Any furniture, after serving for several years,wears out. And no matter how carefully you try to handle it, there will still come a time when its upholstery becomes worn out and outdated. Then the idea arises to get rid of the old thing.
Scheme of chair measurements and its drapery.But do not rush to throw away old furniture, especially if you inherited it and it is a family heirloom. You can try to restore your favorite thing. It is necessary to consider how to reupholster chairs with your own hands.
Dismounting the old drapery
The main condition for restoration is:The frame of your chair should be strong and well preserved. Everything else is entirely up to your imagination and diligence. If the wooden frame is significantly damaged or has been attacked by a wood-boring beetle during use, it is almost impossible to restore such a chair. You should start with a careful inspection of the chair to be restored. Before starting restoration work, you must remove the old upholstery. If some parts are damaged, there are cracks or chips, then these elements need to be repaired. Chips and cracks are glued together using PVA glue or wood glue and pulled together with clamps (a tool for fixing parts during gluing). Paper tape can be used to tighten small cracks. Excess holes and unevenness are filled with a mixture of fine sawdust and glue.
Tools for reupholstering a chair:stapler, screwdrivers, pliers, drill, jigsaw, screwdriver. Here is an approximate list of tools that may be useful if you decide to reupholster a chair yourself:
- Screwdriver Set;
- nailing;
- pliers;
- bit;
- carpenter's wooden hammer (mallet);
- scissors.
Due to the fact that only replacement is plannedchair drapery, all work on its dismantling must be done with great care in order to avoid breaking the wooden elements of the structure. To remove the old seat upholstery, you should first use a nail puller to remove all the nails that secure it. You must make every effort to do this carefully. The facing fabric must remain intact, since it can later be used as a pattern for new drapery. Having safely removed the facing material, you need to use scissors to cut the twine holding the burlap and the filler within the boundaries of the structure. To remove the springs, you need to cut the twine that strengthens them, and then pull out all the excess nails. Dismantling the facing fabric from the back of the chair is done in the same manner using the same tools. Moreover, first the upholstery fabric is removed, and then the burlap and filler, which form the basis of the chair drapery. After removing all the upholstery materials from the chair, its interior will become accessible - the wooden frame. All wooden elements of the chair are carefully examined and, if necessary, they are restored. Usually, this involves strengthening the lathing, replacing some wooden elements and then painting them. Return to contents</a>
Stretching chairs
Scheme of chair assembly and re-upholstery.Before you start repair work yourself, you need to consider the following. Since re-upholstering chairs with your own hands is done mainly to save money, then during its implementation only heavily worn materials are replaced. When preparing for restoration work, you need to take into account some non-standard nature of such work. To repair a wooden chair and re-upholster the upholstery, you may need a specific tool used in upholstery work. This is usually:
- Furniture stapler;
- cutter;
- hammer, wallpaper;
- staples furniture.
In addition, for restoration you need to buy a durable oneand thick fabric for upholstery (tapestry, chenille, jacquard) in the amount of 1 meter. With a fabric width of 1.4 m, this amount of fabric is enough for 4 chairs, some materials may also be needed, such as foam rubber, batting or synthetic padding. During long-term use, the parts of the chair that have a soft base wear out and get dirty the most. If the fabric covering the seat and back is completely worn out, it needs to be renewed. All the work required for this is carried out in the following order. First, the drapery fabric is removed and the debris that has accumulated under it over the years is removed. When the condition of the springs is normal, they can be left in place and replaced. In this case, the base of the structure can simply be strengthened by applying new protective strips of fabric on top. They are attached to the back of the seat with a special stapler. White fabric is attached to the bottom of the seat, allowing you to hide minor defects and giving the product a completely finished look. Then the new facing fabric is folded around the perimeter and stapled to the wooden base so that the fixation is strong and durable. Return to contents</a>
Types of surface repair
Sometimes the structure of the stool is such that there is nosprings, and the base of the chair is in quite decent condition, then it is quite enough to seal it from above with simple burlap. Using a stapler, it is attached to the wooden base, bending the burlap around the perimeter. After attaching the material, inspect the seat, cut off all excess protruding beyond the edges of the seat base with scissors. If there are springs belonging to soft trim parts, keep in mind that they almost do not wear out and can be used in the future. To give the seat an updated look, you just need to reattach and tie the existing springs, while trying to evenly distribute them over the surface of the base. It happens that instead of springs, the back of the chair and its seat are filled with special soft fillers: foam rubber, latex, sea grass. In such cases, rip the burlap from the back of the seat and add padding polyester, foam rubber, plant fibers inside. Then the burlap is sewn up. Now you know how to reupholster a chair and give it a second life. Previously, chairs were produced with a very strong frame, so by reupholstering the new upholstery, you can extend the service life of the chairs for several more years.
