DIY chair restoration: step by step instructions

If you have old chairs in your home, don't throw them away. They can still serve you for several years if properly restored. You can do it yourself. This way you will save your money and have an interesting time.

In this article, we will tell you how to do the restoration of old chairs with your own hands, as well as consider the ideas for their upholstery.

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How to refurbish an old chair

Required tools:

• Scissors.
• Painting brushes.
• Polishing machine. If there is none, then you can get by with simple sandpaper.
• Putty knife.
• Electric drill and drill.
• Face mask.
• Copy paper.
• Electric saw.
• Paper.
• Pencil.

Restoration stages:

• First you need to get rid of those parts of the stool that cannot be restored. For example, use a jigsaw to remove crossbars and decrepit parts on the back.
• Now puts a thick piece of plywood on the seat. Using a pencil, mark the intersection with the vertices of the back, since the sheet can be very large. Using carbon paper, transfer the pattern to the workpiece. Drill holes in the plywood for easy cutting.
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• The plywood sheet needs to be secured between planks or on a workbench. Using a power saw, shape the back of the stool. Put the finished part in place. Using a pencil, mark the places where the screws should be placed, which will hold the wooden planks and plywood. Using a drill, make the holes narrower than the screws themselves. Insert the screws and fill the holes with putty.
• We give time to dry. Then you need to level everything up. For this, sandpaper is used.
• If you want to paint the chair, first you need to apply a layer of acrylic primer to the surface. Wait until it dries. When processing, it is necessary to pay special attention to the back of the product, since all edges and lines must be processed carefully. Now you can paint. After the paint has dried, the chair is varnished.

Seat trim

There are times when the restoration of the stool seat is necessary. To do this, you will need the following materials and tools:

• Furniture stapler.
• Staples.
• Screwdriver.
• Foam rubber 5 cm thick or 2 pieces of fabric 2-3 cm thick.
• Heavyweight seat upholstery and backing fabric.

So, how to re-upholstery a wooden stool seat:

• We take out the seat and upholstery. We do not discard the base.
• We turn the chair over and remove the fasteners that hold the seat.
• We remove the factory brackets and take out the frame with the spring. There will be filler on it, or rather, the remnants of it. We remove all this.
• Cut out the rectangle. The upholstery should extend 6–8 cm beyond the edges of the seat.
• We put a backing made of dense fabric on the springs. It must be fixed with a stapler to a wooden frame.
• We put the filler. The allowed thickness is 4–5 cm.
• We make upholstery for the chair. It is best to perform this action together. For upholstery, materials from linen, leather or textiles are used.

Do-it-yourself restoration of old chairs

The process of restoring an old lacquered stool is slightly different. First thing you need to do is prepare:

• Acetone.
• Sponge.
• A brush.

To carry out the restoration of the wooden stool, it is necessary to remove the old covering. To do this, we treat the surface with acetone. Thus, removing the old coating in the form of varnish.

Using a brush, coat the stool with new varnish. Leave it on for a while. You can then use the chair again.

Small tips (master class):

• To cover small cracks, you can use a hand-made putty. To make putty, you need to take flour and PVA glue. The mixture should be very thick and resemble plasticine.
• You can use wood stain to freshen up your wooden stool. She has different shades. Be sure to fix the stain with varnish. Otherwise, don't wash your clothes.

How to decorate an old chair in an original way - a master class

At home, you can paint the stool as you like. If you choose the right design for the chair, then it can complement the interior of your home. For example, you choose two colors for coloring, the first is turquoise, the second is white. Now let's move on to the back. It needs to be treated with fine-grained plaster. The "scuffed" effect will appear. Choose the material for the upholstery so that it matches the color of the product.

If you want to make a vintage stool, then choose cream, blue, pink paint. Then paint on the chair. You can paint the entire stool or individual details. Now you need to apply gold paint. Small cracks in this case will be in the subject. They will create the effect of antiquity.

If you need to make a chair in the Empire style, then choose a milky color of the fabric for the upholstery. Floral prints are also allowed on it. The frame is covered with gold paint.

If you don't want to mess with paint, you can sew a cover. It will completely cover all the flaws of the old stool.

You can replace the usual upholstery with leather belts. Take about 30 leather belts of different colors and weave them together. It is necessary to bind according to the principle of "baskets", and then fix it from below on the self-tapping screws.

Restoration: patchwork technique

Each of us has a whole package of unnecessary things that we definitely won't wear anymore. It is this material that will come in handy for creating a patchwork stool design. You need to decide on the range and choose the right materials from things.

It should be noted that elastic materials do not need to be used. Choose simple things without complicated patterns. Use old upholstery as a template.

If you are restoring chairs for the first time, then you need to choose square or rectangular elements for upholstery.

Cut the required number of rags and distribute them over the surface of the seat. The flaps may vary in width. This will create a mosaic effect. Sew a ribbon out of the fabric. To do this, you can use a typewriter or do everything by hand. Collect the resulting stripes into a single canvas. Try on the template for the seat. Cut off any excess. Secure the upholstery.

Decoupage technique for the design of an old chair

This technique will help transform monotonous stools into original and beautiful objects that will decorate the main interior of the house. To create a design, you will need napkins, fabric with a pattern, you can take leather appliques. If it is possible to reach the store, then you can buy special cards for such equipment.

After you sand the chair, you need to seal up all the cracks with a putty and cover everything with a water-based emulsion. Cut out a picture, smear it with glue and attach a drawing. Gradually you need to move from the center to the edges, thereby smoothing the drawing. Let the surface dry and then paint it.

Restoring an old chair with your own hands is not that difficult. The main thing is to do everything in stages. An old piece can look like new if you pay attention to its design. You can paint it, make different upholstery, sew covers or apply different design techniques. Then the chair will not only fulfill its functions, but also become an addition to the interior of the room.

Don't rush to throw away old things. They can be useful for restoring an old stool. We've looked at different stool design options that anyone can make.