I'm excited to share the process (the triumphs! the tribulations!) of my first-ever furniture re-do. Ok, I suppose its not technically the first ever. Right after college I thought it would be a good idea to paint a hand-me-down bureau an eggplant purple. And I also painted a bookcase black once. Both were originally the same shade of sunshine yellow. My dad has a thing for yellow. And salmon, oddly enough. But I digress...
We had been looking for a chair to go with this antique desk we had inherited from my in-laws a little while ago. I wanted something that was old, durable, and had character. Enter exhibit A:
I loved that it looked kind of updated, but still with a traditional shape. It was hanging on a nail outside an antique store we frequent. What can I say? It spoke to me ("help!" is what I imagine it said...). And so did the price. This baby set me back a whopping $5. (I know!) The seat was obviously a goner, but the rest of the chair was in great shape, so I decided I'd try my luck at reupholstering.
The entire process took a few weeks, but not because it should have. It was basically a I'll-do-it-when-I-can type thing. First, we took off the old seat. Piece of cake. Removed some screws, and off it came. The tricky part with this chair is that the seat was made of a combination of burlap, hay and leather, none of which was salvageable (and it was really gross to remove as some lovely bugs had nested in there. Shudder). The chair's actual seat was only a frame, too, so I actually had to start from scratch with that part, as well. I went to Home Depot to buy some plywood, which didn't cost more than a few dollars. I brought the old seat with me to get the new board cut to size. Home Depot doesn't (usually) make "precision" cuts in the store, and I didn't have an appropriate saw at home. After some discussion (read: sweet-talking) with the wood department guys, they agreed to cut my seat to size (um, that sounds funny). It actually wasn't all that big a deal. It wasn't square, but we used as many of the pre-cut sides as possible, and it worked out just fine. When I got home, I sanded the edges at home with a course-grade sand paper.
The harder part was deciding on a fabric. I searched for days! My preferred locales were Jo Ann fabrics, Ballard Designs and a handful of online retailers. The one I eventually settled on was this one (Its called Waverly Ensemble Stripe in Robin's Egg if you're interested - purchased from Jo Ann):
I googled "DIY reupholster chair" and found a bunch of helpful (and some not so helpful) how-to videos on Youtube. Many of the ones out there are tailored to specific types of pieces, and so you're better off looking at a bunch of them. I think I remember the "This Old House" ones being particularly good. I combined the advice of a few to figure out how to do my chair. I determined that I would need the following supplies: high density foam; spray adhesive; batting; a staple gun and staples. This is what my set-up looked like. Note the
sweet teal carpet:
In addition, of course I needed these as well:
I traced the shape of the seat onto the high-density foam using a sharpie. I then cut it out about 1/4 to 1/2 bigger than what I had traced (the videos told me to do this). Then, I cut the batting about 3-4 inches bigger than the seat using the same process, and did the same with the fabric. With your fabric, you want to be sure you road-test how it will look on your chair's set first, particularly if it has a pattern. On mine, I wanted the blue stripe centered, and so had to cut accordingly. I then sprayed the spray adhesive onto the plywood seat and to the foam, and adhered them together (lining them up was tricky, and definitely required patience. I also sprayed outside. That stuff can be
nasty). Once that had set, I place the seat foam side down on the batting, and began the process of stapling it to the bottom. Its best to start in the middle of all 4 sides and work your way out. The corners are difficult. I found my present-wrapping/hospital corner making skills very useful there. I cut off the excess once I was satisfied it was on there and there were no wrinkles. Finally, I added the fabric, using the same process as with the batting. It took more than 2 tries to be sure it was centered and taut. Patience is recommended.
I wish I had remembered to take pictures along the way. I'm sorry about that part. The upholstered seat sat in my linen closet until I was ready to tackle the rest. Originally, I was simply going to seal the chair as it was. It had a beautiful antiqued finish on it that looked a little worn. But then, as I spent more time examining it, I realized this little situation:
I don't know what that white stuff was, but since the chair was outside at the antique store and exposed to the elements for Lord knows how long, I didn't want to take the risk that it might be some sort of fungus that would infest my house. Ew. So I decided to sand it first. Using a fine gauge sand paper, I carefully began working on it in an inconspicuous location so that if I would up harming the finish, it wouldn't be a huge deal. After about 15 minutes, it looked no different. Commence plan B: The heavier-gauge (is that even the right word??) sand paper. After a few minutes with that, I got this:
Much better, right? So I repeated the process with basically the whole chair. I definitely did manage to strip the finish on the more delicate wood that makes up the center portion of the back of the chair. Oopsie. But by this point I had planned to refinish it anyway. This is what I used to do that part:
The stain sponges above were great, and really helped ensure a streak-free, unglobby finish. I was proud of how consistent it wound up, too, considering this was only my second staining project ever. The first was in tech. ed. in 8th grade. I made my parents an awesome (read: not) CD rack. But I didn't know that when one stained, one went with the grain of the wood. No need to tell you what
that bad boy looked like when I was through with it. Oy.
Once the stain had totally dried (I gave it a few days), I (ok, fine, the husband) rubbed it down with linseed oil to seal it. Supplies, once again:
On a side, safety-themed note: NEVER dispose of anything soaked in linseed oil in the trash. It heats up as it dries, and is a total spontaneous combustion hazard. Let it air out and dry outside, then dispose of it. I chose linseed oil as a sealer instead of some of the others more because my husband had experience using it than any other reason. It did do the job, though, and I (err, he) would definitely use it again. Home Depot only sells it in the giant gallon size, but Lowe's had one in the quart size. Pays to shop around!
Finally, after the linseed oil had dried, we placed the seat on. We actually had a lot of difficulty screwing the seat back in, in large part because of the extra fabric that was pulled over the edges. I replaced the original screws with sharper, slightly thinner ones, and that appears to have done the trick. After that, I was left with this:
Isn't it pretty? I'm proud of it. Its hard to see the finish (ok, and the true color of the fabric, for that matter), but its really beautiful. I don't even know that they make chairs like this anymore. Its mahogany wood, and so that made it easy to work with.
For those just getting started, there are so many options to make this project easier. For example, if I chose a chair with a seat that was ugly but functional, it would have been easier. I chose to refinish it by staining it, but in many cases, that isn't necessary. I find that working with a striped fabric is a little trickier than other patterns because it has to be lined up just right, or it'll look dopey.
Have you completed any refinishing projects recently? Have any tried-and-true advice for novices like me?
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