I'm Becoming Craftier

I have been wanting to recover my kitchen chairs for two years now, (funny that Nik was born two years and one month ago), and didn't know quite how to do it. My very talented sister, Kellie, has recovered her chairs more than once, but I still wasn't sure I could pull it off. When it comes to being a keeper of the home Kellie has been an excellent role model and now that I am a stay at home mom I have been busy trying to follow her lead. So recovering my kitchen chairs has been on my list to accomplish and I am finally doing it!
The great thing about this fabric is that the red matches our couches in the living room perfectly and the browns match our newly painted walls.










Here is what the rest of them look like. Disgusting isn't it??? and that isn't even the one that has Nik's booster chair on it.

















So here is my question to you. Do you like the stripes perpendicular to the back of the chair like in the first picture or parallel like in this last picture? I have already stapled the one perpendicular, but now i am not sure if it looks good that way. This last one I just draped the fabric over to get a feel for it, so it would look even better than this.
Thanks for your help!