Almost all pieces of furniture are subject to wear and tear. Even with careful handling, time takes its toll, and the material from which this or that thing is made undergoes aging and loses its appearance, and in some cases already ceases to fulfill its main function. In the case of chairs, the first thing that wears out is the seat of the chair, that is, its upholstery. And also the legs often suffer due to the fact that they constantly have a load. They can break, loosen and eventually fall off completely, causing the chair to become unusable.
This is where the need for its restoration appears, because this process will not take much time and you will not spend as much money as if you bought a new chair. The process of furniture restoration is especially relevant if it is an expensive, old, rare thing or someone's gift that you do not want to throw away.
Restoration of chairs
You need to know that old chairs are being repaired for a number of reasons, which are characterized by certain damages. This may be an insignificant defect in the form of abrasion of the paintwork. Viennese chairs usually have such a defect. In this case, it is only necessary to clean the wooden surface and paint. There are also more significant injuries.:
- breakage of wooden elements (legs, backs);
- wear of the upholstery.
When the upholstery fabric is worn out, it is required to carry out such a restoration process as constriction. This is not to say that this is a very time-consuming job, rather simple, in contrast to the one when you need to restore the "skeleton" of the chair when it is loosening.
Old wooden chairs, stools, stools and stools can be repaired with some tools and the necessary material.
Tools
- coarse sandpaper;
- fine-grained sandpaper;
- different types of screwdrivers;
- stapler;
- mallet and hammer;
- scissors;
- brush;
- screwdriver;
- clamps.
Material
From materials, for repairing wooden chairs with your own hands, you will need the following items:
Operating procedure
Do-it-yourself chair repair is not a difficult process. Many people have already gone through this and know all the nuances of how to restore an old chair with their own hands. All you need is to thoroughly study the master class on chair decoupage and other restoration techniques.
Disassembly
To start, the chair to be repaired needs to be properly clean it from dust and dirt, also applying wet cleaning with a sponge. After waiting for the surface to dry completely, you can proceed to the next stage.
Before proceeding directly to the restoration of the chair, it must be disassembled. There are two types of disassembly: complete and incomplete. Complete disassembly includes the dismantling of the entire chair structure. Of course, this option is more complicated and time consuming, and if you have chosen it, then you can give advice on how to do it. If the entire structure of the chair is fastened with screws, then this is not difficult to do. In the case when the legs, back and all the details of the chair are held in place thanks to the glue poured into the grooves, you will have to make a little effort to disassemble it.
As a rule, the seat and backrest can be easily removed. The difficult stage in disassembly is the disassembly of the frame itself. Here you need to apply a certain force to knock the parts out of the grooves. For these purposes, it is best to use a mallet (rubber or wooden), since a metal hammer can easily chip the components of the chair or form dents.
Removing old glue
In any case, when knocking out parts, you will need to get rid of the old dried glue (in some cases it can be epoxy). To do this, use a dampened sponge or some unnecessary rag. It must be applied at the place where the two parts are attached and left for a while so that the glue or epoxy is soaked. After that, the parts will move away from each other quite easily.
If it is difficult to get to any place to remove the glue, you can use another method, which, by the way, is more effective. This method is based on the principle of removing the adhesive with high pressure steam. Most likely, most people do not have special devices that create an aiming effect of hot steam under high pressure. ... But even here there is a way out of the situation.... It is enough to find a piece of rubber hose about a meter long and put it on the spout of a kettle filled with water, which is at that time placed on the stove. On the hose itself, you can pick up some nozzle that narrows its diameter.
Recovery stages
Below we will consider the restoration of a chair at home with incomplete disassembly. The stool recovery steps will be in the following order:
- Inspection of the coating and repair of cracks if necessary.
- Strengthening loose legs.
- Seat restoration.
- Creation of covers.
The last stage is optional and is performed at the request of everyone. DIY chair covers will protect the chair and make it look newer. And also due to the fact that they can be changed, there is a factor of variability in the design.
So, first of all, you need to prepare the work surface and take care of hand protection and protective clothing. Use pharmacy rubber gloves to protect your hands and wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty. If you are restoring the chair outdoors, the weather conditions must be suitable for this (no wind and rain). If you do this at home, you can place oilcloth or large garbage bags on the floor under the chair.
After dismantling the seat, it must be removed from the old upholstery cover and covered with a new one. Upholstery fabric can be buy in any furniture store, with a suitable pattern and color. The upholstery can be glued or nailed. In the second case, you will need pliers. It is advisable to just remove the old coating, and not to fit a new one over it. The filler should also be removed. Then it needs to be sanded with medium-grain sandpaper and, wiping the dust with a damp cloth and waiting for it to dry, cover it twice with a primer.
The gap between primer coats should ideally be 24 hours, but the manufacturer usually specifies a shorter time. The primer also has bactericidal properties, which is especially important for old furniture. When two coats of primer have been applied, you can begin to wrap.
Note: The seat can be upholstered by a specialist craftsman. As a rule, such services are quite cheap, especially if you provide the master with your own material for covering.
For the filler, synthetic foam rubber or batting is suitable. When using batting, the number of layers is about 4, but more can be, depending on how soft the seat you want to achieve. ... Batting or foam rubber cut to the exact size of the seat and fixed on its surface with a furniture stapler or small nails.
The upholstery material, the so-called seat cushion, should be fastened not only around the perimeter, but also in the middle. This will prevent the material from slipping during operation. Now, to fit our seat, we cut off the cape along the contour of the seat, stepping back about five centimeters from the edge. After placing the filler, you can drag, securing each side with a stapler and overlapping the corners, which are also fixed. The back (invisible side) need not be fitted.
How to make a chair
Perhaps, The easiest way, if you have a chainsaw and a grinder, make it using ordinary acacia hemp or another tree with a beautiful texture. It is done as follows. A stump of a suitable size is cut off, the diameter of which will vary from 25 to 30 cm. You choose the height yourself, focusing on the one that will be comfortable for you. Height can be determined by measuring a home stool. After that, an incision is made with a chainsaw in the form of a cross, up to about half a hemp deep.
Then a small depression is made with an ax in the middle of the hemp and a small amount of combustible material - gasoline or diesel fuel - is poured into it. During the combustion process, the inside of the stool will burn out, it is important to monitor this process and prevent the legs from leaking out. The legs must be at least five centimeters thick at the base and expand towards the seat. All burnt wood is scraped off with an ax or knife and polished with a grinder. A special attachment in the form of a brush with coarse bristles is put on it.
After cleaning the inner surface, using a grinder and a grinding disc, the edges of the legs and the seat are processed along the entire circumference ... Then painting is done diluted to the desired shade with stain and, after drying, varnish.
Stool
To make a simple stool you need very little time and a minimum set of tools. Of these you will need:
The diagram below shows with a dotted line the shape of the leg, which you need to cut out in the amount of four pieces, as well as the required dimensions for the board. The form can be different, here it is shown as an example.
Important: The base at the leg must be flat to give the stool stability.
After marking the workpiece, cut with a jigsaw strictly along the line. In the future, the resulting leg can be used as a model by simply applying it to the material, tracing and cutting. When all four legs are cut off, we start processing them. You can clean the edges with a semicircular router, but if you don't have one, use regular sandpaper. True, it will take a little longer. For a stool seat, a board of the same section in the form of a square with a side of 320 mm is required. The edges of the seat need to be smoothed and made semicircular. The workpiece is also cleaned from all sides with a grinder.
Then, when all four legs and the seat of the stool are ready, provided that they are well finished with sandpaper, you can start connecting all four legs. First, we drill two holes in each leg in the upper part. The drill must be used with a slightly smaller diameter than the self-tapping screw, otherwise it will not hold. Then a small indentation is made with a drill of a larger diameter, so that when the screw is screwed in, its cap drowns and it can be safely primed in the future.
An approximate connection diagram is shown in the figure below, for this you need to attach one leg perpendicular to the other and connect with self-tapping screws.
In the same way, we connect the other two legs and fasten them to the rest. This connection is very reliable, since four screws hold one leg. When all four legs are connected, we apply the entire fastened structure to the stool cover and mark its contours with a pencil in order to know where to screw the screws when connecting the seat with the legs. We make holes on the outside of the seat, not forgetting about a small hole with a larger diameter to hide the caps of the screws. After tightening all the screws, it remains only to clean out the places in which there were connections and cover the entire surface of the stool with varnish and stain (if desired).
Covers and capes
The tools you need to sew a chair cover yourself with your own hands:
- sewing machine;
- scissors;
- fabric and thread.
First of all, remove all marks from the chair: height, width, distance from the back to the seat, the length of the legs. An alternative way to remove the marks is to mark directly on the fabric as you apply them to the chair.
The cover itself will consist of two capes. One of them will stretch from the bottom of the legs to the back and thrown over it. Another cape covers the side of the legs. The two capes are held together by bandages of the same material as the capes. The fabric is sewn on both sides with a sewing machine, and the bandages are sewn by hand.
Sooner or later, most of us are faced with the task of buying new furniture, including chairs. At the same time, it doesn't always make sense to buy new furniture up to a high enough price, since we can refurbish old chairs.
This approach has many benefits. Here are just the most obvious ones:
- It doesn't take long, especially when you follow the instructions.
- Using old Soviet furniture instead of buying new ones will save a lot.
- It will help to create new, at the same time, unique interior items that no one else will have.
The thing is that chairs, like any other piece of furniture, are not something eternal. Even high-quality chairs are susceptible to aging and breakage, especially when we, in one way or another, "help" them by inadvertently causing damage. So it turns out that pieces of furniture become unusable. Of course, chairs, being one of the most heavily used pieces of furniture, are the first to suffer. In this case, as a rule, the seat of the chair is usually most damaged, while all other parts remain more or less intact and unharmed.
If you are interested in restoring old chairs with your own hands at home, then you can be sure that you do not even need to have any kind of rich experience in decorating and repairing. It is enough to master a master class on hauling, painting, decoupage and other options for altering and decorating old furniture and you can repair the chair. In any case, this experience may come in handy in the future, since you will be able to make the upholstery of "grandmother's" sofas and the upholstery of armchairs of about the same age. Thanks to this approach, almost any furniture is provided with a second life, and not just a place in a landfill or in a closet, as is often the case.
Meanwhile, the idea of furniture repair has one more, albeit not the most obvious, plus. The point is, how to restore old chairs at home will help not only to make new things that already seemed unnecessary. In addition, you can feel the pleasure of the embodiment of your creative energy.
How to upgrade a chair or armchair
The first step is to remind you that the method of recovery depends on the nature of the damage. If we try to highlight the main damage, then we can identify the most common types of damage:
- Broken leg, backrest, seat or other wood problem.
- Upholstery wear is observed.
- The paintwork on the wooden surface has worn out (especially during the restoration of Viennese chairs).
So, the way the chair is restored will depend on which part is broken or worn out. So, the scheme of restoration and repair should be chosen depending on the places (or places) in which there are problems.
Often, it is enough to simply reconnect the loose parts, restoring one of the connecting parts, which could deteriorate over time. It is about a groove and a tenon. The wear or expansion of one of them just leads to the fact that the chair gradually becomes unstable and begins to stagger on its legs. Repair, as a rule, consists in almost complete disassembly of the structure with the extension of the spike. To solve this problem, you will have to, as they say, try.
On the other hand, if you need to restore a wooden chair that has deteriorated old paintwork, it can be much easier to do so. If the varnish is cracked, you just need to remove it, treat the surface with fine-grain sandpaper. And then apply a coat of paint again. Or varnish, if you provide for this particular type of coating. In any case, paint or varnish is your choice.
It is also quite simple to re-haul old chairs. To do this, you only need to replace the old worn or torn fabric with a new one. Let's take a closer look at the main stages of chair restoration at home.
Recovery stages
Any chair can be made new. However, for this it is necessary at least in general terms to know the sequence of works. If you have no experience in doing such things, then for this it is recommended to study at least a short master class, which will be discussed below.
Preparatory stage
With the proper approach, even if the upholstery is torn at the chair, the legs are loose, the old varnish or paint is partially or completely cracked, it can be completely transformed by doing the restoration with your own hands. First of all, you need the minimum required set of tools and materials:
- Chair restoration tools: screwdriver, hammer, 2 different screwdrivers, scissors, brush, clamp, stapler, sandpaper, small mallet and scissors.
- Materials: screws (self-tapping screws), staples for staplers, glue for wooden furniture, foam rubber, paint and varnish, fabric for upholstery.
After preparing the materials, try to remove dirt and dust from the stool by washing it thoroughly. To do this, you can wipe the stool with a slightly dampened sponge.
Disassembly
Before restoring the chair, it must be disassembled. After waiting for the chair to dry after wiping it with a damp sponge, you can proceed to disassemble it. The seats and backrest, as a rule, are removed quite simply, after which the frame is disassembled. Use a rubber mallet rather than a metal hammer to prevent damage to the components when knocking them out. In any case, work should be done very carefully.
If the table is assembled with screws or screws, then it is not difficult to disassemble it, since you just need to unscrew them. In any case, it is advisable to dismantle all parts as they may interfere with repairs. In this case, if there is such a possibility, designate the fastener parts or simply fold them in such a way that you later could not confuse them.
As for how best to remove the remnants of old glue, especially epoxy. Those places where there are glue residues must be covered with pre-moistened rags or sponges. Any old and unnecessary rags will do. Hold it on the chair until the glue is completely wet, after which it can be quickly scraped off with a knife.
Please note! It's best to find an old, dull knife for this job, as there is no point in using a new or well-sharpened one.
In any case, after you have finished disposing of the old glue, you will need to allow some time to dry the wood pieces. In cases where the epoxy has got into a hard-to-reach place, it can be removed in much the same way, with the only difference that steam will need to be used instead of water. If you do not have any special devices that create hot steam under pressure, you can use the old old-fashioned "method", which involves using a hose with a tip that goes over the spout of the kettle.
Step-by-step recovery instructions
So, after the preparation has been completed, we can proceed directly to restoring the old chair. Here's what you need to do:
- First of all, get rid of chips and possible cracks. This is done with a putty.
- Then sand the wood thoroughly with coarse grit and then fine grit to make the work surface smooth.
- Take a good look at the stele and all its details. If the legs are loose, then this needs to be addressed. There are several options: either the use of a wedge (it is driven in from the end of the trunnion), or wrapping the trunnion with a bandage, followed by smearing with glue.
- If the legs of the chair are very loose, but, for one reason or another, it was not possible to dismantle it, then there is one way that helps to solve the problem. So, you need to drill a thin hole at the junction, and then pour glue there using a syringe.
- In order for the glue to "take on" better, and the connection becomes reliable, put any available weight on the seat and wait until the glue is completely dry.
- After that, the chair seat is restored, if necessary. It can consist of soft upholstery or made of wood. It all depends on the design of the chair. As for the rework of the frame, then several different finishing options can be used for it, ranging from varnishing or red and ending with such a rare technique as decoupage.
By the way! Alternatively, you can sew the covers. This will not only update the old chair, but also make it attractive through the interchangeable cover designs.
DIY recovery
Now let's see what can be done with antique chairs during restoration and how best to decorate them.
Decor with fabric
It is quite simple to make such decoration. You need to either make a constriction of old soft places, or sew covers. By the way, a similar approach can be applied to sofas and other pieces of furniture.
Backrest update
There are different options. Among the most common ones that can give new life to chairs are decoupage and the use of textiles (including denim).
Restoration using upholstery constriction
The main thing in this case is the choice of high-quality and durable fabric. These include jute, tapestry and jacquard. Sometimes velor will do. Upholstering chairs using tapestry is a great technique that, by the way, gives an excellent result in the end. By the way, you can add a pattern woven according to the macrame method to the fabric.
We use macrame for decoration
If we talk about macrame in a little more detail, then it should be noted that this can be done even if you do not have the skills of weaving with this method.
One possibility is that if the back of the old chair is soft, remove the upholstery and weave a simple square mesh. By the way, the size of the cells can be as large or small. To give the new chair a more harmonious look, you can also redo the seat upholstery.
Decoupage technique
This option can make a true decoration out of your chair. Using this method, you can decorate a lot of things by completing various crafts, up to decorating a box for souvenirs. So, you can extend the life of antique chairs, however, only if all their structural elements are made of wood.
Jute decoration
And finally, I would like to say a few words about how you can decorate an old, for example, a Soviet chair, if you have unnecessary or torn jeans. There are two options for making the decor: completely pull the chair with jute, and use denim as an additional decoration. It can be a strip or a small patch.
Time passes, and even good-quality things wear out, lose their former gloss and just break. But do not rush to send a shabby stool to the landfill, it can still become a stylish and functional piece of furniture. Stool restoration will take a lot of time and effort, but the result will exceed all expectations.
Before deciding how to restore an old chair with your own hands, you need to take care of its stability. With prolonged use, the furniture looses: the wood dries up, and the glued spike joints cease to fulfill their function.
A stunning effect can be achieved simply by painting the chairs in different colors.
Carpentry work
- First, the nodal connection is disassembled. Be careful not to damage it. The thorn is swung and at the same time tapped with a hammer on the knot.
- The place of the groove is cleaned of old glue and dust. It is convenient to do this with a chisel or a knife.
- Then the spike and socket are evenly and thinly coated with glue with a viscosity of 200.
- After the knot is assembled and clamped in clamps. The product must be in the clamping device for at least three hours. The residues of the dispersion are removed with a damp cloth.
Important! If a bolted connection needs to be repaired, place metal or plastic washers under the nuts and tighten the nuts.
- If the wooden elements do not adhere to the lugs, you can increase the missing volume with a thin piece of wood. Use casein or skin glue. The adhesive is left pressed in for 8-10 hours in a warm room. Professional craftsmen use a belt tie, which allows you to achieve the desired gluing force.
- If the spike breaks, it is better to replace the defective part with a new one. The leg is processed with a hacksaw and the nest is cut out with a chisel to a depth of 50 mm. After that, an insert of the required size is cut out and hammered into it with a hammer.
Advice. Use a PVA dispersion, it is non-toxic and not prone to degradation. Epoxy glue "Master" or "EDP" is also suitable.
You can securely fix the legs with wooden scarves. You will also need studs with nuts and washers.
Removing the old coating
Use sandpaper to get rid of the old coating. It is not necessary to completely remove the entire top, it is important to create a smooth and even surface. Do-it-yourself chair restorations won't feel overwhelming if you use a sander.
Advice. The varnish can be removed with technical acetone. They moisten a napkin with it and wipe the product well. This leaves the natural color of the wood.
The grinding machine will speed up the process of removing the old layer
Finishing: painting and varnishing
Since the wood absorbs liquid well enough, the surface must be primed before finishing, this will reduce the consumption of material. A colorless primer is suitable if the wood will only be varnished. Otherwise, choose a white primer. Chairs in white or black look great with contrasting upholstery.
Important! Put on a respirator and gloves before work.
- Apply 1-2 coats of primer. When the chair is dry, use a fine-grained sandpaper to run over it.
- Now use a wax balm, it will give the surface a special shine. Then polish everything with a brush.
- Paint the chair twice. The second layer is applied to a dry surface.
- Apply a thin layer of varnish along the grain of the wood.
Advice. Use a water-based paint, it is easy to apply and dries quickly. You will also need a stencil if you want to decorate the chair with an original pattern.
Polishing and painting is best done outdoors.
Dismantling and hauling the seat
You will need: a furniture stapler, staples, a screwdriver with attachments, foam rubber 5 cm thick (or two pieces 2-3 cm thick), thick fabric for the backing and upholstery fabric for the top. The filling for the seats can be synthetic winterizer, batting, foam rubber.
- Remove the seat and upholstery first. Do not throw away the solid wood base.
- Turn the chair over and remove all fasteners holding the seat. Remove the factory brackets.
- Pull out the frame with the spring. Free it from any remaining filler.
- Cut a rectangle out of thick fabric to fit the seat, cut out the upholstery with a margin. The allowance should be 6-8 cm.
- Place a thick fabric backing on the spring. Use a furniture stapler to attach the fabric to the frame.
- Lay a layer of filler on top. The optimum seat thickness is 4-5 cm.
- Then install the upholstery material, it is most convenient to do this with an assistant. The upholstery can be a special textile material, as well as linen and leather.
The fabric at the corners can be fixed in this way.
Creative solutions for exclusive design
- First, the chair is painted with two different colors of paints, for example turquoise (1st layer) and white (2nd layer). Then the surface of the back and legs is carefully treated with a fine-grained sandpaper so that the “scuffed” effect appears. The color of the upholstery material should be in harmony with the color of the painted part.
- To give the chairs a vintage flair, they are painted in cream, blue, pink. After that, the whole chair or only part of it is decorated with painting. Then separate details are selected with gold paint or a craquelure varnish is applied to the entire surface. Small cracks will create an antique effect.
Also a curious vintage
- If you want to recreate the Empire style, choose a milky satin with a floral print. Cover the frame with "gold" paint.
- Make a chair cover, it will not only keep the furniture from getting dirty, but also change its design.
Sewing a cover will take a couple of hours of time, and a novice seamstress can also cope with such work
- The seat upholstery can be made up of 30 different colored leather belts. They are intertwined with each other according to the "basket" principle and are fixed from below with self-tapping screws.
Seat upholstery with belts
Patchwork - patchwork upholstery for a "bright" mood
Often there are things in the closet that have not been worn for a long time. An old shirt and frayed jeans will do just fine as raw materials for the upholstery of country chairs. If you find suitable shreds, you need to choose shades and cut out the constituent elements.
Tip: Do not use stretch materials. At first, choose simple, uncomplicated drawing schemes.
Bright accents will dilute strict monotony
We decorate a stool using decoupage technique
Would you like to renovate your kitchen in an inexpensive way? Decoupage is able to make the most ordinary-looking furniture original and attractive. You will need napkins or fabric with a suitable pattern, leather appliqués are also suitable.
On sale you can find special cards for decoupage
- After sandpapering, the cracks are sealed with a putty, the product is primed and covered with a water emulsion.
- Then a suitable picture is cut out from a napkin, the surface of the chair is smeared with glue and the drawing is carefully applied. Moving from the center to the edges, smooth it out.
- The completely dry surface is varnished.
You can decorate the seat, back or legs in this way. Decoupage is ideal for furniture in a nursery or kitchen
A great solution for transforming an old stool
Video master class: we update old furniture
An unstable chair irritates with its creak and carries a potential danger - at any moment it can collapse under the weight of a person sitting on it. If you have experience, you can strengthen the structure, repaint the base and re-tighten the seat yourself. But if you do not know the secrets of carpentry, it is worth contacting professionals who know how to restore an old chair, and therefore will carry out the repair efficiently and quickly.
Photos of chairs before and after the transformation
In almost every home, you can find several old chairs, the appearance of which leaves much to be desired. Do not rush to throw them away. Restoration will help you breathe a second life into an old but favorite piece of furniture.
The restoration gives the chair a second life and creates unique furniture.
With just a little effort, old chairs or armchairs will turn into real works of art and will delight their owners for years to come.
Give a second life
Do-it-yourself chair restoration is not so much a difficult process as a painstaking one.
Before getting down to business, you must carefully inspect the product. Based on the results of the inspection, it will become clear what to do: just re-tighten the seat of the chair, renew the paintwork, or carry out more serious repairs.
If the chair is loose, then the cause should be sought in the spike joints. Over time, the wood shrinks, the connecting elements begin to dangle in their nests. To eliminate this and strengthen the structure, it is necessary to increase the size of the spike, to tighten the drawers and replace the power bridges.
Assembly diagram and chair constriction.
The restoration of the paintwork will require less effort. The old paint will have to be removed, the surface of the parts sanded and covered with paint or varnish. For high-quality work, the chair must be disassembled: remove the seat, unscrew the back and legs. If the design of the product is complex and has many small parts, then during disassembly, a diagram of the location of each part should be drawn up. This will make it easier to assemble the chair after the restoration is complete.
The easiest way to update an old chair is to replace the upholstery. Replacing old and worn fabric can change the appearance of furniture beyond recognition. If necessary, updating chairs with your own hands can be done in any one way or include all of the listed types of work.
Preparing for recovery
Before starting work, you need to prepare tools and materials. If the chair needs serious repair, then you will need:
The old chair must be disassembled prior to restoration.
- Screwdriver.
- Screwdrivers.
- Hammer.
- Mallet.
- Clamps.
- Metal clamps.
- Emery paper of various grain sizes.
- Construction stapler and staples.
- Acrylic paint and brushes.
- Scissors, pencil or felt-tip pen, cardboard, tailor's tape.
- Foam rubber.
- Heavyweight upholstery fabric.
- Bucket, rag and dishwashing liquid.
The first step in restoring your stool is to cleanse it of dust and dirt. To wash it well, you need warm water, a soft cloth, and some dishwashing liquid. This solution will help to quickly clean the stool not only of dirt, but also of some of the old varnish. The washing procedure must be carried out promptly so that the wood does not come into contact with water for a long time, and then everything must be thoroughly dried.
The next stage of restoration is dismantling. First you need to remove the back and rear legs. The main thing here is to adhere to the rule: the assembly of the chair should be carried out in the reverse order. This is the only way all the holes will coincide with each other. In addition, all parts and fasteners must be labeled. This will make assembly easier too.
Tools for the restoration of chairs: batting, fabric for upholstery, stapler, staples, foam, cardboard, screwdriver, scissors.
If the heads of the screws that hold the parts together are hidden in the slots and they are covered with wooden plugs, then they can be removed using a chisel. If this does not work, then you need to use a drill, the diameter of which is equal to the diameter of the plug, and drill it out. The opened screw is turned out with a screwdriver. A drop of technical oil applied to the screw will make the job easier.
If the chair has been bonded with epoxy, hot water will help remove it. Wet a rag or napkin and put in place of gluing. Repeat the procedure until the glue is completely softened. Then you need to scrape it off with a knife and dry the parts. Hot steam will help soften the glue in tight joints. To do this, a rubber hose is put on the spout of the kettle, and a stream of steam is directed to the connection.
Processing and assembly of parts
In order to properly restore the chair, it must be carefully examined. All parts should be sanded with sandpaper. Glue the detected large cracks and tighten them with clamps. Smaller ones should be glued and secured with paper tape. Excess holes and chips on the parts should be filled with gruel from glue and fine sawdust. You can continue to work only after the glue is completely dry.
To facilitate work with sandpaper, it must be cut into narrow strips and glued to wooden blocks 20-40 mm wide and 300-350 mm long. The paper should be of different grain sizes. The surface after processing should be flat and smooth. A sander will help to facilitate the work and significantly reduce the processing time.
Be sure to check all the connections. If the legs of the chair are inserted directly into the seat and over time they began to sit loosely in the nests, then to strengthen them, it is enough to wedge them. At the ends of the upper narrowed parts of the legs, a cut is made and a wedge is driven into it. Thanks to this technique, the diameter of the end will become larger and it will sit more tightly in the socket, which must be pre-coated with glue.
It will be more difficult to restore chairs with crossbars between the legs and drawers under the seat. In such structures, a thorn-groove connection and gluing are used to fasten parts. When the seam weakens, you need to drill a hole with a small diameter from the inside and put a few drops of glue there with a syringe. When the thorn is weakened, it must be reinforced with thin wedges. For this purpose, matches or wood chips, which are dipped in glue, are suitable. They must be driven into the nest together with a thorn.
If the chair is very loose, then in addition to gluing the joints, you need to strengthen the structure with wooden bars. They should be attached with screws to the side bars, which are used to connect the inner corners of the frame. Bars and drawers must be perfectly matched to each other. Even the smallest gap between them will cause the entire structure to skew.
Now you can start assembling the chair frame. All parts must be in place. Sufficient pressure must be provided for the adhesive to set. Pull the elements to be glued with clamps or cords. A bucket of water can be placed on the seat. This will provide the necessary pressure. With such a load, the chair should stand for at least 24 hours. Excess glue must be immediately removed with a wet cloth.
Replacing the soft seat
If your chair has a soft seat that needs replacing, it's time to start. First you need to remove the old fabric and padding. If there are defects on the wooden surface, then they must be eliminated.
Marking should be done on the new foam rubber. The old seat is applied to the foam rubber and circled with a felt-tip pen. To cut straight, you need to take a sharp knife. Then make a pattern on the fabric, taking into account the hem allowances and foam rubber. Next, spread the pattern face down on a flat surface. Foam rubber is placed on top, and then the seat. The allowances need to be wrapped on the wrong side, pulled and aligned on the front side. Align the folds in the corners, fold the edges and attach the material with a stapler. If it is not at hand, then you can use small carnations, which have wide caps. Attach the updated seat to the frame with metal corners and self-tapping screws. If the chair has a padded back, then it is restored in the same manner as the seat.
Fully refurbished and refurbished, the chair will serve its owners for years to come.
Restoration of chairs has become a popular business in the 21st century. Many people, equipping their apartments, strive to fill them with antiques. But not everyone can afford to buy antiques. And therefore, the owners prefer to renew the old furniture that they inherited and in memory of the past was not thrown into a landfill.
Interior items that have an unpresentable appearance, which have been gathering dust in summer cottages and attics for a long time, are handed over to professionals in order to then decorate the rooms of their home with furniture that has found a second life. But, in order to update the dilapidated soft part, the back and legs, it is not necessary to contact the masters, because the owners can do this themselves. 
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How do I upgrade my chair?
Do-it-yourself restoration of old chairs is an interesting and easy task. Knowing some of its subtleties and armed with the necessary tools and materials, in just a few hours you can turn a shabby and faded object into a bright and unique element of the interior of your own house, summer cottage or apartment.
The main concerns of all solid wood chairs are:
- peeling paint and varnish;
- holes made by small insects;
- scratches and cracks;
- drying out of parts, as a result of which the object began to wobble.
All these problems can be easily eliminated by covering the damage with wood glue, painting with special compounds and varnishing each wooden element.
To restore a chair consisting not only of hard, but also of soft parts (seat and back), the fabric or leather material of which fades and becomes damaged over time, you should replace the filler in the leaky element and decorate the upholstery with fashionable fabric.
Restoration methods by decorating the chair
To give an antique piece of furniture a fresh and attractive look, the following methods are used:
- Application of several layers of varnish or paint to wooden elements.
- The use of decoupage technique.
- Decoration of a piece of furniture with fabric material.
- Frame repair and upholstery hauling.
Do-it-yourself restoration of an old chair should be done carefully and without haste so as not to damage or break it.
Decor with fabric
Among the types of restoration work carried out on furniture, decor with the help of fabric is often found. It looks unusual and can be used for both temporary and permanent chair transformation.
This method consists in decorating parts of a wood product with ribbons and satin stripes of one or more colors. They can either simply cover individual elements, or make luxurious flowers, butterflies from fabric, tie bows and decorate the back of the item with them. Such decor is often used to decorate a festive event (theme party, birthday, New Year's Eve).
Do-it-yourself chair restoration can be done using jute rope. For this purpose, you need to remove the soft parts of the product, and instead wind a rope around the frame, weaving it with a net or using the macrame technique.
Before decorating old furniture with fabrics, it should be renewed (repaired and painted), since the material will not completely cover the entire product. An interesting option for updating an interior item will be sewing a cover for it. You can make several versions of the product and change them periodically.
Decoupage technique
Decoupage is the decoration of interior items with ornaments or pictures cut from special napkins, wallpaper or paper and glued to a previously prepared surface.
To transform an antique chair using decoupage, we restore its solid parts step by step:
- All the old layer of paint or varnish is removed from the tree.
- The top of the product is leveled with putty.
- A primer is applied to the elements of the object.
- Furniture is painted with a composition of a suitable shade. For the decoupage technique, it is better to make the wooden surface lighter than it was (it is worth painting the product white or cream, then the drawing will look more impressive).
- The desired picture is cut out of paper and glued to the area to be decorated.
- The pasted drawing is painted over at the edges with a translucent composition.
- The entire product is covered with acrylic varnish on top.
It is not difficult to update old chairs with your own hands using decoupage technique. But this work takes more time than other methods of decoration, because one layer of the coating (primer, paint, etc.) should dry completely, and then another layer can be applied to it.
Stool restoration by staining
The fastest way to refurbish a wooden chair is by painting it. Before this, the surface of the product must be cleaned from the previous coating with sandpaper. Sanding parts of the interior item, you need to move the sandpaper in the direction of the wood fibers so that they do not stand upright. Dust generated during this process should be removed with a dry cloth, otherwise the paint will lie unevenly. The next step is to coat the surface with a primer. After it dries, you can start painting.
The product is covered with stain, oil, enamel, acrylic and chalk paints. Using a brush, they are applied in several layers to the hard parts of the chair with a back, so that the compositions lie evenly. If you want the piece of furniture to shine, then apply varnish on top of the paint.
Restoration using upholstery constriction
And for artsy Viennese, and for simple furniture, a banner of the soft part is often used. For fresh upholstery, you can use a variety of materials: microfiber, jacquard, flock, chenille, etc. The main condition is that the fabric for restoration of the chair should be dense to the touch, strong, easy to clean, wear-resistant and not fading in the sun.
To re-stretch the upholstery, you need to remove the old material. It will come in handy as a pattern for sewing. Place the seat on the foam rubber, circle the base with a felt-tip pen or marker, cut it along the drawn line. Place the faded or torn fabric on heavy fabric and follow the same procedure as with foam rubber.
If you decide to restore an old chair yourself, turning a solid wooden piece of furniture into one that is comfortable to sit on, then allocate an amount of material for upholstery that is 5-6 cm larger than the size of the foam rubber. The allowance is needed in order to tuck the fabric under the seat. When the fabric has been cut, place it on the foam rubber with slight tension and even out any folds. Then secure the upholstery to the padded element using staples.
Step-by-step instructions for stool recovery
Correct home stool restoration includes the following operations:
- Prepare the tools and materials required for the job.
- Clean and wash all parts of the product from dust and dirt.
- Dry the piece of furniture thoroughly.
- Disassemble the product.
- Repair wooden elements: legs and frame.
- Sand hard parts.
- Assemble the frame.
- Cover the tree with paints and varnishes.
- Decorate with fabric, ribbons, jute rope.
If you need to turn a hard chair into a comfortable one, then, while the wood parts are drying, a comfortable seat is made or its constriction is performed. Then the soft elements of the furniture are connected to its frame.