Renovating a chair

Today I started having a look at one of the chairs we inherited. I had been going to do some gardening but it was pouring with rain and windy.

This chair is Edwardian, and would be nice except it has two major cracks in its frame, the springs in the seat have gone, and the seat fabric itself is faded, stained and has a big burn hole in it. It didn’t look too bad with a cat sitting on it, but in real life it was pretty awful.

Knowing my own capabilities, I am not touching either the back (upholstery too complex for me and the fabric there is ok) or the internals of the seat (beyond me). So I cleaned the frame, glued it back together with wood glue and clamped it. Then I removed about 100 old style upholstery tacks holding on the fabric of the seat. I will cut a piece of a contrasting velvet (I am not going to attempt to match the colour and I might use some crimson velvet I have left over from an old pair of curtains) and tack it back in place of the damaged stuff. The bottom of the chair I will recover with hessian – it will still be saggy though.

Here is the chair in process of renovation.

I have every hope it will look a lot better. I was quoted £700 to have the chair renovated professionally and if all goes according to plan this will have cost (thinks), well nothing.