Unfortunately, over time, chairs, like all other furniture, deteriorate, scratch, wear out and generally lose their appearance. The swaying legs, creaking seat and worn upholstery are an oil painting, aren't they? But often you don’t want to throw away furniture at all. And there are enough reasons for that. Don't despair if your favorite chair has let you down. Restoring a chair with your own hands will help bring it back to life.
Types of restoration
So, what to do if your favorite furniture is no longer pleasing to the eye? If you don’t know the answer to this question, then this DIY chair restoration master class is especially for you. In many ways, the restoration process is determined depending on the degree of damage to the chair, because the types of renovations can be completely different. If it is loose, you will need to restore the dried tenon joints. In another case, when the places where the tenon enters the groove are weakened, and the connecting elements in the sockets are outrageously loosened, we can say that the chair actually requires rebirth, that is, it will need to be completely disassembled and reassembled. Renewing the varnish coating will not require much effort and time, but it is worth keeping in mind that this is a painstaking task that requires attentiveness and accuracy on your part.
The simplest and most commonplace option for restoring old chairs with your own hands is to replace the upholstery. At the same time, the appearance changes almost beyond recognition, the updated fabric seems to “breathe in” new life into the furniture, ultimately there is no trace of scuffs left. Today we will talk about everyone possible options and ways to restore your favorite chairs.
Preparatory work
First you will need to stock up on equipment and everything necessary materials. To restore chairs with your own hands, the following will be useful:
- beautiful upholstery;
- hammer;
- wooden mallet;
- screwdriver;
- screws and screwdriver;
- clamps;
- paint, brushes, solvent;
- clamps (metal);
- padding polyester (foam rubber, latex is possible);
- stapler with staples;
- scissors, glue;
First of all, the chair needs to be washed and cleaned. This can be done with a brush and dishwashing detergent. We dilute a soap solution in a large amount of water and apply it to the chair with a brush. Use gentle movements to remove dirt. After which the wooden frame should be blotted with a dry cloth. You should not carry out the “washing” procedure for a particularly long time, as excessive contact with water can damage the stool. After drying, we disassemble it into individual components.
Disassembling the chair
Before you begin restoring the chair with your own hands, you need to remove the backrest and the seat itself. This can easily be done manually, without using any tools. After which the chair needs to be thoroughly loosened and the bad connecting points separated. If necessary, you can gently tap the sockets with a mallet. But if, nevertheless, the joint cannot be disassembled, leave it, it means that it is still able to serve you well.
Viennese chairs
Restoring a Viennese chair with your own hands is absolutely no different from repairing any other chair. Such chairs are most often screwed together using screws and screws. Therefore, it is not possible to unwind them special labor. If difficulties arise, it is enough to drip technical oil onto the “problem” thread. This will help unscrew the part. A little advice: if at the last stages of repair you assemble a chair like a Lego set, you need to initially sign all the parts so that the final assembly of the product does not become a nightmare for you. Representatives of the “Soviet” times were assembled using epoxy glue. In this case, it will come to the rescue hot water. Just hold it under the stream problem areas until the glue is completely dissolved.
At master classes on restoring Viennese chairs with your own hands, in the case where the old resin stubbornly holds back some unreliable, flimsy element, it is advised to put a rubber hose with a small narrow tip (mostly metal) onto the spout of the kettle and direct the flow of steam to the joint that cannot be separated. Steam perfectly softens the resin, which facilitates easy separation of individual parts. After this procedure, the stool must be thoroughly dried.
Restoration of parts
On initial stage All small defects should be removed immediately. Cracks, as well as places bitten by pets, need to be tightened with clamps; all other chips can be easily removed with paper tape or putty made from a mixture of sawdust and wood glue. If glue gets on unnecessary parts of the chair, there is nothing to worry about. In the future, all flaws can be easily eliminated. For round elements you need to use metal clamps.
The glue must dry thoroughly. This will take at least 48 hours, perhaps even more. The next step is to sand all the elements of the chair. To do this you need to use sandpaper. You need to start with paper with a coarser grain, gradually moving to the smallest. It is necessary to achieve an absolutely flat surface of all parts. Otherwise, there will be jagged edges on the chair, on which clothes will subsequently cling.
Gluing mates
We wrap the damaged parts of the legs with a bandage, carefully applying glue to each layer of wrapping. At the end of the leg we cut out a depression a couple of centimeters and drive it into it wooden wedge(any small piece of wood will do). After this treatment, the leg will “sit” tightly in the socket and will not wobble.
Restoring old chairs with your own hands will be complicated by the fact that in such models there are drawers and crossbars under the seat. In this case, all parts are connected to each other with spikes and glue. If the seam is weakened, it is enough to drill a hole and pour glue into it, and if the tenon fails, then during assembly, a sliver of wood soaked in glue must be hammered into the nest. A completely loose leg must be disassembled and completely glued.
Chair assembly
Assembly - very important point in the restoration of wooden chairs with your own hands. It is necessary to collect all the elements, be sure to take into account correct angles between all parts to avoid possible distortions. “Spare parts” must be glued strictly under pressure. To do this, just tighten them with laces.
Excess glue must be removed using damp cloth. A basin of water placed on the seat of a chair can act as a weighting agent. Then all elements will be fastened directly under load. This entire process will take at least two days. And only after the glue and parts have completely dried should you start decorative finishing. If you do not allow the glue to dry properly, there is a risk that it will simply break under the weight.
Chair reupholstery
We continue our master class on restoring an old chair with our own hands. First, all wooden parts should be painted with paint, then a layer of varnish should be applied. Next, we leave our precious chair to dry again. Meanwhile, let's move on to the finishing work: we'll start replacing the upholstery.
List of subsequent steps for reupholstering a chair:
- We remove the battered old upholstery. It is important to try to maintain the integrity of the tissue. She will act as a kind of pattern. All the little things and shortcomings of the wooden seat need to be eliminated first.
- We take the foam rubber, lean the seat against it and draw the contours as accurately as possible with a marker.
- Using regular scissors, cut out the desired area on the foam along the contours
- On the fabric of future upholstery, using old version fabric as a template, in the same way we draw a seat with a marker, but taking into account the allowances on the sides, three to four centimeters is enough.
- Next, we put together some kind of “sandwich”. To do this, we place the new fabric “face down” on the table as the first layer, followed by foam rubber, and the seat itself as the third layer. Thoroughly straighten, align and stretch the fabric, tuck the hanging edges under wooden base. We secure it with a stapler or small nails with wide heads.
If the back of the chair is as soft as the seat, then the above steps will need to be repeated with it. Upholstery fabric can be chosen in any color, the main thing is that the new chairs match overall design interior
At the very end, we attach the seat to the chair frame itself. It is best to “plant” it on self-tapping screws using metal corners.
Conclusion
Actually, that's all. You have already noticed that your rarity has noticeably transformed, come to life and is ready to continue to serve you faithfully. Now that you know first-hand what a chair can be like before and after restoration with your own hands, you may want to repair all the chairs in the house, and also help all your friends and relatives.
You can also sell an updated version of your chair as an antique for decent money. Of course, this is a joke. In fact, you can take this seriously and use new skills to create your own business that can bring not only pleasure, but also material benefit. The popularity of original designer items is only gaining momentum. Now you know how to restore any chair. Perhaps, based on this article, someday you will develop your own unique options fixing another old furniture.
Many things lose their attractive appearance over time and therefore need updating. You can put some effort into restoring your furniture and giving it an amazing look. People especially repurpose old chairs. There are many ways to restore them.
Kinds
To update yourself old chair, you need to decide on the type of restoration. There are several ways to help restore outdated furniture. To update wooden products or chipboard surfaces, you can apply the following methods:
- Decoupage- This is an opportunity to decorate furniture by gluing some motifs or pictures cut out of paper onto it. To preserve the renewed surface of an object, a special varnish is used that protects the paper from external influences. Decoupage allows you to choose an interesting design and transfer it to old furniture, thereby updating the interior.
- Adhesive tape or film helps update old furniture without much effort. Decorative self-adhesive film may have a design that imitates a natural stone, wood, leather and ceramics. She is not afraid of water, temperature changes and direct sun rays. With its help you can completely transform a faded chair.
- Artistic painting- This is a way of decorating objects with different colors. There are several types artistic painting: Khokhloma, Zhostovo, Gzhel and Mezen painting. But restoration using this method requires skill and care.
- Craquelure- a technique for creating visually aged wood. Cracks form on the coating, through which the main tone is visible. To achieve this result, use special plaster, varnish or paint.
The technique itself does not require serious preparation and precision of application.
- Painting- most easy look restoration, for which it is only necessary to thoroughly clean the product. The paintwork will keep the chair attractive for a long time.
- Lamination- a method that involves decorated paper, which is glued to the surface of the chair using synthetic melted resin.
- Veneering– is a renovation of furniture using a thin layer of wood, which is glued to the surface using a one- or two-component composition. And to give the veneer aesthetics, you can cover it with varnish or wax.
In addition to updating the aesthetic appearance of the chair, sometimes more serious intervention may be required - it may be necessary to replace or repair a broken part of the structure. In some cases, it is enough just to restore the connecting parts, and in others, to completely replace the part.
To restore a wooden or metal high chair, you may need to replace the old upholstery. To do this, it is necessary to prepare materials that will help restore the product. Upholstery requires care and precision combined with mastery of tools.
How to disassemble it yourself?
It is not difficult to disassemble a chair with your own hands, since its design is known to almost everyone. First you need to unscrew the back, and then the legs. And the product is assembled in reverse order so that all the grooves take their places. If the chair is secured with glued spikes, the attachment points are wetted hot water or sprayed with steam from a steam generator.
If on wooden structure If there are cracks, they are filled with a mixture of glue and sawdust or glued and clamped until they are completely fixed. If the tenon fastenings are damaged, the old plugs are replaced and the drawbar joints are glued together. To do this, you need to make a small hole, pour glue into it and wait until it dries.
If the old chair is wobbly, then you need to remove the legs from the special grooves and wedge their upper part. Due to this, they increase in size and stay in the grooves better.
Update high chair occurs on the same principle as for an adult, but sometimes the hinges or the rotating mechanism need to be replaced. Typically, children's structures consist of many parts that are designed to protect the child's position. For greater strength, all connecting places must be glued.
To disassemble a folding chair, simply remove the axial pins that connect the backrest and seat, and then remove the seat. Metal-based structures are easier to disassemble - you need to unscrew the seat and the soft part of the backrest.
If the chair seat is installed on a spring block, it must be replaced with new springs. It is not necessary to remove the entire block for this.
Recovery process step by step
After disassembling the structure and restoring damaged parts, it is necessary to remove the old paintwork. After this, the main stage of restoration begins.
A primer is first applied to the cleaned surface of the chair, which completely matches the color of the product. After waiting for complete drying, the soil is cleaned with sandpaper to obtain thin layer coverings. After this, the product is coated with paint or varnish, wait for it to dry and apply another layer.
Each material is painted in a special way. For example, an anti-corrosion agent is first applied to a metal frame, and after complete drying, it is covered with the main color. Transparent varnish is applied in several stages, and if used coloring composition, then it is better to resort to enamel for metal.
Wooden frame first treat with wax, carefully distributing it over all areas. Instead of wax, you can use an oil primer, which is applied with a brush. The product is then coated with several layers acrylic paint. These recovery steps allow you to quickly and easily renew your chair without using special protective masks and gloves.
It is extremely undesirable to paint plastic chairs, since plastic tends to bend, and this will lead to cracking and peeling of the paint. Therefore, it is a priority for them to sew covers or pillows.
The last stage of the renovation consists of creating beautiful upholstery. Having removed the old upholstery, a seat base is cut out of a foam cushion, which is then attached to the surface using glue. For additional fixation You can use paper clips. Having stretched the fabric well over the entire seat, it is secured from below with furniture clips. Depending on personal preference, the fabric may have a bright pattern or no pattern at all.
To remake a seat with springs, first fix the batting, and then a layer of foam sheet. The fabric is attached according to the same principle as with one layer of foam rubber, but it is pulled with greater emphasis to smooth out the spring relief.
Many people think about what paint is best to paint in order to preserve the effect for a long time. For wooden products you can use stain or paint and varnish, and for iron structures you can use enamel specially designed for metal.
Viennese
To repair Viennese chairs yourself, you first need to assess their general condition. The amount of damage may depend on operating conditions.
The most important damage that can be assessed at home is instability. This occurs due to weakening of the tenon joints. To bring the product back to normal condition, it is necessary to increase the size of the tenon, install seals on the drawers and replace the power bars. After this, the paintwork is replaced and the seat is restored.
To restore an outdated structure, you need to prepare basic materials and tools. To work, you need to get a hammer, a furniture stapler, a self-tapping screw, paints and varnishes, solvent, brushes, glue, scissors, cloth and sandpaper.
The renewal process begins with cleaning all surfaces of the product from dirt and dust. After this, the analysis of the chair begins. First, remove the seat and backrest, which are usually held on with screws. Then the remaining parts are removed step by step. It is important to check the strength of all connections. If any attachment point does not hold well, then it is not worth disassembling.
Disassembled elements must be replaced immediately to avoid errors during the assembly process. All parts are sanded with sandpaper to thoroughly remove old varnish. This is necessary so that the furniture can be repainted so that the new layer fits perfectly on the chair.
Next, be sure to inspect the places where the elements are glued. The top of the legs, which are attached to the grooves, must be wrapped in several layers of bandage, covering each layer with glue. If the leg wobbles very much, then a hole is made in the end, into which a small wedge is then driven. This will increase the width of the end, and the leg will hold firmly in the groove.
For drawstring structures with a weakened seam with inside you need to make a hole and use a syringe to inject adhesive into it. You can also resort to matches coated in glue and insert them into the socket when assembling the chair. In this case, the ends must be adjusted with great precision so that no gaps form between them and the drawers.
Assembly of the structure begins with complete gluing of all tenon joints. Excess glue should be removed with a napkin. The product dries for about a day, and for maximum fixation you need to place some heavy object on the seat.
To update the seat, you need to get rid of the worn upholstery and eliminate any surface imperfections. If you need to change the foam rubber, then you need to draw markings on the new foam rubber sheet and cut out the part. The fabric with which the seat will be upholstered must be larger than the resulting seat. It is placed closely on the surface and secured with paper clips on the back side.
The chair itself can be decorated in Provence style. That's all for this wooden parts painted, and after drying they are processed with a sanding machine.
To fix the effect, you need to coat the structure with varnish.
Updating details
You can decorate a chair different ways. Any materials can be used: paper, fabric, laces, paints, napkins, etc. It all depends on the imagination of the master and on the level of his skill. Naturally, if a person does not know how to work with complex equipment, then he should not resort to it. We need to start with something more understandable.
Using sisal
For this method, you can use either a wooden or metal frame. To work, you will need a large ball of sisal rope, thick upholstery fabric such as velvet, a stapler, superglue, scissors, nails, a hammer, a pencil and a measuring tape.
You need to start the repair by removing the old upholstery from the seat and backrest. Then the back parts are wrapped with sisal, smoothly moving to the legs. This must be done so that the rope fits tightly around the part and each subsequent row fits closely to the previous one. The material must be fixed with glue.
Having finished wrapping all the elements, you need to create decoration on the back. To do this, the rope is wound in several layers in 2-3 rows, first between the upper and lower crossbars, and then between the side ones.
Having made a pattern for the new upholstery, you need to secure it to the seat. Small nails or a stapler are suitable for this.
Wool yarn
To resort to this option, you will need a design on metal frame with mesh back and seat. To work, you need to prepare scissors, multi-colored wool yarn, a crochet hook, a wooden strip, a screwdriver and screws.
IN in this case The mesh plays the role of a canvas, so double threads need to be threaded through it in a diagonal direction. Moreover, each row can have different colour. You can use two contrasting colors or several similar shades.
You can strengthen a damaged mesh with a few stitches of yarn. Then you need to cut out a strip that will follow the shape of the seat and secure it with screws.
Decoupage from sewing patterns
This option is well suited for antique wooden products with a hard seat. To work you will need patterns from magazines, glue, a brush, acrylic lacquer, scissors, fabric, thread and needle.
An old chair inherited from your grandmother, with worn upholstery and peeling varnish, can become a pearl of the interior if you put your hands on it. To cope with this task, you need to become familiar with the techniques of restoration work, arm yourself necessary tools and be patient. Let's consider the stages of transforming a used piece of furniture into a chic rarity, dear to the heart as a memory of loved ones.
Methods
There are various approaches for updating old furniture. Restoration is a classic approach that involves restoring the original appearance of an object with all its previous characteristics. This method is used if you need to restore a valuable piece of furniture to its original form. This assumes a fairly complex technique that will require the use of special purpose chemicals To restore the coating, carry out carpentry work to eliminate functional faults, it may be necessary to replace part of the wood or veneer.
This requires special skills and professional carpentry tools, acquisition special types tree. Complete restoration of chairs is justified for collecting purposes or in case of damage to one of the items of an expensive set. This is a rather expensive process, so it is better to entrust it to professionals.
If for certain reasons it is impossible to contact a carpentry restoration workshop, then repairing old chairs can be done at home with your own hands.
It is necessary to begin restoration work by sequentially performing the following actions:
- First, we think about the design of the future piece of furniture, how it will look in the interior, what color it should be, what needs to be altered for ease of use.
- Then we disassemble the chair into its component parts, determine the degree of wear of parts and the need to replace some elements, and measure each part.
- After this, we draw up an estimate for consumables according to the sizes of the chair parts, with this list we go to the store and purchase everything we need.
- Finally, we replace the worn parts and the coating with varnish or paint. If the chair has retained its strength, it is enough to simply repaint it to make it new item situation. You can paint an old peeling highchair into a new one bright color and paint it with a simple pattern, which the child will be incredibly happy about.
Preparing tools
Having determined the degree of wear of structural parts, you need to stock up on the necessary tools. Let's try to figure out what is needed for repairs.
To strengthen the frame, you will have to acquire a chisel, wood glue or PVA glue, and wooden blocks to replace furniture tenons or spacers. Spikes are used to fasten frame parts.
If the legs of the chair are loose, the tenons must be removed, coated with glue and inserted into the structure, after which the elements must be fixed for several hours. At home, you can use a regular belt to tie parts together.
Chairs can be varnished, stained or painted. To remove the damaged coating, you need to sand the surface of the chair - it is not necessary to completely remove the old layer of paint or varnish, just level it. Here you will need coarse and fine sandpaper or Sander. If you completely change the design, you should use special composition, dissolving paint - technical acetone.
After preparing the frame for new painting, you need to apply a primer under the paint - usually it is gray or white. Paint and varnish materials will be required. They are selected depending on the conditions of use, whether this household item will be exposed to adverse effects from moisture, steam or sun. Instructions are included with each coloring product. After reviewing it, choose the appropriate one.
Before varnishing, to preserve the wood, it is treated with stain, wax or oil. These furniture products are produced different colors, corresponding different colors natural wood. After covering the frame of a wooden chair with stain desired color on water based A layer of varnish follows; when using a polymer-based stain, varnish coating is not necessary.
Next you have to decide what the seat finish will be. If it is a hard seat, then we paint it according to the same rules as the frame. If you have to deal with a soft seat, you need to stock up on foam rubber and fabric for upholstery. A furniture stapler with appropriately sized staples will come in handy here. The fabric can also be secured using special furniture nails and a hammer.
When working with spring block It may be necessary to replace the springs or the entire unit. You need to ask in advance whether these materials are available for repair work or you need to change your strategy and abandon springs in favor of foam rubber.
Disassembly of the structure
The connection diagram of the chair is well known; disassembling the structure yourself is not difficult. First, the back and rear legs are unscrewed. Assembling the chair occurs in the reverse order, then all the grooves will fall into place. If the chair is attached to glued tenons, you need to melt the joints with hot water - to do this, apply a hot wet cloth several times or use a steam generator.
Detected cracks are filled with a mixture of sawdust and glue or sealed and pulled together to fix them until dry. If tenon joints are damaged, new plugs are made to replace the old ones, and tongue-and-groove fastening and gluing are used to strengthen the drawbar joints. You need to drill a thin hole to the thorn and pour glue into it with a syringe, fix it until it dries. If the legs are inserted into special grooves in the bottom of the chair and the chair wobbles, then the legs are removed and the upper part is wedged out, it becomes larger and fits more tightly into the groove.
If the highchair is being updated, in addition to the above, it may be necessary to replace the hinges or rotary mechanism for transformation. Most wooden baby high chairs consist of large number details to ensure the safety of the child. It’s a good idea to glue them again with wood glue for strength.
When disassembling a folding chair, it is enough to remove the axial pins connecting the backrest and the seat and unscrew the seat. Chairs with a metal frame simply unscrew; for models with cast frames, only the seat and the soft part of the backrest are unscrewed for reupholstery.
The chair seat can be equipped with a spring block. The block itself does not need to be dismantled and torn from the base; if necessary, individual springs are replaced.
Recovery process step by step
So, at the first stage, our chair is disassembled, structural damage has been repaired, the old paintwork has been removed, and the actual renovation can begin.
At the second stage, apply a primer corresponding to the type of material being painted onto the cleaned surface. After it dries, it should be re-treated with finer sandpaper. Then we apply the first layer of paint or varnish and after drying, check - if the base is visible, apply one or two more layers.
Each material has its own characteristics when painting. The first layer of anti-corrosion primer is applied to the frames of iron chairs, after drying the base color is applied, and if the paint is transparent, then it is applied in stages in two or three layers. When painting metal chairs It is better to use enamels for metal.
The frame of a wooden chair is initially treated with wax, applying a little product to a piece of rag and carefully rubbing it into the wood, or brushed with an oil primer. Next, one or more layers of acrylic paint are applied. These new generation coatings are easy to use, odorless, dry quickly, and are suitable for indoor use.
To restore Viennese chairs, they use varnish coating on a wax base or primer.
For plastic chairs painting is undesirable, since the flexibility of the material will provoke paint peeling; it is better to sew covers or pillows from a suitable fabric on them.
Finally, on last stage The upholstery of the soft parts of the chair needs to be updated. After being removed old upholstery, foam rubber is cut required thickness according to the shape of the seat base, it can be secured with glue. The fabric is cut out taking into account the hem allowance around the foam rubber and plywood.
Using a furniture stapler on the reverse side, the fabric is first secured on opposite sides so that it is tightly stretched, then the corners are folded end-to-end, folded along the base and secured with staples in several places on the reverse side so that the fabric does not puff up. It is better to use fabric with a floral print or plain color. A geometric pattern requires a special arrangement of lines. The drawing may become skewed, so skill is needed here.
When reupholstering a seat with springs, batting or other dense material is first laid, then a layer of foam rubber. The fabric is cut out and attached using the same technology as with foam rubber alone, but here it is important to tighten the upholstery more tightly in order to smooth out the relief of the springs.
Assembly and finishing
When the chair frame is updated and the soft parts are covered with new upholstery, all that remains is to assemble the structure. The basic rule is to reassemble in the same order as you disassembled. The legs and backrest parts must be installed in the same grooves where they were originally, so the structure will not lose strength. The plywood on which the seat is attached is usually screwed to the frame; in Viennese chairs, glue acts as a retainer.
Knowing all the stages of restoring a chair, it is not difficult to create a stylish and unique object using finishing from an unattractive piece of furniture. Simply by painting the chairs pink, blue, pistachio colors, you can get a bright color accent to the interior in the “fusion” style.
When updating old chairs, the decoupage technique is used. This operation is performed using glue, varnish and a pattern on paper based, convenient to use and napkins. The paper with the selected pattern is cut or torn into pieces, then these fragments are fixed to the frame and seat using glue, and after drying they are varnished. As a result, this piece of furniture is completely transformed and becomes an art object.
IN modern interiors designers often use one or two antique pieces. For this purpose, chairs of antique designs are required. First, they are painted with white paint, then a thin translucent layer of gold, bronze or silver paint is applied to the entire chair or its individual parts, depending on the surrounding environment and the decoration of the entire interior. The final stage becomes a layer of craquelure varnish. It creates small cracks throughout the coating, giving a luxurious touch of antiquity.
These chairs can be finished in the Empire style. Frame painted in White color, painted with gold paint on the carving; on smooth elements you can copy a suitable pattern with a pencil and paint on this pattern with gold paint. In this case, the seat is covered with a shiny fabric - satin, brocade, velvet. The composition turns out to be very effective.
Hello, friends! Today, let’s forget for a while about universal problems, troubles in the economy, and other global topics.
I want to suggest you, if you have a little extra money, free time and a desire to do something with your own hands, change the interior of your home a little.
Actually, I don't like storing old things in my apartment. But somehow it so happened that, during a total renovation of the interior after another lengthy renovation, four old chairs remained standing in the kitchen.
At first, I promised myself that I would soon replace them with new and stylish ones. But they took root in our family so much, they became almost “family” and somehow I still didn’t dare throw them in a landfill.
Then, having looked at them carefully, I thought: “they’re not so bad - wooden, strong, except that the upholstery has already faded and doesn’t quite match the color of our new kitchen.”
And if so, I decided to take action and repair the old chairs with my own hands. To tell the truth, not with my own hands, but with the hands of my husband.
He is a great craftsman and everything he does, he does only with a sign of quality (I’ll brag a little). Therefore, I entrusted this work to him without hesitation.
Since we only needed to replace the upholstery of the chair, and the rest of its wooden parts did not need repair (except to renew the varnish in some places), we bought:
- Fabric for upholstery - 1 x 1.40 m. This fabric was just enough for 4 chairs and there was still a little left (later for reupholstering the ottoman). When choosing, we focused on quality, texture and suitable color. The purchase of fabric cost us 360 rubles.
- Foam rubber. We decided not to use the old foam rubber, but to buy new ones and make the chairs a little softer. Foam rubber was sold only in sheets. 1 such sheet measures 1x2 m, thickness – 20 mm. Its purchase cost us 240 rubles.
- A piece of plywood 6 mm thick, approximately 1x1 m in size. The plywood was left over from the renovation.
- Furniture stapler and special staples for it. We didn’t buy this either, it was all already there.
- I also needed a small wooden block. Small pieces were cut out of it, approximately 2 cm wide and 10 cm long. And a few screws to attach them.
- Water-based wood varnish (we also had it).
Sequence of work:
- Removed the old seat
- New blanks were cut to the size of the old seat (if old plywood in good condition, you can leave it)
- Pieces of foam rubber were cut to the same dimensions. To make our chairs soft, we put foam rubber in 2 layers
- We started cutting the fabric. The fabric was also cut to fit the seat, but 5 cm was added on all sides for hemming
All. We have prepared all the preparations.
Let's start assembling
We make a kind of layer cake from our blanks: first - fabric, then foam rubber and the base of the chair from plywood.
To ensure that the seat did not move on the chair and was well fixed, special wooden blocks were screwed onto the plywood from the bottom side.
We fix it with furniture stapler fabric on back side grounds.
That’s it – our beautiful and soft seat is ready.
And now, admire what we got:
The chairs are almost like new. Beautiful upholstery goes very well with wallpaper and facades on kitchen cabinets. In addition, they turned from semi-soft to soft.
And all this cost us only 600 rubles. Well, in what store can you buy four wooden chairs for that kind of money?
How do you like these savings? I liked it very much. Something else needs to be repaired.
Oh, yes, I completely forgot that there was some fabric left, and I wanted to use it to reupholster the lid of the ottoman. But more on that next time.
What secrets do you have for updating your interior with your own hands? Bye bye…
Surely at home each of us has one old, or even a couple of good, solid wooden chairs, which, however,... And everything would be fine, but their appearance leaves much to be desired. It seems that something with history is practically an heirloom, so it would be a shame to throw it away. But why throw it away if there is a DIY restoration of chairs? It is absolutely not necessary to contact a master who can do this for you. After all, firstly, you still need to try hard to find such a master. And, secondly, in this old item you can realize your new ideas and design fantasies. Try your hand, and we will show you how to upholster a chair with your own hands and make it the highlight of your interior!
Where to begin?
First of all, it is necessary to realistically assess the amount of work to be done. Remember that any chair, no matter what condition it is in. You can always replace worn out and broken parts with new ones. After an objective look, you need to think about the end result. That is, what would you like to get from this chair in the end. Think carefully about the room in which it will be located. And build on this further. The interior in which the updated chair will be located will become the starting point for the restoration of this piece of furniture at home.
Coloring
Whatever repair you undertake, painting or varnishing the surface of the chair is a must. To give this piece of furniture an updated look, you should get rid of the old coating. Therefore, you will need to use sandpaper. With its help you can easily remove cracked paint or varnish. But first you need to remove the seat and upholstery. For these purposes, use a hammer and, if necessary, a screwdriver. Some chairs have a seat that is secured with nails, so you will need a nail puller to remove them. Upon completion of this stage, you can safely sand the legs, back and frame with sandpaper. If you decide to renovate furniture at home, be prepared to do a good job of sanding. This is perhaps the most tedious stage in restoration. wooden coverings. Wood can be painted with several layers of varnish or paint, so at first it is better to work with coarse sandpaper. Sanding is carried out with fine-grained sandpaper.
Now you can go directly. It is known that wood absorbs any liquid very well. Therefore, our repairs will not be complete without a primer. This will allow the paint to spread more evenly over the surface and last much longer. The primer can be white or colorless. The first one is better to use if you are going to paint a chair. A colorless primer will be needed for those who will continue to use varnish and do not want to cover the wood texture. After applying one or more layers of primer, you need to wait for it to dry completely. Now all that remains is to go over it again with fine-grained sandpaper and start applying paint or varnish. But if you want to give the product an even more polished look, use a special wax balm. It is applied after the primer has dried before applying paint. It should dry well, after which it will need to be carefully polished with a brush. Now you can paint. In order for the product to remain in its original form longer, it is best to apply two layers of dye, first allowing each to dry thoroughly.
You can realize your design ideas Sometimes an interior design does not include the use of soft seats. Therefore, chair repair ends with painting the seat and screwing it to the frame. If you want to completely repair the chair using new upholstery, go to the next point.
Upholstery replacement
It is important that the upholstery, the chair itself and the interior do not differ from one another. design solution. Therefore, you need to think through everything in advance to the last detail. Use only thick upholstery fabric, even if you are not only making repairs soft seat, but also make a chair cushion.
Remove all staples from the old seat. This is easy to do with large tweezers. Now let's start replacing the batting. The pre-cut piece needs to be placed on hot-melt adhesive and allowed to firmly adhere. If this is the first furniture renovation in your life, we recommend using plain fabric. (and even more so in stripes) you will have to constantly check how evenly it is located. But for a beginner this can be quite complicated and troublesome.
Be sure to leave a five-centimeter margin of fabric along each edge. Maybe even a little more. Pin the fabric to the surface to control the placement of the design. Gradually tighten the upholstery, securing it with a construction stapler at a distance of no more than 1–2 centimeters. Depending on the shape, the fabric at the corners can be fixed as follows:
Now all that remains is to return the seat to its place and enjoy the work done!
As you can see how it may seem at first. The main thing in work is to take your time and show maximum attention to detail! Be sure to share your tips for renovating furniture at home!
