Three Antique Chairs - Green, Pink, Beige

Three very different chairs were brought in from a client to be repaired and reupholstered. All were in various states of disrepair.

This first chair appears to have been an attempted DIY project that never got finished.









Stripped down:



After:









The second chair was not in too bad a shape, but the fabric was worn through.







While taking the upholstery off:



We found a previous cover underneath. The arms also had to be repaired.



After:









The third chair was a lovely 1930s arm chair with beautifully shaped arms.

Before:





We also found a previous cover under this upholstery.





Unfortunately I never got a photo of the finished chair. I only have this one photo of the chair about 95% done (the fabric around the feet hasn't been trimmed, and the piping hasn't been added yet. You can get an idea of the overall look, however.

Pair of Upholstered Arm Chairs - Royal Blue

These two chairs were fairly new, but one chair was lightly soiled, and the owner wanted to change the colour scheme. These two chairs also went with a loveseat which will be posted next.

Before:







Stripped down:



Pierre and I didn't like how they had attached the foam at the front, since it left a bit of a hollow, so this area was filled-in with cotton.





During:







After:

Pair of Vintage Chairs - Cherry Red

These were two vintage/retro chairs. They were pretty dirty and in horrible shape, but they had the potential to be really great chairs. Apparently the client's wife had been hoping he would throw them away, but I'll bet she liked the final results.

Before!









Apparently they must have goofed at the factory because there was a new, unused yellow cover in the same fabric under one of the two chairs.



The foam that was left in the chair had completely disintegrated into crumbling dust.

The chair frames are actually made from moulded fibreglass.



The chrome stands also needed to be cleaned and polished. Here's a before/after showing the difference!





The finished photos are shown without the little adjustable feet, because Pierre had to acid-soak them to remove the rust.

What a difference!

Two Oak Chairs - Blue & Beige Geometric

These two very different, yet similar chairs both belong to the same client, and were upholstered in the same fabric. Both chairs needed extensive and time consuming repairs.

Chair No. 1 is a beautiful arm chair with a 5-spring stuffed seat. The old webbing straps had pretty much deteriorated, and the chair frame was also loose.



The chair is beautiful quarter-sawn oak.





Note the condition of the seat bottom. It should lay nearly flat, with very little curvature. This is not the case, since the straps are broken, and the springs are now pushing against the thin bottom fabric.



Chair No. 2 is also quarter sawn oak, and it is more of a dining room chair. It has been stripped and refinished at some point, and it has had several poor repairs. The arms are also missing the lower blocks that would finish the end "rolls". The carved arm ends would have continued over these in a more rounded shape, but both pieces are gone.





The previous upholsterer did not trim their fabric, or bother to install a bottom fabric.



During the disassembly, we discovered that chair No. 2 originally had a leather seat.



In a fun twist, we also discovered that chair No. 1 also had a leather seat. Here is chair 1 with the upholstery removed.



Leather scraps found on chair 1.



Chair 1 has also had some previous repairs. This side rail was recycled from another old chair, and it doesn't match the other rails (which are all square). The owner asked us to repair the chairs, but to keep them as-is, since the repairs were part of the chairs' "unique charm".



Chair 1 was mostly disassembled, but not completely, since many of the joints were still very secure.





Chair 2 needed a new seat board, since the existing board was starting to delaminate, and has some damage on the edges which would have been difficult to fix.





Chair 2 was extremely difficult to disassemble and repair because someone attempted a repair by nailing all the pegged joints together. This made it insanely difficult to take the joints apart without destroying all the components of the chair. It took hours.



New webbing and newly tied springs on chair 1.



The finished chairs:







I love the texturing done on the feet.





The back rail had been nicked and gouged from the previous upholsterer, so we touched-up all the marks with stain and specialty touch-up markers.