Fabric Options For My Desk Chair (These Are The Swatches I've Ordered) (2024)

So my mind automatically went to Ballard Designs. They do have a desk chair that I love, and I’ve looked at it several times in the past. Their Grammercy Desk Chair is beautiful, and I actually found a fabric that I thought would work perfectly in my studio.

But after about an hour of serious contemplation, I came to my senses. (I just can’t justify paying $1100 for a desk chair when (1) I’m perfectly capable of reupholstering a chair, and (2) I have a perfectly good desk chair with a very high back and a shape that I love. Here’s what my current desk chair looks like…

So I’m afraid that my only option is to keep my current desk chair, and reupholster it myself. That’s fine. I’m capable. After all, I once built a chair from scratch and then upholstered it myself. Do y’all remember that? 😀 I even matched the patterns and everything. I was so proud of this project!

If you missed that project, you can find the Part 1 here: DIY Wingback Dining Chair – How To Build The Chair Frame.

And Part 2 of that project is here: DIY Upholstered Wingback Dining Chair – Finished! (How To Upholster The Frame, Part 2).

Since I did really like the fabric that I selected for the Ballard Designs chair, I decided to go ahead and order a swatch since they sell that fabric by the yard. It’s not velvet, so I’ll have to see what it looks and feels like in person. If my cat can easily get her little claws into this fabric, it won’t work. She’s been using my desk chair as a scratching post since we got her. (And yes, she has three other scratching posts, but she still loves to use my chair.)

From there, I just did a search for “green velvet upholstery fabric” to see what I could find. I did find some velvet options, but I also came across others that I couldn’t resist, like this green and white stripe.

I love the textured look of this one. It’s microfiber, and I’ve heard that it’s good for houses with cat as well, so we’ll see if it’s a good option.

And then I came across this velvet and absolutely could NOT resist. I love this so much!! I have a feeling that the colors will be all wrong, but I still had to see this for myself. The price is a bit hard to swallow, but I think I’ll only need three yards. So it would still be much cheaper than paying someone else to reupholster my chair.

And then I found several solid color green velvets. I’m so anxious to get this sample in my hand and see why in the world it costs $150 per yard. What could make a velvet that special?

I’ve used many P. Kaufmann fabrics in the past, and I’ve always been happy with them. This one is more in the price range I was expecting to pay.

I have a feeling this one will be way too bright. It’s kind of the color that the bases of my work tables were before I repainted them earlier this week. But maybe in person it won’t be quite this bright.

This one is way on the opposite end of the spectrum. I have a feeling it will be too dark, but I still want to see it in person.

If I’m going to go with a solid color, I actually hope this is the one that works the best. This is a happy green, and I’m really hoping it plays nicely with my pink cabinets.

And then I got two more swatches that are called Citron. In all, three swatches I bought are called Citron, and they’re all very different, so it’ll be interesting to see what they actually look like in person.

So let’s review. 😀 The chair will be sitting in front of these cabinets…

I also have an entire wall of cabinets that color on the wall perpendicular to those cabinets…

The wall opposite the desk area looks like this…

And the desk area is right by the back entry, which looks like this…

And these are the swatches I’ve ordered…