old Style MoneySaving 6 replies 21.8K views

kal25

Hi hope someone can give us a hand with this. I have six dining chairs with cream fabric seats, with 2 children. The Chairs have become quite dirty and two have fresh plastercine stains on. Any ideas on how to clean, I have not attempted to clean them at all as I really don't want to ruin them.
Any help would be appreciated,Cheers guys.

Lucie_2

Are they removeable seat pads? If so take them off & look underneath. It's likely that the fabric is just stapled on. If you can get hold of a staple gun, you could carefully remove the covers, wash by hand & restaple.
The lazy version of this (ie, what I did lol!) is just to cover over the stained cream fabric with something a bit more "stain friendly", like a darker colour or some of that laminated plasticy fabric which will just wipe clean.
If they're not removeable then this is no help at all! Sorry

Ticklemouse

I use my carpet cleaner (vax) on them, with the stair attachment. If they are really stained, I scrub them first with water, appropriate cleaner and a cloth or soft brush, before vaxing the water out.

If you haven't got a vax, then I would still wash them by hand. Don't wet as much but use as much water as you need. You can rub the stains with just a clean cloth and some ordinary toilet soap. To dry them, get dry towels and stand on the chair seats to soak as much as possible out.

My seat pads are difficult to take out - ie they have to be unscrewed and then the backs have fabric in them too, so I've never taken mine to bits. However, I intend to recover them sooner than later, but I've found 'washing' them brings them up well. If we're having a 'messy' tea than I have covered them with a teatowel - easier to wash

Newbird

You could try the foam spray upholstery cleaner used for cars etc. I witnessed this and it worked really well when used on an old bangers oily filthy seats. You can see the dirt being sucked up into the foam, then you just vac the foam off, or wipe off. Follow instructions on the can...

You can usually get a large can for 50p or £1 local car boot sale, or market.

Sure I've seen some other thread about removing plasticine on here, put it into search at top.

Pal

Try vinegar.

kal25

Thanks guys, will try giving them a gentle wash by hand.

black-saturn

I cleaned my dry clean only sofa covers with a mild solution of bicarbonate of soda and water and they came up fine.