The benefits of restoring chairs, simple and affordable ways
Over time, furniture designs become loose, begin to creak and lose their aesthetic appearance. This is not a reason to immediately throw them into the trash. Let the restoration of chairs do not scare beginners with their own hands - this is not as difficult as it might seem. Restoration will help restore antique furniture to its original appearance and functionality.
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Benefits of Self Restoration
Having engaged in the restoration of old chairs with your own hands, you can make completely new versions of products, real works of art. In addition, it will cost much less than buying a new product. To update a wooden chair with a back, you will not need a large amount of materials, tools, time.
Benefits of restoration:
- You can completely restore the chairs of the last century, which today do not harmonize with the design of the house. The use of new materials will help to adapt them to the modern interior.
- The ability to change the design and design, using colored or transparent inserts, carved or forged elements.
- Even an inexperienced master can upgrade old chairs without special knowledge and skills.
- Saving. Professional restoration of antique furniture is expensive, so if you wish, this work can be done independently at home at minimal cost.
Most often, products made from valuable wood are subject to updating. Carved legs, backs are restored in rare old chairs, the upholstery fabric is changed, and the frame is also strengthened. The main thing is that during dismantling of antique furniture do not damage the coating, as this will significantly reduce its value.
Restoration of 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, it will be enough to remove the old upholstery, polish it, varnish the tree, and decorate the seat.
- If there are cracks or small chips on the surface, they are repaired using putty on wood or glue. In case of major damage, furniture elements require a complete replacement.
The highchair is restored using the same technology as the adult. Only in this case, you need to pay special attention to the state of additional elements. For the safety of the child, they must be strengthened.
You can also independently carry out the repair of bar stools. Subject to restoration are wooden, metal products, as well as rattan models.
To make wooden chairs look more interesting after repair, they can be decorated using various techniques:
- Artistic painting - colored patterns are applied to the updated chair with a brush.
- Decoupage - gluing cut pictures from paper napkins and applying glue and varnish to them.
- Self-adhesive film - can be used both colored and imitating natural wood.
- Craquelure is a technology for creating aged material. To work, you need special plaster, varnish or paint.
- Normal painting.
An old dry chair will have a fresh and updated look if the veneer is glued to the surface and varnished.
Material selection
Properly selected material will not only allow you to restore the chair, but also create an aesthetic, unique interior item. To get a really high-quality product, you should carefully select their options on the market. Despite the high cost, it will be much safer to use natural, environmentally friendly textiles and hypoallergenic filler.
For hauling
Upholstery fabric is selected, taking into account their own tastes and preferences. However, do not forget that various factors influence the durability of the material. If there are animals in the house, it is better to use flock, micro-velveteen 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 is pulled by micro-velor, 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. Meanwhile, it is a durable, reliable material that is easy to care for. It fits into any interior: classic, baroque, high-tech and other stylistic trends. The disadvantages of leather furniture include its vulnerability to accidental damage with sharp objects, as well as the difficulty in washing traces of felt-tip pens, pens.
Presentable look will have chairs with faux leather upholstery in sand, blue, green, red colors. They are not afraid of moisture, can be safely used in the kitchen. Disadvantages of the material: it does not tolerate temperature extremes, loses strength when exposed to direct sunlight.
Also for kitchen chairs you can use chenille, flock, glue-based jacquard or faux suede. Today fabrics of Arpatek and Alcantara are in great demand. Experts recommend using mixed varieties for kitchen furniture, which include synthetic and natural fibers.
For chairs in the living room, material is selected depending on the general interior of the house and the wishes of the owner of the house. It can be: tapestry, silk, satin, leather, leatherette, velvet or plush. The upholstery of chairs for dressing tables is selected depending on the interior of the bedroom. It can be both monophonic and color. They are recommended to be decorated 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.
You can remodel the upholstered part of the furniture using foam rubber or foamed polyurethane foam (PUF). The duration of use of the product depends on the density of the filler. Foam with high rates withstands dynamic and static loads for 5-15 years. It is a hypoallergenic, safe material. Sold in sheets - 1 x 2 meters. To make the product soft, foam must be used with a density of 30-35 kg / m². On a plywood base it is better to choose a material 10 cm thick.If the chair has a back, then it will have an optimum thickness of 3-5 cm. For the restoration of children's furniture, low-density foam rubber of the brand up to 25 kg / m3 (2520, 2220, 1820, 1620) is used.
Recently, there has been a tendency - to use natural materials for the restoration of old chairs: rolled or sheet copra, dried sea grass, burlap.
To update the frame
The construction market offers a wide range of paints, primers, azure and varnishes for the restoration of chairs with their own hands. You should know that enamel coatings have different properties:
- Acrylic - create a durable, flexible coating that lasts for 3 years, does not wear out, does not fade. 24 hours are enough for drying of paint;
- Alkyd - the composition of paints includes varnish, which takes 48-72 hours to dry. The coating protects the frame from moisture, rot, abrasion;
- polyurethane - protect against water, mechanical and chemical damage. Before applying paint, the frame is treated with a solvent.
To artificially age an old chair with your own hands, it is necessary that the texture is clearly marked in it. It can be products from oak, pine, ash, walnut or Siberian larch. The following techniques are recommended for aging:
- Brushing. To give a more pronounced relief using special steel brushes that remove the upper soft layer of wood. Brushing on chairs is performed to a depth of not more than 2-4 mm, then the surface is treated with fine sandpaper and covered with stain, varnish, waxes, paints, azure or patina.
- Staining. The composition is applied using a brush in 2 layers. After drying, the surface of the chair is varnished in 2 layers. At the end, the elements are ground and a final coat 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 of vegetable oil, 10 g of angelica, 10 g of burdock. He must pre-infuse 10-14 days. After penetration of the impregnation into the wooden structure, it is necessary to perform waxing with the prepared mastic.
To age wooden structures, patination is also used. On sale you can find such varieties:
- Thick pasta (patina). It colors the tree from yellow to red.
- Liquid patina on a water or synthetic basis. Noble shades of material give the product a radiant look.
- Facet varnish. After its application, a coating with the effect of cracks (craquelure) is obtained.
To create the effect of antique chairs, acrylic, wax, shellac and oil are used.
Wooden surfaces must be carefully treated before painting. They should not have cracks or chips. To eliminate deep gaps, putty is used on wood. It can be one-component (with water base and alkyd binder) and two-component (with putty and hardener). It is better to use a transparent mixture, which when dried does not violate the wood structure.
To close up small bumps and scratches, you need to mix small sawdust with PVA glue, the gruel obtained to fill the cracks.
You can decorate a wooden or metal frame with napkins, textile pieces, decoupage pictures or carved patterns. For work you will need:
- water-based acrylic varnish;
- acrylic paints;
- decoupage glue or PVA;
- priming;
- putty.
Furniture needs to be painted in a ventilated room or on the street. Otherwise, poisoning by evaporation can be obtained.
Necessary tools and consumables
To repair wooden chairs, you must first prepare tools and materials. The list depends on what exactly the master plans to do. To completely restore the old chair, you will need:
- Acetone, alcohol, remover, degreaser - to remove old varnish.
- Furniture foam. The classical constriction of chairs or stools involves the use of a thick variety with a width of 5-10 cm and a thin one of 2-3 cm.
- Construction stapler. Durable staples will hold the upholstery together with the furniture frame.
- Stain, primer, varnish. Liquid formulations will give the product a specific color.
- Paint brushes. They can be with synthetic and natural bristles.
- Plywood sheet. If the restoration of the chair requires a replacement seat, use a 4-ply material.
- Joiner's 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 items in a specific position.
- Upholstery - necessary at the final stage of restoration. The size depends on the dimensions of the chair itself.
- Hammer, mallet, electric drill, electric jigsaw, screwdriver.
- Fasteners: screws, corners.
As for sandpaper, it is chosen depending on the stage of work. For the initial processing of a wooden chair, P40-P60 grit material is used, and for preparing the product for painting and decoration, a skin with the marking P150-P180 and less is needed. For interlayer cleaning of varnish or paint surfaces using a variety of sandpaper P220-P360.
Repair and design of the frame
Work on updating old chairs and decorating them requires a thorough and accurate approach. If the product is durable, it has not dried out anywhere, then it is not necessary to disassemble it into elements. It will be enough to replace the soft upholstery and cover the parts with paint. But, as a rule, there are some damages on the old frames. This can be scratches, chips, cavities from bumps and other breakdowns.
A small workshop on restoring chairs for those who do not know how to eliminate these shortcomings:
- To remove small scratches, sandpaper and building mastic are used. After sanding minor damage, putty is applied. After 1.5-2 hours of drying the paste, the surface is again cleaned with sandpaper and opened with varnish or paint.
- To close up a large notch, a putty will be needed, which should be applied with a spatula to the crest and give it time to dry. Then wipe with a fine sandpaper and apply paint.
You can also restore the chair with a patch. This will require:
- a small wooden patch;
- clamp;
- ruler, pencil;
- PVA glue;
- enamel.
Before starting work, it is necessary to prepare a wooden block of the right size. The fibers in it should be located in the same direction as in the damaged area. Then glue should be applied to the base of the piece, close the notch, fix with a clamp. After the composition has dried, rub the wooden block with sandpaper. At the next stage, you can paint over old chairs with enamel or varnish.
The varnish is applied exclusively on a smooth surface. If there are cracks, they are sealed with special putty. For work using ordinary paint brushes, special rollers or spray guns.
If you plan to decorate chairs with decoupage technique, you also need to remove the old cover from them. To do this, use sanding. But to speed up the process, it is better to choose a liquid wash for varnish or paint. 10-15 minutes after application, the chemical product is removed with a spatula, the surface is sanded and polished. After receiving a smooth product, you can proceed to decoupage.If the surface of the furniture is in good condition, then remove the top layer only in the place where you plan to apply the image.
To remove epoxy glue from the frame, you can use a steam jet instead of water. If there is no special device, an ordinary kettle can come to the rescue. A hose with a tip is attached to his nose and the wood is cleaned of glue.
Chair decoupage workshop
How to restore old chairs with the help of far from a new direction of decoupage - this is worth knowing before you even start work. You will need special paper napkins, pieces of fabric, leather applications and other decor. To fix 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:
- Sand the surface of the chair. Fill cracks with putty. Primer the surface of the product and optionally cover it with water-based paint.
- Cut your favorite motifs from napkins. Put them on the surface and cover with PVA glue. After drying, varnish stool.
- Sections of fabric or leather should be applied to the stained surface of the stool. Top with glue again, and then with varnish.
So that the glued elements do not peel off the surface, you need to apply several layers of varnish.
Work with seat
Before you repair a chair, you must definitely check what condition its main part is in. If there is a need to replace the base of the seat, it should be borne in mind that the thickness of plywood should be at least 18 mm. In this case, the chair will support the weight of an adult up to 120 kg.
The sequence of the plywood base:
- prepare a drawing on graph paper, attach it to cardboard and cut out a template;
- attach it to plywood, draw around the outline with a pencil;
- using a jigsaw, cut the part and sand the edges with sandpaper;
- drill holes for fastening bolts on the base;
- insert the seat into the frame and fasten with bolts.
If you need to replace only the soft part of the seat, you should decide on the upholstery. Firstly, it is desirable that it has increased wear resistance. Secondly, it should fit into the interior of the house.
If a complete replacement of the filler is required, then the thickness of the foam should be 40-60 mm.
Step-by-step instructions on how to make a soft seat, if initially it was not provided:
- Draw a filler and upholstery pattern.
- Attach it to the foam and cut with an increase of 7-8 cm to tighten the edges of the base.
- Attach the upholstery pattern to the fabric. Cut material with allowances of 8-10 cm for hem.
- Attach the cut parts to the base with a stapler and staples.
So that the lower part of the seat has an aesthetic appearance, you need to attach a lining. She will hide all the errors of repairing a chair with her own hands.
If it is necessary to cut upholstery according to old patterns, it must first be carefully removed. To do this, staples are removed from the seat and the filler is separated 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 to be mistaken in the calculations. If there is no old pattern, you need to measure the seat horizontally and vertically.On the upholstery fabric, it is desirable to make an increase of 8-10 cm from each edge. To make it easier to fix the foam, it must be glued with PVA glue to the base.
Proper skinning:
- Lay the material face down on a flat surface.
- Put the base with foam on top.
- Bend the material and beat with brackets or cloves. The distance between the fasteners is 15-20 mm.
Sheathing of the back in the chair occurs in a similar way, but with some nuances. Hard foam rubber does not fit 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 fixed with brackets.
Restoring chairs with your own hands is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. On top of that, it’s also economical. It is enough to select the appropriate materials, turn on the imagination, and after a few hours of work you will get an amazing result that exceeds all expectations.
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