Personally I love the blue chairs. If you are having custom drapery then I would have the chairs done by a professional. Unless you've done reupholstering before it is sometimes difficult to get the crisp corners professionals get. Another thought is to try a vocational/technical school in your area. They often offer adult ed classes including upholstering.

We definitely would use a professional for this job! This is not a DIY project for me :)

I would recover if the blue doesn’t work. Make sure you are set on your palette; and maybe choose a subtle stripe so the chairs are not too plain, especially if you stick with light neutrals.

Are you keeping the artwork? The current fabric really complements it in ways that neutral won't. The pop of color grounds the table and helps meld the dark of the furniture and color of the art in the room.

Yes, we are keeping the artwork but the chairs are just too loud and too matchy matchy for me. There will be art on the other wall eventually to provide balance.

I like the blue upholstery with the art and neutral room. The paint and rug are light and neutral so I wonder whether adding a light/neutral chair covering may make your room too neutral with everything but the art blending into one.

Try wrapping the upholstery in a light colored fabric or towel to see how you like it.

Black can give a pop while being viewed as more neutral. But you would need to repeat the matte black elsewhere in the room (i.e., hardware/lighting or rug or black sideboard or curtain trim or frames, etc.) for balancing imo.

The color of the upholstery looks good but a very strong statement in the room.

The room would change if the rug was changed.

I would like the room to be more suble, toned down. I see how light fabric could make it look a little boring. Maybe a darker neutral. I will need to look into it.

In general, it's cheaper to sell the chair for $20/each and buy new ones than to pay to have them reupholstered. If you want to DIY, look at how easy it is to remove the seat and back. If easy, do it and look at how the fabric is put on. Dining room chairs with drop-in seats are very easy DIY projects, those chairs don't looke like easy jobs.

Window treatment might solve your problem.

Thank you for all the ideas. However, having lived with these chairs for 8 years, I now know I like colorful art but I do not want vibrant drapery or furniture.

When the wood holding the legs in my mid-price range dining chairs could not be repaired after twenty years, I considered buying new ones, but realized that, unless I paid a high price, the wood in new chairs would fail as my previous one failed. As my furnishings are MCM, I searched and found a set of sturdier chairs for a good price. The price for reupholstering brought the total to less than buying new mid-range chairs plus I was able to choose the exact fabric that I wanted. I also used this fabric on four MCM chairs that had not failed. These are scattered about the house but can be brought out for large events.

These look like they were not inexpensive chairs and that the frames are in good condition.

The parts of the equation are how much you paid for them originally, and how much it would cost for you to replace them, not really how much you could find a dining chair for.

My dining chairs would cost $1200 to replace each, for example. So even if it cost $1100 each to recover them (which it would not, unless I used expensive fabric) , I would still come out ahead. It only makes sense to say "I can get new dining chairs for $100 each and it would cost a lot more to reupholster mine" if all you wanted was $100 chairs. That's a valid choice of course, but so often people say "It would be much cheaper to buy new chairs, but they are not taking the quality of the original chairs vs. the quality of the new chairs into account.

@palimpset, absolutely!

Obviously not in the colours shown below since you're considering neutrals but the idea of mixing two fabrics on the chairs makes them interesting...

I love a bit whimsy in a dining room. maybe a bird or vine fabric in a lighter color way .

A bit more subtle

Or leave the blue base add a lighter bkue curtain and just change the top but this is maybe too bold.

I agree too much of thta blue could really be bad. I get wanting a change so go to good fabric shop and see what is avaiable for upholstery and get thta change . Keep in mind not cheap to do but if you love the actual chair then worth it to change the fabric. Maybe a more textured fabric in a color from the rug then the art can be the star. I do like drapes in DRS but no sheers so maybe a nice linen fabric for the drapes in the same tone as the new upholstery that wall all nice a simple then a nice vase filled with fresh flowers and beautiful table settings when entertaining for a fresh new look

I've been shopping around at various upholstery companies and received various quotes. They range from $175-330 a chair. What is considered a fair including fabric?

Is the $175-$330 just for labor?

Your choice of fabric will impact a fair cost. Please post a photo and details of your fabric including any repeat measurement.

175-330 including average cost of fabric. The fabric I choose will not have any repeat...I don't want a pattern.

I should specify I got 5 different quotes from different upholstery companies- 175, 185, 240, 250, and 330...each one includes fabric and labor. I wanted to know if these are fair quotes for the specific chairs I have.

I think that is fair.

I just dropped off two fully upholstered ottomans ( 20" W x 20" D x 20" H) yesterday at the upholsterer. EACH will cost $380 labor + $223 fabric = $603 w/tax

New ottomans from Ethan Allen would have been $824 each (w/tax & shipping) with the same fabric, which was one of the lower prices I saw. Most ottomans, of the same quality as my old ones, were in the $1500+ range each.

Yes, these are very fair prices considering that fabric is included.

5 quotes gives you a good picture of what is a fair price in your area. The range seems reasonable to me.

Review the quote details to see if the quotes are apples-to-apples. There could be differing fabric allowances or differences in whether foam/padding is replaced. Some upholsterers will also repair the chair frame if needed as part of their quote (for example, if the frame has loosened up and has a wobble to it). Some may include pick up and delivery.