How to update a chair seat. Advantages of restoring chairs, simple and affordable methods

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Carefully inspect the wooden chair from all sides. To fix it, you will need to disassemble the piece of furniture into its components. Remember its design. It is best for a novice craftsman to photograph the chair from all sides, so that later he can know exactly where and what part is attached.

Turn the chair over and look at the fastening of the soft or hard seat. It can be secured with bolts, or it can simply be inserted into the grooves. Pull it out and set it aside.

Separate the legs and remaining crossbars of the chair from each other. If there are screws anywhere, remove them. Disassemble the remaining connections using a hammer and a wooden block. Apply all blows to the chair only through a block so that you do not develop dents or chips on the chair. wooden surface.

Clean all grooves from any glue residue. Use a screwdriver, an awl and sandpaper. Examine the wooden spikes. If any of them are damaged, remove them with pliers. Lubricate the recess with PVA wood glue and insert a new one. Clean the remaining spikes with sandpaper.

To repair chairs, use PVA carpentry or furniture glue. They contain special additives that, after the glue dries, maintain the elasticity of the connection. When using the chair, the wood will not be destroyed.

Chair assembly

Spread newspapers on the floor or plastic film. Thickly coat the grooves and tenons with PVA glue and assemble the chair structure. Press each joint firmly so that the adhesive comes to the surface. First remove the excess with a knife blade, and then immediately wipe with a damp cloth.

If the groove has become loose and has become too large for the tenon being inserted into it, drive another wooden splinter, toothpick or wooden skewer into it, coating them with glue.

Secure the assembled frame of your wooden rarity tightly with a rope and leave to dry for a day or two, depending on the ambient temperature.

Seat update

Bye wooden frame dries, take care of the seat. Remove the upholstery from the upholstered seat. Look at the condition of the foam. Remove it if necessary. Cut out a new piece of foam and secure it to the seat using double-sided tape.

Place the old upholstery on newspaper and trace it with a pen. Cut out the pattern and transfer it to new material. If the fabric is thin, make a foam backing from another dense material. Assemble the seat. Cover it with new fabric, securing it on the reverse side with staples from furniture stapler.

Renew a dried out wooden chair frame. Remove the old varnish coating from it using a sander and sandpaper. Fill any old chips with wood putty. Prime the surface, and after drying, apply several layers of varnish with intermediate drying. Put the seat back in place.

Over time, furniture structures become loose, begin to creak and lose their aesthetic appearance. This is not a reason to immediately throw them in the trash. Don’t let novice craftsmen be intimidated by restoring chairs with their own hands – it’s not as difficult as it might seem. Restoring will help restore antique furniture to its original appearance and functionality.

By restoring old chairs with your own hands, you can make completely new versions of the products, real works of art. In addition, it will cost much less than purchasing a new product. To update a wooden chair with a back, you don’t need large quantity materials, tools, time.

Advantages of restoration:

It is possible to completely restore chairs from the last century that do not harmonize with the design of the house today. The use of new materials will help adapt them to a modern interior.
The ability to change the design and design using colored or transparent inserts, carved or forged elements.
Even an inexperienced craftsman without special knowledge and skills can update old chairs.
Saving. Professional restoration of antique furniture is expensive, so if you wish, you can do this work yourself at home at minimal cost.

Most often, products made from valuable wood species are subject to renewal. In rare old chairs, the carved legs and backs are restored, the upholstery fabric is changed, and the frame is also strengthened. The main thing is not to damage the coating when disassembling antique furniture, as this will significantly reduce its value.

Restoring a kitchen stool includes changing the seat upholstery, painting the legs or sewing fabric covers. Furniture can be updated in two ways:

If the surface of the stool is not damaged, without visible defects, then it will be enough to remove the old upholstery, polish it, varnish the wood, and decorate the seat.
If there are cracks or small chips on the surface, they are repaired using wood putty or glue. In case of major damage, furniture elements require complete replacement.

Recovery high chair occurs using the same technology as for an adult. Only in this case should you pay special attention to the condition additional elements. For the safety of the child, they need to be strengthened.

You can also repair bar stools yourself. Wooden, hardware, as well as rattan models.

It is possible to completely restore chairs from the last century

Possibility to change the design and design

The work can be completed without special knowledge and skills

Saving

To make wooden chairs look more interesting after repair, they can be decorated using various techniques:

Artistic painting - colored patterns are applied to the refurbished chair using a brush.
Decoupage - gluing cut-out pictures from paper napkins and applying glue and varnish to them.
Self-adhesive film - can be used either colored or imitating natural wood.
Craquelure is a technology for creating aged material. The work will require special plaster, varnish or paint.
Regular painting.

An old, dry chair will have a fresh and updated look if you glue veneer to the surface and cover it with varnish.

Artistic painting

Decoupage

Craquelure

Painting

Adhesive tape

Selection of materials

Correctly selected material will not only restore the chair, but also create an aesthetic, unique piece of furniture. To make it really happen quality product, you should carefully choose from the options offered on the market. Despite the high cost, it will be much safer to use natural, eco-friendly textiles and hypoallergenic filler.

For reupholstery

Upholstery fabric is selected taking into account your own tastes and preferences. However, do not forget that the durability of the material is influenced by various factors. If there are animals in the house, it is better to use flock, microvelvet or velor for chairs. There are no loops in the weave of these fabrics, so the claws of cats and dogs will not scratch the upholstery. In addition to these materials, furniture can be upholstered with microvelor, artificial leather, tapestry or jacquard. Other types of fabric are less practical.

Due to the high cost, not everyone can use genuine leather for upholstery of chairs. Meanwhile, this is a durable, reliable material that is easy to care for. It fits into any interior: classic, baroque, hi-tech and others stylistic directions. The disadvantages of leather furniture include its vulnerability to accidental damage from sharp objects, as well as the difficulty in washing off marks from felt-tip pens.

Chairs upholstered in faux leather in sand, blue, green, and red colors will have a presentable appearance. They are not afraid of moisture and can be safely used in the kitchen. Disadvantages of the material: does not tolerate temperature changes well, loses strength when exposed to direct sunlight.

You can also use chenille, flock, jacquard for kitchen chairs. adhesive based or faux suede. Today, Arpatek and Alcantara fabrics are in great demand. Experts recommend for kitchen furniture use mixed varieties that include synthetic and natural fibers.

For chairs in the living room, material is selected depending on general interior home and the wishes of the owner of the house. It can be: tapestry, silk, satin, leather, leatherette, velvet or plush. Chair upholstery for dressing tables selected depending on the interior of the bedroom. It can be either plain or colored. It is recommended to decorate them with twill, leather, flock, tapestry, velor or jacquard.

Each material has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, flock upholstery is easier to clean than tapestry.

Flock

Microvelvet

Microvelour

Faux leather

Tapestry

Jacquard

Genuine Leather

Chenille

Arpatek

Atlas

Plush

You can remake the upholstered part of the furniture using foam rubber or polyurethane foam (PPU). The service life of the product depends on the density of the filler. Foam rubber with high performance can withstand dynamic and static loads for 5-15 years. It is hypoallergenic, safe material. Sold in sheets - 1 x 2 meters. To make the product soft, foam rubber should be used with a density of 30-35 kg/m². It is better to choose a material 10 cm thick for a plywood base. If the chair has a back, then it will be optimal thickness 3-5 cm. For the restoration of children's furniture, low-density foam rubber of grades up to 25 kg/m3 (2520, 2220, 1820, 1620) is used.

IN Lately there is a tendency to use it for restoration of old chairs natural materials: rolled or sheet copra, dried sea grass, burlap.

Foam rubber

PPU

Copra

Dried herb

Sackcloth

To update the frame

Presented on the construction market a wide range of paints, primers, azures and varnishes for do-it-yourself restoration of chairs. You should know that enamel coatings have different properties:

acrylic - create a durable, elastic coating that lasts for 3 years, does not wear out, does not fade. It takes 24 hours for the paint to dry;
alkyd - the paints contain a varnish that takes 48-72 hours to dry. The coating protects the frame from moisture, rotting, and abrasion;
polyurethane - protects against exposure to water, mechanical and chemical damage. Before applying paint, the frame is treated with a solvent.

Enamel paint

Acrylic

Alkyd

Polyurethane

To artificially age old chair with your own hands, you need it to have a clearly defined texture. These can be products made of oak, pine, ash, walnut or Siberian larch. The following techniques are recommended for “aging”:

Brushing. To give a more pronounced relief, special steel brushes are used, which remove the top soft layer of wood. Brushing on chairs is carried out to a depth of no more than 2-4 mm, then the surface is treated with fine sandpaper and covered with stain, varnish, waxes, paints, glaze or patina.
Staining. The composition is applied with a brush in 2 layers. After drying, the surface of the chair is coated with varnish in 2 layers. At the end, the elements are sanded and a final layer of varnish is applied.
Waxing. For this technology it is necessary to prepare mastic: 50 ml of turpentine, 100 g of wax, 25 g of rosin. The sanded surface is impregnated with a composition that includes 100 g of mint, 0.5 l vegetable oil, 10 g angelica, 10 g burdock. It must first steep for 10-14 days. After the impregnation has penetrated into the wooden structure, it is necessary to wax it with prepared mastic.

Brushing

Staining

Waxing

For aging wooden structures patination is also used. The following varieties can be found on sale:

Thick paste (patina). It colors the tree from yellow to red.
Liquid patina on a water or synthetic basis. The noble shades of the material give the product a radiant look.
Faceted varnish. After its application, a coating with a cracked effect (craquelure) is obtained.

To create the effect of antique chairs, acrylic, wax, shellac and oil are used.

Thick paste (patina)

Liquid patina

Faceted varnish

Wooden surfaces must be carefully treated before painting. There should be no cracks or chips on them. To eliminate deep cracks, use wood putty. It can be one-component (with a water base and an alkyd binder) and two-component (with putty and hardener). It is better to use a transparent mixture that, when dried, does not disturb the wood structure.

To repair small irregularities and scratches, you need to mix small sawdust with PVA glue and fill the cracks with the resulting slurry.

Wood putty

Small sawdust with PVA glue

Decorate a wooden or metal carcass You can use napkins, textile pieces, decoupage pictures or cut out drawings. To work you will need:

acrylic varnish on water based;
acrylic paints;
decoupage glue or PVA;
priming;
putty.

Furniture should be painted in a ventilated area or outdoors. Otherwise, you may get poisoned by evaporation products.

Acrylic lacquer water based

Acrylic paints

Glue

Primer and putty

Necessary tools and consumables

To repair wooden chairs, you need to first prepare tools and materials. The list depends on what exactly the master plans to do. To completely restore an old chair, you will need:

Acetone, alcohol, remover, degreaser - to remove old varnish.
Furniture foam rubber. The classic reupholstery of chairs or stools involves the use of a thick variety 5-10 cm wide and a thin one 2-3 cm wide.
Construction stapler. Strong staples will secure the upholstery fabric to the furniture frame.
Stain, primer, varnish. Liquid formulations will give the product a certain color.
Paint brushes. They can be with synthetic and natural bristles.
Plywood sheet. If the restoration of a chair requires replacing the seat, use 4-layer material.
Wood glue "Moment". This is a quick-drying material that perfectly holds elements together and does not delay the repair process.
Clamping devices - clamps. They free both hands and fix the repaired elements in a certain position.
Upholstery material is necessary at the final stage of restoration. The size depends on the dimensions of the chair itself.
Hammer, mallet, electric drill, electric jigsaw, screwdriver.
Fastening elements: screws, corners.

As for sandpaper, it is chosen depending on the stage of work. For the initial processing of a wooden chair, material with a grain size of P40-P60 is used, and to prepare the product for painting and decorating, you will need sandpaper marked P150-P180 or less. For interlayer cleaning of varnish or paint surfaces, use a variety of sandpaper P220-P360.

Repair and design of the frame

The work of updating old chairs and decorating them requires a careful and careful approach. If the product is durable and has not dried out anywhere, then it is not at all necessary to disassemble it into elements. It will be enough to replace soft upholstery and cover the parts with paint. But, as a rule, there is always some damage on old frames. These may be scratches, chips, indentations from impacts and other damage.

A small master class on restoring chairs for those who do not know how to eliminate these shortcomings:

To delete small scratches, sandpaper and construction mastic are used. After sanding minor damage, putty is applied. After 1.5-2 hours of drying of the paste, the surface is re-sanded with sandpaper and covered with varnish or paint.
To fill a large nick, you will need putty, which should be applied to the nick with a spatula and allowed to dry. Then rub it with fine sandpaper and apply paint.

Use sandpaper to remove minor scratches

After sanding, putty is applied

You can also restore a chair using a patch. For this you will need:

small wooden patch;
clamp;
ruler, pencil;
PVA glue;
enamel.

Before starting work, you need to prepare a wooden block the right size. The fibers in it should be located in the same direction as in the damaged area. Then apply glue to the base of the piece, close the notch, and secure with a clamp. After the composition has dried, rub the wooden block with sandpaper. At the next stage, you can paint over the old chairs with enamel or varnish.

The varnish is applied exclusively to a smooth surface. If there are cracks, they are sealed with a special putty. For work use ordinary paint brushes, special rollers or sprayers.

If you plan to decorate chairs using the decoupage technique, you also need to remove the old coating from them. To do this, sanding is used. But to speed up the process, it is better to choose a liquid remover for varnish or paint. 10-15 minutes after application chemical agent removed with a spatula, the surface is sanded and polished. After receiving a smooth product, you can begin decoupage. If the surface of the furniture is in good condition, then shoot upper layer only needed in the place where you plan to apply the images.

To remove epoxy glue from the frame, you can use a jet of steam instead of water. If missing special device, can come to the rescue regular kettle. A hose with a tip is attached to its spout and the wood is cleaned of glue.

Apply glue to the base of the block, close the notch, and secure with a clamp

Sand the wooden block and paint it

Master class on chair decoupage

How to restore old chairs using the far from new direction of decoupage - it’s worth learning about this even before starting work. You will need special paper napkins, pieces of fabric, leather appliqués and other decor. To secure the elements, you can use PVA glue and varnish. You can decorate in this way not only the back and seat of the chair, but also the legs.

Step-by-step technology for performing the technique:

Sand the surface of the chair with sandpaper. Use putty to repair cracks. Prime the surface of the product and, if desired, coat it with water-based paint.
Cut out your favorite motifs from napkins. Place them on the surface and cover with PVA glue. After drying, varnish the chair.
Place pieces of fabric or leather on the surface of the chair greased with glue. Cover the top again with glue and then varnish.

To prevent the glued elements from peeling off from the surface, you need to apply several layers of varnish.
Before repairing a chair, you must check the condition of its main part. If there is a need to replace the seat base, it is worth considering that the thickness of the plywood must be at least 18 mm. In this case, the chair will support the weight of an adult up to 120 kg.

Sequence of making a plywood base:

prepare a drawing on graph paper, attach it to cardboard and cut out the template;
attach it to the plywood, trace the outline with a pencil;
use a jigsaw to cut out the part and sand the edges with sandpaper;
drill holes on the base for fastening bolts;
Insert the seat into the frame and secure it with bolts.

Attach the chair frame to the plywood, trace along the outline with a pencil

Using a jigsaw, cut out the part and sand the edges with sandpaper.

Insert the seat into the frame and attach with bolts

If you need to replace only the soft part of the seat, you should decide on the upholstery material. Firstly, it is desirable that it have increased wear resistance. Secondly, it must fit into the interior of the house.

If a complete replacement of the filler is required, the thickness of the foam rubber should be 40-60 mm.

Step by step instructions on how to do it soft seat, if it was not originally provided:

Draw a template for the filling and upholstery.

Place it on the foam rubber and cut it with an increase of 7-8 cm to fit the edges of the base.

Ready soft seat

If you need to cut the upholstery according to old patterns, you must first carefully remove it. To do this, remove the staples from the seat and separate the filling along with the upholstery. Before cutting, it is advisable to wash the material in order to find out the percentage of its shrinkage and not make mistakes in the calculations. If you don’t have an old pattern, you need to take horizontal and vertical measurements of the seat. On upholstery fabric It is advisable to make an increase of 8-10 cm from each edge. To make it more convenient to fix the foam rubber, it needs to be glued to the base with PVA glue.

Proper execution of cladding:

Lay the material face down on a flat surface.
Place the base with the foam facing down on top.
Fold the material and nail it with staples or nails. The distance between the fasteners is 15-20 mm.

The upholstery of the backrest in a chair occurs in a similar way, but with some nuances. Hard foam rubber is not placed on the structure; soft foam is used for it, which is cut along the contour and does not bend around the edges. The fabric on the back can be secured with staples.

Restoring chairs with your own hands is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. On top of that, it is also economical. It is enough to select the appropriate materials, use your imagination, and after a few hours of work you will get an amazing result that exceeds all expectations.

Remove the staples and separate the filling along with the upholstery

Glue the foam to the base

Bend the material and nail it with staples

Secure the seat

Video

As a result of natural aging and mechanical influences, furniture loses its quality. Its restoration seems to many an impossible task. Covered in this article specific example shows how to quickly and easily refurbish an old wooden stool.

Old furniture is usually thrown out or taken to the garage, where it lies and gathers dust, and then accidentally comes into view. That’s when the idea arises to give it a second life. By following the basic rules of restoration, you can repair old table, chest of drawers or closet. It also turned out to be unnecessary old stool. It lay there for about a couple of decades. When the stool caught my eye in Once again, it was decided to repair it.

Restoration work consists of certain stages. Preliminarily analyzed general state products: structural integrity, quality of wood and paintwork. A decision is made on the advisability of carrying out restoration work. Then the stages of restoration actions are planned.

In a particular case, inspection of the stool showed the following:

despite its simplicity, the stool was made of well-dried and quality wood;
all connections turned out to be loose, but intact (after disassembly, defects may appear);
There were no damaged parts.

This is what we need to restore this stool.

Tools:

Chisel.
Drill.
Wood drill.
Grinder machine.
Fine and coarse sandpaper.
Wood saw with fine teeth.
Mallet.
Brush.
Tape for tightening.

Materials:

Waterproof wood glue D3.
Stain.
Wood varnish.
Dye.
Furniture dowels 6x30.

We start by disassembling the stool. Carefully pry up and remove the seat.

The master who made this stool did without nails. The connections to the tenon were additionally reinforced with dowels; they could not be pulled out. Therefore, we drill it out - take a wood drill with a central tip.

When disassembling, the main thing is not to confuse the connection elements. You can mark them, but it’s easier to lay them out sequentially, as you can see in the photo below.

Now we take one part and sand it.

Immediately clean the grooves from the old glue and put the workpiece back in its place.

This is how it should turn out.

After sanding all the workpieces, we assemble the stool “dry” and check ourselves and the connections themselves. We coat the joints with glue. This needs to be done quite quickly - until the glue dries (usually 10-15 minutes).

We assemble the frame; if necessary, we help with light blows of the mallet through the lining. Immediately wipe off excess glue. Now we tighten it around the perimeter with two ribbons.

Place it on a flat surface and use a square to check the right angles.

While the glue dries (1-2 hours is enough for ours), sand the stool seat.

We drill holes for the dowels to a depth that takes into account the length of the dowel and the thickness of the stool cover (so that they do not come out through the seat). Immediately place the dowels on the glue.

We mark the locations of the recesses on back side seats.

Apply glue to the top of the frame.

We install the seat in place.

Align the holes for the side dowels.

Use a mallet to hammer the dowels in until they stop and cut off the protruding parts.

We clean the traces from the hacksaw and glue.

We cover the seat of the stool with stain, and after it dries - with varnish. We paint the bottom of the stool in 2 layers grey colour. The stool is ready.

Vadim Kirkin, rmnt.ru

In almost every home you can find several old chairs, appearance which leaves much to be desired. Don't rush to throw them away. Restoration will help breathe a second life into an old but beloved piece of furniture.

Restoration gives the chair a second life and creates unique furniture.

With just a little effort, 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 is not so much a complicated process as it is a painstaking one.

Before you begin, you must carefully inspect the product. Based on the results of the inspection, it will become clear what to do: simply reupholster the chair seat, update the paintwork, or carry out more serious repairs.

If the chair is loose, then the reason should be sought in the tenon joints. Over time, the wood dries out and the connecting elements begin to dangle in their sockets. To eliminate this and strengthen the structure, you need to increase the size of the tenon, compact the drawers and replace the power jumpers.

Diagram of chair assembly and reupholstery.

Restoring the paintwork will require less effort. old paint you will have to remove, sand the surface of the parts and cover them with paint or varnish. To perform the work efficiently, 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 drawn up. This will make it easier to assemble the chair after the restoration is completed.

The easiest way to update an old chair is to replace the upholstery. Replacing old and worn fabric can change the appearance of furniture beyond recognition. If necessary, updating chairs with your own hands can be done in one way or include all of the listed types of work.

Preparing for recovery

Before you begin, you need to prepare tools and materials. If the chair needs serious repairs, you will need:

Before restoration, the old chair must be disassembled.

Screwdriver.
Screwdrivers.
Hammer.
Mallet.
Clamps.
Metal clamps.
Sandpaper of various grain sizes.
Construction stapler and staples.
Acrylic paint and brushes.
Scissors, pencil or felt-tip pen, cardboard, tailor's tape measure.
Foam rubber.
Thick fabric for upholstery.
Bucket, rag and dishwashing liquid.

The first step towards restoring the stool is to clean it of dust and dirt. To wash it well you will need warm water, soft cloth and some dishwashing liquid. This solution will help to quickly clean the chair not only of dirt, but also of some of the old varnish. The washing procedure must be carried out promptly so that the wood does not come into contact with water for long, and then everything must 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 adhere to the rule: assembling the chair should be carried out in the reverse order. This is the only way all the holes will coincide with each other. In addition, all parts and fasteners must be marked. This will also make assembly easier.

Tools for restoring chairs: batting, upholstery fabric, stapler, staples, mounting adhesive foam, cardboard, screwdriver, scissors.

If the heads of the screws that hold the parts together are hidden in the sockets and they are covered with wooden plugs, then you can remove them using a chisel. If this does not work, then you need to use a drill whose diameter is equal to diameter plugs and drill it out. The opened screw is turned out with a screwdriver. A drop of industrial oil applied to the screw will make the job easier.

If the chair has been secured using epoxy resin, then it will help to remove it hot water. Wet a rag or napkin and place it on the gluing area. Repeat the procedure until the glue completely softens. Then you need to scrape it off with a knife and dry the parts. Hot steam will help soften the glue in tight joints. To do this, put it on the spout of the kettle rubber hose, a jet of steam is directed at the connection.

Processing and assembly of parts

To properly restore a chair, it must be carefully inspected. All parts must be sanded. Discovered large cracks glue and tighten using clamps. Glue smaller ones and secure with paper tape. Excess holes and chips on parts should be filled with a slurry of glue and small sawdust. You can continue work only after the glue has completely dried.

To make it easier to work with sandpaper, you need to cut it into narrow strips and stick them on wooden blocks 20-40 mm wide and 300-350 mm long. Paper should be used in different grain sizes. The surface after treatment should be flat and smooth. A grinding machine will help make the job easier and significantly reduce processing time.

Be sure to check all connections. If the legs of a chair are inserted directly into the seat and over time they begin to sit loosely in their sockets, then to strengthen it it is enough to wedge them. A cut is made at the ends of the upper narrowed 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 fit more tightly into the socket, which must first be coated with glue.

It will be more difficult to restore chairs with crossbars between the legs and drawers under the seat. In such structures, a tongue-and-groove connection and sizing are used to fasten parts. When the seam weakens, you need to drill a hole with a small diameter from the inside and drop a few drops of glue into it with a syringe. When a tenon is weakened, it must be strengthened with thin wedges. Matches or wood chips dipped in glue are suitable for this purpose. They need to be hammered into the nest together with the thorn.

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 drawers that are used to connect internal corners frame. The bars and drawers must be perfectly adjusted to each other. 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 place. In order for the glue to set, it is necessary to provide sufficient pressure. Tighten the glued elements 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 must stand for at least 24 hours. Excess glue should be removed immediately with a wet cloth.

Replacing the soft seat

If your chair has a soft seat that needs replacing, now is the time to start. First you need to remove the old fabric and padding. 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 hems and foam. Next, lay the pattern out face down on a flat surface. Foam rubber is placed on top, and then the seat. The seam allowances need to be turned to the wrong side, pulled tight and aligned with the front side. Align the folds at the corners, fold the edges and attach the material using a stapler. If you don’t have it on hand, you can use small carnations with wide heads. Secure the updated seat to the frame with metal corners and screws. If the chair has a soft back, then it is restored in the same manner as the seat.

A completely restored and transformed chair will serve its owners for many years.

Hello, friends! Today, let’s forget for a while about universal problems, troubles in the economy, and other global topics.

I want to suggest you, if you have a little extra money, free time and a desire to do something with your own hands, change the interior of your home a little.

Actually, I don't like storing old things in my apartment. But somehow it so happened that, during a total renovation of the interior after another lengthy renovation, four old chairs remained standing in the kitchen.

At first, I promised myself that I would soon replace them with new and stylish ones. But they took root in our family so much, they became almost “family” and somehow I still didn’t dare throw them in a landfill.

Then, having looked at them carefully, I thought: “they’re not so bad - wooden, strong, except that the upholstery has already faded and doesn’t quite match the color of our new kitchen.”

And if so, I decided to take action and repair the old chairs with my own hands. To tell the truth, not with my own hands, but with the hands of my husband.

He is a great craftsman and everything he does, he does only with a sign of quality (I’ll brag a little). Therefore, I entrusted this work to him without hesitation.

Since we only needed to replace the upholstery of the chair, and the rest of its wooden parts did not need repair (except to renew the varnish in some places), we bought:

Fabric for upholstery - 1 x 1.40 m. This fabric was just enough for 4 chairs and there was still a little left (later for reupholstering the ottoman). When choosing, we focused on quality, texture and suitable color. The purchase of fabric cost us 360 rubles.
Foam rubber. We decided not to use the old foam rubber, but to buy new ones and make the chairs a little softer. Foam rubber was sold only in sheets. 1 such sheet measures 1x2 m, thickness – 20 mm. Its purchase cost us 240 rubles.
A piece of plywood 6 mm thick, approximately 1x1 m in size. The plywood was left over from the renovation.
Furniture stapler and special staples for it. We didn’t buy this either, it was all already there.
I also needed a small wooden block. Small pieces were cut out of it, approximately 2 cm wide and 10 cm long. And a few screws to attach them.
Water-based wood varnish (we also had it).

Sequence of work:

Removed the old seat

New blanks were cut to the size of the old seat (if the old plywood is in good condition, you can leave it)

Pieces of foam rubber were cut to the same dimensions. To make our chairs soft, foam rubber was placed in 2 layers

We started cutting the fabric. The fabric was also cut to fit the seat, but 5 cm was added on all sides for hemming

All. We have prepared all the preparations.

Let's start assembling

We make from our blanks such a unique layered cake: first - fabric, then foam rubber and the base of the chair made of plywood.

To ensure that the seat did not move on the chair and was well fixed, special wooden blocks were screwed onto the plywood from the bottom side.

Using a furniture stapler, we secure the fabric on the back side of the base.

That's it - our beautiful and soft seat is ready.

And now, admire what we got:

The chairs are almost like new. Beautiful upholstery goes very well with wallpaper and facades on kitchen cabinets. In addition, they turned from semi-soft to soft.

And all this cost us only 600 rubles. Well, in what store can you buy four wooden chairs for that kind of money?

How do you like these savings? I liked it very much. Something else needs to be repaired.

Oh, yes, I completely forgot that there was some fabric left, and I wanted to use it to reupholster the lid of the ottoman. But more on that next time.

What secrets do you have for updating your interior with your own hands? Bye bye…

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