You can find several in almost every homeold chairs whose appearance leaves much to be desired. Don't rush to throw them away. Restoration will help breathe new life into an old but beloved piece of furniture.
The restoration gives the chair a second life and createsunique furniture. Just a little effort, and old chairs or armchairs will turn into real works of art and will delight their owners for many years.
Give a second life
Restoring chairs with your own hands -the process is not so much complicated as painstaking. Before getting down to business, it is necessary to carefully inspect the product. Based on the inspection results, it will become clear what to do: simply re-upholster the chair seat, renew the paintwork, or carry out more serious repairs. If the chair has become loose, then the reason should be sought in the tenon 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 tenon size, seal the sidebars and replace the power jumpers.
Scheme of chair assembly and re-upholstery.Restoring the paintwork will require less effort. The old paint will have to be removed, the surface of the parts sanded and coated with paint or varnish. To perform the work well, 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 made. 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 the furniture beyond recognition. If necessary, it can be done in any one way or include all of the listed types of work. Return to Contents</a>
Preparing for recovery
Before you start working, you need to prepare tools and materials. If the chair needs serious repairs, you will need:
Before restoration, the old chair must be disassembled.
The first step towards restoring your stool iscleaning it from dust and dirt. To wash it well, you will need warm water, a soft cloth and a little dishwashing liquid. This solution will help to quickly clean the chair not only from dirt, but also from some of the old varnish. The washing procedure should be carried out quickly so that the wood does not come into contact with water for long, and then everything needs to 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 follow the rule: the chair should be assembled in the reverse order. This is the only way all the holes will match each other. In addition, all parts and fasteners need to be marked. This will also make assembly easier.
Tools for chair restoration:batting, upholstery fabric, stapler, staples, foam adhesive, cardboard, screwdriver, scissors. If the screw heads that hold the parts together are hidden in their sockets and covered with wooden plugs, you can remove them with a chisel. If this doesn't work, use a drill with a diameter equal to the diameter of the plug and drill it out. The exposed screw is unscrewed with a screwdriver. A drop of technical oil applied to the screw will make the job easier. If the chair was held together with epoxy resin, hot water will help remove it. Wet a rag or napkin and place it on the gluing area. Repeat the procedure until the glue is completely softened. Then scrape it off with a knife and dry the parts. Hot steam will help soften the glue in tight joints. To do this, put a rubber hose on the spout of the kettle and direct the stream of steam at the joint. Return to contents</a>
Machining and assembly of parts
To restore a chair properly,It is necessary to carefully inspect. All parts must be processed with sandpaper. Large cracks found should be glued and pulled together with clamps. Smaller ones should be glued and secured with paper tape. Excess holes and chips on the parts should be filled with a paste of glue and small sawdust. Work can be continued only after the glue has completely dried. To make it easier to work with sandpaper, it should be cut into narrow strips and glued to wooden blocks 20-40 mm wide and 300-350 mm long. Paper of different grain sizes should be used. The surface after processing should be even and smooth. A sanding machine will help to make the work easier and significantly reduce the processing time. It is imperative to check all joints. If the chair legs are inserted directly into the seat and over time they have become loose in the sockets, then to strengthen them it is enough to wedge them. A cut is made at the ends of the upper tapered parts of the legs 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 should be pre-coated with glue. It will be more difficult to restore chairs with crossbars between the legs and sidebars under the seat. In such designs, a tenon-groove connection and gluing are used to attach the parts. When the seam weakens, you need to drill a hole with a small diameter from the inside and drip a few drops of glue into it with a syringe. When the tenon weakens, it needs to be reinforced with thin wedges. Matches or wooden chips dipped in glue are suitable for this purpose. They need to be driven into the socket together with the tenon. If the chair is very loose, then in addition to gluing the joints, you need to strengthen the structure with wooden blocks. They should be attached with screws to the sidebars, which are used to connect the inner corners of the frame. The blocks and sidebars should fit together perfectly. 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 installed in their places. In order for the glue to set, it is necessary to provide sufficient pressure. The glued elements are pulled together using 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 should be removed immediately with a wet napkin. Return to the table of contents</a>
Replacing the soft seat
Before you restore the chair, furtherIt is necessary to wait until the glue dries completely. Then the product can be painted, varnished, decoupaged or decorated with painting. Everything will depend on the owner's desire and imagination. If the chair has a soft seat that requires replacement, it's time to start. First, it is necessary to remove the old fabric and stuffing. If there are defects on the wooden surface, they must be eliminated. Markings should be made on the new foam rubber. The old seat is applied to the foam rubber and outlined with a felt-tip pen. To cut evenly, you need to take a sharp knife. Then make a pattern on the fabric taking into account allowances for hem and foam rubber. Next, lay the pattern out on a flat surface face down. Place the foam rubber on top, then the seat. Allowances should be folded to the wrong side, pulled tight and the front side aligned. Align the folds at the corners, bend the edges and attach the material with a stapler. If you don't have one at hand, you can use small nails with wide heads. Fix the updated seat to the frame with metal corners and screws. If the chair has a soft back, it is restored in the same order as the seat. A fully restored and transformed chair will serve its owners for many years.
