Reupholster a Chair From the Bones Up. Сhairs 43 Years Old

by Polkilo in Workshop > Furniture

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Reupholster a Chair From the Bones Up. Сhairs 43 Years Old

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Hello!

My brother bought a house. And we find two old chairs. They almost 43 years old! They where made in USSR! But they still in nice condition. So i decided to restore them!

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This is a pretty simple step. Just rip all the old fabric off the chair. Also, the chairs I redid had nails holding the fabric in place, and when I ripped the fabric off, there were still nails all over the frame of the chair. If your chair has nails in it, be sure to take the nails out before you start putting the new fabric on. This will make it easier later on (learned that the hard way).

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I don't like the color of wood legs, so i decided to remove old lac. I used paint remover. I applied it on the wood, waiting about 10 minutes and remove it with knife. after that I sanded it with sandpaper

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Then we varnished the wood. The varnish was applied in two layers

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With the springs in, you're ready for the upper layer of seat padding. Protect this layer by first covering the metal springs with a layer of heavy burlap. Cut burlap more or less to size . Staple it down across the back of the chair, pulling it fairly tight side-to-side.

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Then I put the pattern on a piece of foam that I purchased from my local store. The foam is 5 см thick, I cut it with kitchen sharp knife. An electric knife would work much better. I glued foam to the wood with spay glue.

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The batting is soo important because not only does it make the chair super comfy, it also protects the the fabric from getting worn out by the wooden frame. So yay for batting!! a twin sized package of batting should be enough to reupholster one chair.

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Match up your new material and center your design accordingly. Then using a staple gun, tack on each corner to hold the material centered. Then pull the material around and staple it in, moving along each edge. At each corner, fold the material such that the corner doesn't protrude out and then staple it down also. The original staples were angled 45 degrees to each edge to prevent the material from ripping or fraying and so i stapled in on an angle also.

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Now I connect 2 parts of the chair together (seat and back). I screw in self-tapping screws to make the structure stronger. I fix the fabric with a stapler

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I replaced the old, rusty screws with new ones. I made a hole in the fabric for the screws. Around the fabric was fixed with staples.

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I decided to paint the legs white. I wrapped the legs with tape and painted them.

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I removed the old back of the chair and cut out a new back with a saw. I cut out a piece of fabric a little larger than the back of the chair. Then i applied glue on it and glued the fabric. I fixed the back with a nailer.

To hide the springs, the bottom of the chair is covered with fabric.

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Mid Century Chair Restoration 🪑 || Old Armchair Restoration. DIY🛠 HOW TO REUPHOLSTER A CHAIR

Woohoo! You reupholstered a chairs! Now you can enjoy it :)

I'm sure that we will use them for a long long time!

Hope you enjoy your chairs :)