We carry out restoration of old chairs with our own hands - master class and step-by-step photos. How to update an old chair with a backrest with your own hands? Restoration of old chairs with your own hands, fasteners

Many things lose their attractive appearance over time and therefore need updating. You can put some effort into restoring your furniture and giving it an amazing look. People especially repurpose old chairs. There are many ways to restore them.

Kinds

To update an old chair yourself, you need to decide on the type of restoration. There are several ways to help restore outdated furniture. To update wooden products or chipboard surfaces, you can apply the following methods:

Decoupage- This is an opportunity to decorate furniture by gluing some motifs or pictures cut out of paper onto it. To preserve the renewed surface of an object, a special varnish is used that protects the paper from external influences. Decoupage allows you to choose an interesting design and transfer it to old furniture, thereby updating the interior.

Adhesive tape or film helps update old furniture without much effort. Decorative self-adhesive film can have a design that imitates a natural stone, wood, leather and ceramics. She is not afraid of water, temperature changes and direct sun rays. With its help you can completely transform a faded chair.

Artistic painting- This is a way of decorating objects with different colors. There are several types artistic painting: Khokhloma, Zhostovo, Gzhel and Mezen painting. But restoration using this method requires skill and care.

Craquelure- a technique for creating visually aged wood. Cracks form on the coating, through which the main tone is visible. To achieve this result, use special plaster, varnish or paint.

The technique itself does not require serious preparation and precision of application.

Painting– the easiest type of restoration, for which you only need to thoroughly clean the product. The paint coating will keep the chair attractive for a long time. for a long time.

Lamination- a method that involves decorated paper, which is glued to the surface of the chair using synthetic melted resin.

Veneering– is a renovation of furniture using a thin layer of wood, which is glued to the surface using a one- or two-component composition. And to give the veneer aesthetics, you can cover it with varnish or wax.

In addition to updating the aesthetic appearance of the chair, sometimes more serious intervention may be required - it may be necessary to replace or repair a broken part of the structure. In some cases, it is enough just to restore the connecting parts, and in others, to completely replace the part.

To restore a wooden or metal high chair, you may need to replace it old upholstery. To do this, it is necessary to prepare materials that will help restore the product. Upholstery requires care and precision combined with mastery of tools.

How to disassemble it yourself?

It is not difficult to disassemble a chair with your own hands, since its design is known to almost everyone. First you need to unscrew the back, and then the legs. And they assemble the product in the reverse order so that all the grooves take their places. If the chair is secured with glued spikes, the attachment points are wetted hot water or sprayed with steam from a steam generator.

If on wooden structure If there are cracks, they are filled with a mixture of glue and sawdust or glued and clamped until they are completely fixed. If the tenon fastenings are damaged, the old plugs are replaced and the drawbar joints are glued together. To do this, you need to make a small hole, pour glue into it and wait until it dries.

If the old chair is wobbly, then you need to remove the legs from the special grooves and wedge their upper part. Due to this, they increase in size and stay in the grooves better.

Update high chair occurs on the same principle as an adult, but sometimes you need to replace the loops or swivel mechanism. Typically, children's structures consist of many parts that are designed to protect the child's position. For greater strength, all connecting places must be glued.

To disassemble a folding chair, simply remove the axial pins that connect the backrest and seat, and then remove the seat. Metal-based structures are easier to disassemble - you need to unscrew the seat and the soft part of the backrest.

If the chair seat is set to spring block, then it must be replaced with new springs. It is not necessary to remove the entire block for this.

Recovery process step by step

After disassembling the structure and restoring damaged parts, it is necessary to remove the old paintwork. After this, the main stage of restoration begins.

A primer is first applied to the cleaned surface of the chair, which completely matches the color of the product. After waiting for complete drying, the soil is cleaned off sandpaper, To obtain thin layer coverings. After this, the product is coated with paint or varnish, wait for it to dry and apply another layer.

Each material is painted in a special way. For example, an anti-corrosion agent is first applied to a metal frame, and after complete drying, it is covered with the main color. Transparent varnish is applied in several stages, and if a coloring composition is used, it is better to resort to metal enamel.

Wooden frame first treat with wax, carefully distributing it over all areas. Instead of wax you can use oil primer, which is applied with a brush. Then the product is coated with several layers of acrylic paint. These recovery steps allow you to quickly and easily renew your chair without using special protective masks and gloves.

It is extremely undesirable to paint plastic chairs, since plastic tends to bend, and this will lead to cracking and peeling of the paint. Therefore, it is a priority for them to sew covers or pillows.

Final stage renovation consists of creating beautiful upholstery. Having removed the old upholstery, a seat base is cut out of a foam cushion, which is then attached to the surface using glue. For additional fixation, you can use paper clips. Having stretched the fabric well over the entire seat, it is secured from below with furniture clips. Depending on personal preference, the fabric may have a bright pattern or no pattern at all.

To remake a seat with springs, first fix the batting, and then a layer of foam sheet. The fabric is attached according to the same principle as with one layer of foam rubber, but it is pulled with greater emphasis to smooth out the spring relief.

Many people think about what paint is best to paint in order to preserve the effect for a long time. For wooden products you can use stain or paint and varnish, and for iron structures you can use enamel specially designed for metal.

Viennese

To repair Viennese chairs yourself, you first need to assess their general condition. The amount of damage may depend on operating conditions.

The most important damage that can be assessed at home is instability. This occurs due to weakening of the tenon joints. To bring the product back to normal condition, it is necessary to increase the size of the tenon, install seals on the drawers and replace the power bars. After this, the paintwork is replaced and the seat is restored.

To restore an outdated structure, you need to prepare basic materials and tools. To work, you need to get a hammer, a furniture stapler, a self-tapping screw, paints and varnishes, solvent, brushes, glue, scissors, cloth and sandpaper.

The renewal process begins with cleaning all surfaces of the product from dirt and dust. After this, the analysis of the chair begins. First, remove the seat and backrest, which are usually held on with screws. Then the remaining parts are removed step by step. It is important to check the strength of all connections. If any attachment point does not hold well, then it is not worth disassembling.

Disassembled elements must be replaced immediately to avoid errors during the assembly process. All parts are sanded with sandpaper to thoroughly remove old varnish. This is necessary so that the furniture can be repainted so that the new layer fits perfectly on the chair.

Next, be sure to inspect the places where the elements are glued. The top of the legs, which are attached to the grooves, must be wrapped in several layers of bandage, covering each layer with glue. If the leg wobbles very much, then a hole is made in the end, into which a small wedge is then driven. This will increase the width of the end, and the leg will hold firmly in the groove.

For drawstring structures with a weakened seam with inside you need to make a hole and use a syringe to inject adhesive into it. You can also resort to matches coated in glue and insert them into the socket when assembling the chair. In this case, the ends must be adjusted with great precision so that no gaps form between them and the drawers.

Assembly of the structure begins with complete gluing of all tenon joints. Excess glue should be removed with a napkin. The product dries for about a day, and for maximum fixation you need to place some heavy object on the seat.

To update the seat, you need to get rid of the worn upholstery and eliminate any surface imperfections. If you need to change the foam rubber, then you need to draw markings on the new foam rubber sheet and cut out the part. The fabric with which the seat will be upholstered must be larger than the resulting seat. It is placed closely on the surface and secured with paper clips on the back side.

The chair itself can be decorated in Provence style. To do this, all wooden parts are painted and, after drying, processed with a sanding machine.

To fix the effect, you need to coat the structure with varnish.

Updating details

You can decorate a chair different ways. Any materials can be used: paper, fabric, laces, paints, napkins, etc. It all depends on the imagination of the master and on the level of his skill. Naturally, if a person does not know how to work with complex equipment, then he should not resort to it. We need to start with something more understandable.

Using sisal

For this method, you can use either a wooden or metal frame. To work, you will need a large ball of sisal rope, thick upholstery fabric such as velvet, a stapler, superglue, scissors, nails, a hammer, a pencil and a measuring tape.

You need to start the repair by removing the old upholstery from the seat and backrest. Then the back parts are wrapped with sisal, smoothly moving to the legs. This must be done so that the rope fits tightly around the part and each subsequent row fits closely to the previous one. The material must be fixed with glue.

Having finished wrapping all the elements, you need to create decoration on the back. To do this, the rope is wound in several layers in 2-3 rows, first between the upper and lower crossbars, and then between the side ones.

Having made a pattern for the new upholstery, you need to secure it to the seat. Small nails or a stapler are suitable for this.

Wool yarn

To resort to this option, you will need a design on metal frame with mesh back and seat. To work, you need to prepare scissors, multi-colored wool yarn, crochet hook, a wooden strip, a screwdriver and screws.

IN in this case The mesh plays the role of a canvas, so double threads need to be threaded through it in a diagonal direction. Moreover, each row can have different colour. You can use two contrasting colors or several similar shades.

You can strengthen a damaged mesh with a few stitches of yarn. Then you need to cut out a strip that will follow the shape of the seat and secure it with screws.

Decoupage from sewing patterns

This option is well suited for antique wooden products with a hard seat. To work you will need patterns from magazines, glue, a brush, acrylic lacquer, scissors, fabric, thread and needle.

Sooner or later, most of us are faced with the task of buying new furniture, including chairs. At the same time, it doesn’t always make sense to buy new furniture up to enough high price, because we can restore old chairs.

This approach has many advantages. Here are just the most obvious of them:

It won't take long, especially if you follow the instructions.
Using old Soviet furniture instead of buying new will allow you to save a lot.
It will help you create new, yet unique, interior items that no one else will have.

The thing is that chairs, like any other piece of furniture, are not something eternal. Even high-quality chairs are subject to aging and breakdown, especially in cases where we, in one way or another, “help” them, inadvertently causing damage. So it turns out that pieces of furniture become unusable. Of course, chairs, being one of the most actively used pieces of furniture, suffer first of all. In this case, as a rule, the seats of the chair are subject to the greatest damage, while all other parts remain more or less intact and unharmed.

If you are interested in restoring old chairs with your own hands at home, then you can be sure that you do not even need to have any extensive experience in decorating and repairing. It is enough to master a master class on reupholstery, painting, decoupage and other options for remodeling and decorating old furniture and you will be able to repair a chair. In any case, this experience will be useful in the future, since you will be able to upholster “grandmother’s” sofas and reupholster chairs of approximately the same age. Thanks to this approach, almost any furniture is provided with a second life, and not just a place in a landfill or in a closet, as often happens.

Meanwhile, the idea of repairing furniture has one more, albeit not the most obvious, plus. The point is that how to restore old chairs at home will help not only make something new that already seemed unnecessary. In addition, you can feel the pleasure of embodying your creative energy.

How to update a chair or armchair

First of all, it is necessary to recall that the method of restoration depends on the exact nature of the damage. If we try to identify the main damage, we can identify the most common types of damage:

A broken leg, problems with the back, seat or other wooden part.
The upholstery is showing wear.
The paintwork on the wooden surface has worn out (especially during the restoration of Viennese chairs).

So, the method of restoring the chair will depend on which part is broken or worn out. So, the restoration and repair scheme should be chosen depending on the places (or places) in which problems exist.

Often it is enough to simply connect the separated parts, restoring one of the connecting parts that may have deteriorated over time. We are talking about groove and tenon. Wear or expansion of one of them leads to the fact that the chair gradually becomes unstable and begins to wobble on its legs. Repair, as a rule, consists of practically complete disassembly designs with tenon extension. To solve this problem you will have to, as they say, try.

On the other hand, if you need to restore wooden chair, in which the old paintwork has deteriorated, this can be done much easier. If the varnish is cracked, you just need to remove it and sand the surface with fine-grain sandpaper. And then apply another coat of paint. Or varnish, if this type of coating is provided for you. In any case, paint or varnish is your choice.

Also quite simple matter is the reupholstery of old chairs. To do this, you only need to replace the old worn or torn fabric with a new one. Let's take a closer look at the main stages of restoring chairs at home.

Recovery stages

Any chair can be made new. However, this requires at least general outline know the sequence of work. If you do not have experience in doing this, then it is recommended to study at least short master class, which will be discussed below.

Preparatory stage

With the proper approach, even if the upholstery of the chair is torn, the legs are wobbly, partially or completely cracked old varnish or paint, it can be completely transformed by doing the restoration yourself. First of all, you will need minimal necessary set tools and materials:

Tools for restoring a chair: a screwdriver, a hammer, 2 different screwdrivers, scissors, a brush, a clamp, a stapler, sandpaper, a small mallet and scissors.
Materials: screws (self-tapping screws), staples for a stapler, glue for wooden furniture, foam rubber, paint and varnish, upholstery fabric.

After preparing the materials, try to clean the chair from dirt and dust by washing it thoroughly. To do this, you can wipe the chair with a slightly dampened sponge.

Disassembly

Before restoring the chair, it must be disassembled. After waiting for the chair to dry after wiping it with a damp sponge, you can proceed to disassembling it. The seats and backrest, as a rule, can be removed quite simply, after which the frame is disassembled. To ensure that the components are not damaged when knocking them out, use rubber mallet, not with a metal hammer. In any case, you should work very carefully.

If the table is assembled with screws or screws, then disassembling it is not difficult, since you just need to unscrew them. In any case, it is advisable to dismantle all parts, since they may interfere with repairs. In this case, if possible, you should mark the fastener parts or simply fold them in such a way that you cannot confuse them later.

As for how best to remove the remnants of old glue, especially epoxy. Those places where there are glue residues must be covered with pre-moistened rags or sponges. Any old and unnecessary rag will do. Keep it on the chair parts until the glue is completely wet, after which it can be quickly scraped off with a knife.

Please note! For this job, it is better to find an old dull knife, since there is no point in using a new or well-sharpened one.

Either way, after you've finished getting rid of the old glue, you'll need to leave some time for the wood pieces to dry. In cases where epoxy resin got into hard to reach place, it can be removed in approximately the same way, with the only difference being that you will need to use steam instead of water. If you don't have any special devices that create hot steam under pressure, you can use the old-fashioned “method”, which involves using a hose with a tip that fits onto the spout of the kettle.

Step-by-step recovery instructions

So, after the preparation has been completed, we can proceed directly to restoring the old chair. Here's what you have to do:

First of all, get rid of chips and possible cracks. This is done using putty.
Then sand the wood thoroughly with sandpaper, first coarse and then fine, until the work surface is smooth.
Take a good look at the stele and all its parts. If the legs are wobbly, then this needs to be addressed. There are several options: either using a wedge (it is driven in from the end of the axle), or wrapping the axle with a bandage and then covering it with glue.
If the legs of the chair are very wobbly, but for one reason or another they could not be dismantled, then there is one way that helps solve the problem. So, you need to drill a thin hole at the joint, and then pour glue into it using a syringe.
In order for the glue to “stick” better and the connection to become reliable, place any available weight on the seat and wait until the glue is completely dry.
After this, the chair seat is restored, if necessary. It can consist of either soft upholstery or be made of wood. It all depends on the design of the chair. As for remaking the frame, you can use several different finishing options for it, ranging from varnish or red coating to such a rare technique as decoupage.

By the way! Alternatively, you can sew covers. This will not only update the old chair, but also make it attractive due to the interchangeable design of the covers.

DIY restoration

Now let's see what can be done with antique chairs during restoration and how best to decorate them.

Decor using fabric

This decoration is quite simple to do. You need to either reupholster the old soft spots, or sew covers. By the way, a similar approach can be applied to sofas and other pieces of furniture.

Backrest update

There are different options. Among the most common ones that can give chairs new life– decoupage and the use of textiles (including denim).

Restoration by reupholstery

The main thing in this case is the choice of high-quality and durable fabric. These include: jute, tapestry and jacquard. Sometimes velor will do. Upholstering chairs using tapestry is an excellent technique, which, by the way, gives an excellent result in the end. By the way, you can add a pattern woven using the macrame method to the fabric.

We use macrame for decoration

If we talk about macrame in a little more detail, it should be noted that this can be done even if you do not have the skills to weave using this method.

One possibility is this: If the back of the old chair is soft, remove the upholstery and weave a simple square mesh. By the way, the size of the cells can be either large or small. To give the updated chair a more harmonious appearance you can redo the seat upholstery too.

Decoupage technique

This option can turn your chair into a true decoration. With help this method you can finish a lot of things by doing various crafts, right down to decorating the souvenir box. So, you can extend the life of antique chairs, however, only if all of them structural elements made of wood.

Jute decoration

And finally, I would like to say a few words about how you can decorate an old, for example, Soviet chair if you have unnecessary or torn jeans. There are two options for decorating: completely upholster the chair using jute, and use denim as an additional decoration. This could be a strip or a small flap.

Chair restoration has become a popular business in the 21st century. Many people, when furnishing their apartments, strive to fill them with antiques. But not everyone can afford to buy antiques. And therefore, the owners prefer to update the old furniture that they inherited and, in memory of the past, was not thrown into a landfill.

Unpresentable-looking interior items, which have been collecting dust in dachas and attics for a long time, are handed over to professionals in order to then decorate the rooms of their home with furniture that has found a second life. But in order to renew the dilapidated upholstered part, back and legs, it is not necessary to turn to the craftsmen, because the owners can do this themselves.

How to update a chair?

Restoring old chairs with your own hands is an interesting and easy task. Knowing some of its subtleties and armed with the necessary tools and materials, in just a few hours you can turn a shabby and faded object into a bright and unique element of the interior. own home, cottages or apartments.

The main problems with all solid wood chairs are:

peeling paint and varnish;
holes made by small insects;
scratches and cracks;
drying out of parts, as a result of which the object began to wobble.

All these problems can be easily eliminated by coating the damage with wood glue and painting special compounds and varnishing each wooden element.

To restore a chair consisting not only of hard, but also of soft parts (seat and back), the fabric or leather material of which fades and becomes damaged over time, you should replace the filler in the leaky element and decorate the upholstery with fashionable fabric.