Comparing DIY upholstery cleaning methods

Living room side chair closeup. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Today I decided to tackle a project that’s been on my mind for a couple of months now—cleaning the upholstery on my dining room chairs and two living room side chairs. I’ve never done this before (disclaimer!) so I did a quick search of Youtube to see if I could find any tutorials that would help me gain some insight into a couple of techniques that can be used at home. My budget cannot accommodate a bill for a professional cleaner, but I do own a shampooer that can be used as a backup. What I will be sharing with you below are upholstery cleaning techniques that I wanted to try for each set of chairs. So let’s get into it!

But first, a disclaimer…

Ideally, you should follow the cleaning recommendations on your furniture labels (more recent upholstered furniture pieces may have codes that tell you how that fabric should be cleaned). In my situation, my second hand dining room chairs have no such code on the label. The living room chairs don’t even have a label, so no code there either. 

In situations where you don’t know how a particular upholstery fabric should be cleaned—and you want to do it yourself at home—there is a gentle method that is similar to cleaning a lamp shade. In this scenario, you would be careful not to soak the fabric with water, but use a water with lots of suds and the suds are mainly what cleans the fabric. You then rinse carefully with water. Always spot check in an inconspicuous place before trying to clean the entire piece of furniture. 

Now on to my project of the day…
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My wet vac/rug shampooer used for part of this project. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Some of the cleaning supplies needed for this project. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Dining room chair pads

For my dining room chair pads I wanted to try out an at-home upholstery cleaning technique that uses a spray on OxyClean. I went out to the local grocery store and bought a spray bottle of OxyClean, then came home and gathered up the rest of the materials and ingredients needed for this cleaning project—a scrub brush, a sponge, Dawn dishwashing liquid, white vinegar, and my shampooer. This could be done with a small compact shampooer, but I couldn’t find mine so I lugged the large shampooer out and assembled all the upholstery attachments for this project.

Light stain on dining room chair. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

A darker stain on dining room chair. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Steps for this method:

Spray the fabric with OxyClean and let soak for a couple minutes.

Using a hard bristle brush, scrub the fabric really well. (Note: I don’t know if this technique will work with more delicate fabrics, so try a test spot first.)

Repeat these steps if needed until the stains in the fabric are gone.

To get the cleaning solution and any remaining stains out of the fabric, use a shampooer with a couple ounces of white vinegar and a couple drops of liquid dish soap added to the clean water. Shampoo and suction until water runs clean and fabric looks to be free of stains and dirt. 


So how did this technique go?

Well…the first chair went ok. It seemed like most of the dirt came out. A couple small spots remained stubborn, but overall that chair went well, so I moved on to the next chair. A couple stained spots remained, but the rest of the chair looked ok. But the third chair was a mess with a lot of staining, and this method just didn’t clean it. I’m sure if I kept spraying with OxyClean and scrubbing the stains would eventually come out or lighten, but I didn’t want to ruin the fabric or run out of spray cleaner, so I finished the remaining chairs with the second technique I wanted to try.

The fourth chair was sprayed with hot water, then the water/stain remover mix (see below for my living room chairs) and scrubbed with a scrub brush. I hit stubborn spots a second time and scrubbed, then used a rag to scrub out the wetness…It was very dirty! I sprayed the cushion with the tonic/vinegar mix (also below for my living room chairs), scrubbed with a scrub brush, and blotted with a towel. I then used the suction-only function on my shampooer to finish it off. In the end I used a combination of two methods to get my dining room chairs bright and clean.

Here are the after shots for my dining room chairs…

Dining room chair after cleaning. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

A closeup of the freshly cleaned chair pad. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Another closeup shot of the freshly cleaned chair pad. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Living room side chairs

For this DIY project, I wanted to try using a technique for my living room chairs from one lady who has worked in the upholstery business for years, so I trust this source more than some other sources. The materials I used for this method were Clorox 2 laundry stain remover (the color safe version), tonic water (hopefully that’s a good substitute for the sparkling water mentioned in the video), and a few small spray bottles. Instead of the white painters rags suggested, I have light colored kitchen towels to use for scrubbing and blotting. There are two things mentioned in the video that I do not have—a contraption that shaves the pills (hopefully I won’t need one!) and Scotch Guard, which I will have to pick up later.

Living room side chair closeup of dirty fabric. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Closeup of dirt spots on living room side chair. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Closeup of the dirty roll top back on my living room side chair. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

So here are the steps I followed…


1. Spray fabric with very hot tap water.

2. Spray wet fabric with a solution of 1/3 laundry stain remover to 2/3 water.

3. Use a lint free rag to scrub the fabric.

4. Use another lint free rag (preferable a light color to see the dirt) to scrub the dirt and cleaning solution out of the fabric.

5. Once all of the rags come up clean, spray with a solution of a cup of sparkling water (I have tonic water instead) to 1/2 cup white vinegar.

6. Scrub fabric again to get out any leftover dirt, odors, and stain remover suds.

7. Spray with two thin coats of Scotch Guard (which I have to buy later). 

So how did it go?

The dirt pulled out of the fabric with a dish towel. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

So after a long day of scrubbing dining room and living room chairs, I eventually decided instead to use a good cleaner in my shampooer (for pet stains and odor removal), and use the laundry stain remover solution to try to get out stubborn stains. I used a spritz of the tonic water and vinegar solution to help with heavy traffic areas, and then used the suction-only function on my shampooer to draw out excess water.

This is what my side chairs looked like when I was done…

Both living room side chairs freshly cleaned. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Closeup of side chair seat freshly cleaned. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Photo of side chair roll top back freshly cleaned. Photo by Diane M. Lilly, 2021.

Final thoughts…

I have to say, it took quite a lot of elbow grease to do this DIY cleaning project, and I’m not entirely sure just using a good cleaning solution with a shampooer wouldn’t have been easier, using a stain remover to get out the stubborn spots. Between the two, I personally liked the Clorox2 method better. The cleaning solution went way further, making the laundry stain remover cleaner less expensive than the spray OxyClean, by far. 

What I will say about both of these techniques is that they worked wonders with small furniture pieces, but I can’t even imagine working that hard to clean a much larger piece of furniture with either of these techniques! Someone my age with back problems would have a tough time cleaning a sofa, for instance. What I do like is that these methods provide a way to clean small pieces without lugging out my very large and very heavy shampooer. 

I do like the sparkling water and vinegar application. I may do that more often when I clean other carpet and upholstery items so I can get rid of odors and help bring out the brightness. 

One more word of advice…There is no such thing as “spot cleaning” a piece of furniture. When a piece of fabric gets wet and then dries, usually there is a water stain left behind. So if you are cleaning a piece of upholstery, you must evenly wet it from seam to seam, evenly scrub it, then evenly remove the dampness. This way the entire section dries with no water marks. There is no sense going through back breaking work scrubbing only to be left with water marks! 

So that was my experiment in cleaning two different types of upholstery in what ended up being three different ways—or more accurately, a combination of three different cleaning methods, depending on what my fabric needed. What are your thoughts? Have you cleaned any of your own upholstery? Do you have any tips or tricks? Do you have a cautionary tale to tell based on your experiences? Feel free to leave your comments below!


There are some product images and links used in this blog article purely as examples. I am not being compensated for any particular products mentioned in this article.


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