If the old chair has lost its appearance andfunctional qualities, you can try to restore it instead of recycling it. You need to remake the chair yourself before the degree of its wear reaches its limit.
Scheme of chair re-upholstery Restoring furniture is a fascinating activity, not too difficult, but time-consuming.
Types of alteration of the chair
Since there are degrees of damage to furnituredifferent, the types of its restoration and alteration also differ in their degree of complexity. If the chair, in addition to losing its appearance, has become loose over time, then it will be necessary to change the tenon joints that have dried out over time. It is necessary to inspect the chair: if the contacts of the grooves and tenons are weakened, they can be easily removed from the sockets, therefore, the size of the tenon will need to be increased, the power jumpers will need to be replaced. In this case, the chair will need to be completely disassembled. If the frame holds well, and the problem is only in the appearance, it may be necessary to replace the coating. Wooden parts of the chair are always varnished so that the wood is better preserved. To replace the varnish layer, you must first carefully remove the old one, and the parts can be additionally painted or covered with patterns.
Tools required for work:screwdriver, wrench, safety pins, pliers, screwdriver. Carved and molded elements often complement chairs well after restoration and remodeling. The work of replacing the upholstery requires time, patience and accuracy. In order not to spoil the upholstery fabric, the chair is sometimes completely disassembled. The simplest type of restoration is re-upholstery on the chair. Upholstered furniture is transformed beyond recognition when the worn old fabric is replaced with new, and the upholstery no longer sags and holds its shape well. If you have the tools, you can do it in a day, an experienced person can do it even faster. Return to contents</a>
Preparation of the chair: tools and materials
For a complete overhaul of the chair time andyou will need quite a few tools. All parts need to be sanded well, removing layers of dirt and grease on them, sometimes you need to wash them in warm soapy water and dry them first. The old varnish and paint will partially fall off during washing. Taking a wire brush, you can speed up this process and even remove the coating completely, but further grinding of the parts will still be necessary. In order to remake the chair, you need the following elements:
- foam rubber, sintepon, latex for a new filler;
- dense upholstery of good quality;
- scissors;
- Screwdriver Set;
- a hammer;
- screwdriver and screws;
- a furniture stapler and special staples for it;
- sandpaper or grinding wheel with a grinding wheel;
- Clamps;
- metal clamps;
- joiner glue;
- paint, stain, solvent, nitrolac and suitable paint brushes.
If all the operations are not required to remake the chair, some of the tools responsible for them can be excluded. Return to Contents</a>
How to dismantle an armchair?
Tool for disassembling the chair into partspractically not required, as the back and armrests need to be loosened even more and removed, applying some force and trying not to break the wooden tenons. Even if they sit weakly in the sockets, it is always more difficult to remove the fragments than the whole part. A hammer wrapped in a soft cloth or a special rubber mallet will help to disconnect the joints. Strong joints are disassembled with special care, as this is where the fasteners are easiest to break.
Scheme for repairing an old chair.Some joints in chairs are fastened with screws with stripped or stuck threads. Stubborn screws can be softened by dripping technical oils on them, and stripped threads have to be extracted with pliers using force. To avoid confusion in the future, all removed parts and fasteners are immediately marked. Hot water helps to separate glued joints. I wet a rag in it and put it on the stubborn gluing place, repeating the process until the glue soaks and the parts do not separate. You can help the separation with a thin knife, gradually pushing it into the gap. If the glue residue and the unreliable element are in a hard-to-reach place, you can act more cunningly. Put a rubber hose on the spout of a teapot, direct a stream of steam at the seam. This softens even the tightest joints, and after 1-2 minutes the parts can be separated. Return to contents</a>
Inspection and restoration of wooden parts
All elements of the chair after disassembly and removalupholstery, washing and sanding should be carefully examined. Existing cracks are glued, tightly pulled together with clamps. Smaller defects after gluing are well held by paper tape. If the parts are round and large, metal clamps will come to the rescue. Unnecessary holes and chips are filled with a mixture of glue and sawdust. Restoration and remodeling of the chair will not be successful if the glue does not dry and does not set properly. Therefore, at least 2 days are allocated for drying. Then the final sanding of the chair parts occurs using sandpaper of various fractions. The surface should be perfectly smooth. Return to the table of contents</a>
Sizing and assembling parts
Chair cover diagram.The gluing and joining areas are carefully examined once again. The dried parts are wrapped with a bandage to give them the required volume, in tight turns, with glue applied on each turn. If the legs no longer sit in their sockets, they need to be wedged. To do this, a gap is drilled in the end, a wooden wedge is driven into it, thin but wide. In this way, the diameter of the end will be increased and the legs of the chair will sit firmly in their sockets. This is suitable for those models of chairs where the legs are inserted directly into the seat board. But if a chair of another model is being remade, in which there are side rails under the seat and crossbars between the legs, then the process is different. The most difficult option is a rocking chair. These parts are connected with tenons and additionally reinforced with glue. Glue of this kind is injected into weakened seams using a syringe through a thin hole drilled from the inside. And if the tenon itself has dried out over time, then thin wedges in the form of specially planed chips or matches are added during assembly. They are dipped in glue and hammered into the nest together with the tenon. The seat can be additionally secured from the outside using special metal corners to give the frame special strength and durability. Having completely disassembled and glued such complex joints, trapezoid bars are screwed onto the inner corners of the frame using screws. In this design, even small discrepancies will skew the chair even worse than before, so the frame and the ends of the bars must match perfectly. Glue sets better under pressure during assembly, so the frame is pulled together with clamps and clamps with mandatory observance of a strict ratio of angles. Glue protruding from the joints is removed with a cloth, wiping the parts dry. The frame stands for 2 days, after which you can proceed to the final finishing of the chair. Return to the table of contents</a>
External carcass finish: upholstery replacement
The frame of the product is primed or coatedstain, you can paint it by hand, burn it or use decoupage. With any chosen method, it is necessary to put several layers of varnish on top, giving each one time to dry. The more thin layers of varnish are put on the wood, the better it looks, if there are no bubbles and other irregularities. To achieve good laying of layers, the varnish is put thinly and dried well, sometimes using a hair dryer for this. Then proceed to fixing the new upholstery on the chair. Foam rubber is cut along the contour of the seat, back and armrests with a sharp knife. The upholstery fabric is also cut according to the shape of the seat, back and armrests, but at the same time allowances for seams (hemming) and the thickness of the filler are added. The cut fabric is placed on the table or floor face down, the filler is placed on it. The fabric is folded inward, secured with several stitches and transferred to the frame of the chair, starting with the seat. The edges are attached with a stapler, stretching and leveling the surface of the fabric. If you don’t have a furniture stapler at hand, you can use a hammer and special upholstery nails with a wide decorative head. The same operations are repeated with the back and armrests, trying to attach the fabric as tightly to each other as possible. Some models with increased volume filler require first attaching the upholstery to the parts, and then assembling. But it’s better not to choose this option at home, as the strength of the connections will inevitably suffer.
