Restoring Chairs

[Steam.Jo]

In my dining room I have some rather smart Oak chairs which are now getting on for 20 years old which I sit on to do cross stitch (which involves lots of fidgeting around on the chair). After about 15 years they became squeaky where the glue began to fail, the leather started cracking/fraying and subsequently the joints have started coming part The idea of having to find some replacement that I liked was not something I wanted to do so time to work in the brown stuff and learn how to do upholstery

This is one of the 6 chairs:



First job is to pull it apart: Some joints have already broken the others will need the glue softened using some white vinegar or acetone. The separating task was carried out by using two spreader clamps to pull the chair apart which required a special 30/60 degree cut away in a couple of pieces of plastic to provide a flat surface for spreading against the back legs and Luckily I remembered to number the joints:




At this stage each joint has to have all the old glue scraped off as glue does not stick to glue. And give the acetone or vinegar plenty of time to evaporate off. In the meantime I ordered some new fangled wood glue only to find that the new stuff only has a 12 months shelf life my old Bostik W has no such date but lets play safe use the new stuff

Clamping back together:



Wait 48 hours before taking the clamps off:



I am at this stage with two of the wobbly chairs and have just taken apart a third so time to look into the upholstery:




The seat is a soft leather it reminds me of an old leather jacket motorcycle jacket I once had so it could be shearling but its had it :-\ I have purchased some good quality leatherette the sort that is used for Car upholstery. This of course came folded up so had to be hung in the sun or warmed with a hair dryer to remove the creases. I have ordered replacement Upholstery webbing and some Corovin Lining material and am waiting for those to turn up...

In the meantime I can report pulling the staples out of the bottom of the seat is sooooo much fun

That is where I am as of today in this restoration job

Jo

[rcperryls]

I love your ability to repair and refurbish and create all sorts of things. Your chairs will surely last another 20 years!

Carole

[Mabel Figworthy]

Make Do and Mend! Great project

[Steam.Jo]

I am please this is getting some interest. I hate throwing out perfectly good stuff especially as it is normally better quality than can be purchased

A friend has offered to lend me an electric stapler but that is not going to arrive for another 10 days I decided to press onward.

The elastic has gone on the seat so it had to come off:



More staples to pull out. The corners of the seat frame were also loose so these have been stuck back together using epoxy resin (as it has a better gap filling property than white glue).

Then some new elastic can be added. Fixing on one end, pulling it to provide a bit of tension then stapling the other end. I noticed that the original ends were cut with a knife blade. My initial attempt to cut the elastic proved that I needed a better pair of scissors so my new razor sharp Fiskars came out and they cut the elastic like it was butter.



I was warned that the hand stapler might prove to be a bit hard on my hand and yes I am looking forward to the electric stapler turning up

The bottom of the foam shows that while it is going a bit brown it is still usable:



The leather cover is a bit miss-shapened



and I believe I will need to flatten it to use it as the pattern for the seat cover but before I cut anything I will talk to the retired upholsterer on Friday at the sewing group .

Jo

P.S. In the meantime I am also doing a major service on my Lawn tractor: I have repaired the front steering, today I de-rusted the mower blade guard. While at it I found the blades had seen better days and both drive belts need replacing. Good job I can't think of anything I need for the stash because service this is not cheap.

[rcperryls]

I do find this interesting, especially since I probably have negative mechanical ability and not a lot of strength in my hands (i.e. opening jars, water bottles etc requires gadgets and/or assistance). Fortunately I have a neighbor who is always glad to help. Actually there are 4 of us who are good friends and help each other whenever help is needed. I really do admire this skill.

Carole

[richardandtracy]

Jo, that looks fascinating.

I suspect the leather of the seat was flat when it was originally put on, and close to the current shape of the perimeter.

I've not re-upholstered a seat, but I have done a fabric lining to a van during a home done motorhome conversion (it was a Mk1 Sprinter, mwb, high roof, I put in windows, cupboards, bed/two sofas facing each other, table & seatbelts in the back). I used foam backed car seat fabric stapled to a 6mm thick plywood liner to line the van. On the liners I cut the fabric oversize, then stapled the middle of the long edges, pulling as tight as seemed reasonable. Then went to the short edges and did the same there before working towards the corners from the middle of each side, keeping everything tight, wrinkle free & symmetrical as I went. After finishing, I then trimmed the fabric to within about 1/2" of the staples. It worked quite well, and by the time I did the 9th & last panel I felt confident enough to start doing the first panel properly... Also, using a hand stapler, I felt as if my forearm muscles had doubled in size - I got through a pack of 5000 off 6mm long leg staples.

We had the van 17 years, and by the end of that time the van had serious rust. Mercedes changed to water based paints around the time our Sprinter was built, and the first water based paints were not too good. I understand with the cars, Mercedes paid several thousands per car in compensation due to diminished value at age. That didn't happen with the vans as they were expected to reach their mileage life before reaching the rust limitation point. We bought ours at 95k miles, and 17 years later it only had 129k miles. Anyway, by the time we sold it, the van was the age we'd initially planned to change it (20 years old), so we were reasonably happy. Anyway, the interior worked well, and the foam backed fabric seemed to work happily despite the novice fitting it and learning on the job. I'm sure you'll do the seat squab better than it was originally made.

Regards,
Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Your method of stapling sounds very much like the method for pinning a finished embroidery when mounting it to lace it - first secure the centres of every side, then work towards the edges. How interesting that these techniques "transfer" between different disciplines!

[Steam.Jo]

A couple of weeks later, electric stapler to hand...

I mentioned I hand purchased some leatherette. My friendly upholster also mentioned about using a hairdryer to remove creases or to help the fabric stretch. So having put one central staple in each side to hold the fabric taught the tricky task of stretching the leatherette not leaving any creases on the sides:



Initially I found the electric stapler could not drive the staples into the wood and that the hand stapler gave me greater control. Then I replaced the staples in the electric stapler with the shorter ones and they started going in easier. Which is better? The hand stapler provides better control and is getting the staples in nicely but I wouldn't want to do many by hand so I think there is a place for both

The untidy messy underside is hidden under some lining material:



The lining material folds under and hides under a second ring of staples.



Then it is a case of lining up the pad with the chair and screwing it back in place and amazingly I found the screw holes first time



One done, 5 more to go then I will get my workshop back.

Jo

[Mabel Figworthy]

That is a beautiful result

[rcperryls]

Looks like professional reupholstery to me!!

Carole

[fccs]

Looks like professional reupholstery to me!!

Carole

I completely agree! Well done!

[wendywombat]

Well we expect nothing less from Jo....who is able to tackle all sorts of things from stitching to heavy engineering

[richardandtracy]

When looking at the photos of an original next to the re-upholstered one, comparing the corner of each chair nearest the camera, the re-done one has no visible fabric crease and the original does. As a result the re-done one looks better by far than the black nearer one - as expected. Congratulations.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

Wow. Just wow.