How to make an old chair modern. Restoration of old chairs

Is it time to update your old favorite chairs that have completely lost their presentable look? Do not rush to throw them in the landfill! Simple tools and a few hours of time will help to change even the most shabby furniture beyond recognition. In addition, this is a good savings, because the new set will cost a tidy sum!

1. Scuffs and brushing

The easiest way to make shabby furniture stylish and showy is to age it even more. Such chairs will complement classic interiors, Provence, boho, shabby chic, Scandinavian interiors and even a loft. Fashion for retro and antiques regularly returns with short breaks.

To make the usual decorative scuffs, first paint the chair with a colored paint: bright or pastel, to match your interior. After drying, treat the surface tightly with wax or paraffin and cover it with another layer of paint of a different color on top. When you start to remove the wax with sandpaper, the bottom layer will begin to show through it.

The technique of creating real mechanical scuffs on wooden furniture is called brushing. First, choose and outline the places where they will look as natural as possible - corners, edges, the edge of the seat, protruding reliefs. Work the surface with a stiff metal brush that will remove old paintwork and soft wood fibers.

2. Glazing

Glazing is an interesting staining technology that is well suited for old furniture made of different materials. The lower layer of paint shines through the translucent upper layer, which results in an interesting play of colors and overflows.

In your work you can use acrylic, oil, watercolor and any other dyes, up to coffee or strong tea. Dilute them with water to the desired consistency and paint over the chair with a synthetic brush or sponge. You do not necessarily need a uniform dense coating, because the essence of glazing is just the opposite.

3. Staining

Staining technology is suitable only for massive wooden chairs, where it will help to completely beat the natural texture. Choose the right shade of stain and apply it parallel to the fibers. From dense and hard, the paint will be erased by itself, while soft and delicate ones absorb it completely and darken. The tree pattern becomes even more expressive, especially if you repeat the procedure several times.

4. Patination

For metal or wrought-iron chairs with backs, try patination, which creates a characteristic touch of antiquity on the metal. A special bituminous varnish fills all depressions and surface relief and emphasizes them. Shellac gives a touch of copper, old bronze or gold, and it is also suitable for wooden chairs.

Acrylic patina is the simplest coloring with the right shade. Wax patina gives the surface a characteristic satin sheen. Chemical patina looks the most natural, but is the hardest to work with. In fact, it simply accelerates the natural processes of oxidation tenfold.

5. Craquelure

Complex staining with a network of cracks on the surface is called craquelure. In this way, you can transform chairs, refrigerators, radiators, any other old furniture and equipment. You only need special paint and varnish.

First, the surface of the chairs is painted or pigmented with a dark color, and on top it is covered with a light or colored paint. When both layers are dry, apply craquelure varnish on top, under which the top layer will crack. This is a two-step craquelure, but there is also a one-step one, when the base itself is visible in the cracks, and not the bottom layer of paint.

6. Splashing

Another way to paint old chairs in an unusual way is by abstract splashing of colored paint. This is good for bright creative interiors, like pop art, loft or grunge. Such furniture looks like it has just been brought from an art workshop.

There are different spraying technologies: you can shake off the brush, soak with a sponge, paint with a toothbrush, knock drops off a spatula. There are no mistakes here, because this is such coloring - a chaotic abstraction. Just take care in advance to close the furniture, floor and surrounding objects with oilcloth and newspapers.

7. Dry brush

Dry brush technology is an intermediate step between the creation of scuffs and chaotic painting. The method came from painting and is now actively used by restorers. All you need is a flat synthetic brush and paints.

Do not wet the brush before work, but immediately pick up a little paint and swipe over the base. Don't push too hard - you don't want heavy coverage and solid lines. Synthetic hairs will leave ragged streaks, making the paint look like it's covered in scratches.

8. Stencils

If you don't know how to draw, but want to decorate an old chair with beautiful images, use stencils. Buy ready-made kits for creativity in the store or print and cut them yourself. Laconic geometry is good in minimalism and Scandinavian style, floral and plant motifs - in Provence, bright cartoon characters - in the children's room.

9. Restoration

If you want to restore the original look of an old chair and replace worn upholstery - nothing complicated. First, clean the surface of the old coating and treat it with a transparent or tinted composition. Loose bolts can be easily strengthened with an additional washer, rusted fasteners can be completely replaced, and weak grooves can be filled with universal glue.

To completely replace the seat, cut a piece of new plywood to size and shape. Paste it with a sheet of foam rubber 3-4 cm thick and cover it with upholstery fabric. Secure the entire structure with a glue gun or a stapler with furniture staples.

If you come across antique chairs with springs, finding the same now is not an easy task. But you can completely remove rusty and inelastic parts and replace them with other modern fillers. The same is recommended to do with horsehair and sea salt, which were used for the volume of seats in the old days.

10. Decorative pillows

If your chairs and stools did not initially have upholstered seats, you can always make them yourself. The mechanism is the same: cut out a suitable frame from plywood or MDF, foam rubber, sheathe it with a cloth and screw it onto the screws to the chair frame.

There is another option - to sew a separate decorative pillow from synthetic winterizer and any other filler. And in order not to screw it to the base, make ties and tie them around the legs and back. Such a pillow can always be removed, washed and replaced without disassembling the entire structure.

11. Chair covers

If you want to completely hide or transform an old chair, cover it with a cover to fit it. For sewing, choose dense and wear-resistant fabrics that are unpretentious to regular cleaning. For example, jacquard or other variations of sofa upholstery.

Delicate linen, lace or airy translucent covers also look good. They will ideally complement Provence or Shabby chic and decorate the room for the holiday, but are of little use for everyday use. You will have to remove and wash delicate fabrics too often.

12. Decoupage

Decoupage is an easy way to cover an entire chair with your favorite drawings or mask individual cracks and defects. You will need paper with the selected print, brushes and PVA glue, scissors, water, a roller and acrylic or polyurethane top coat.

Wrapping paper, cards, posters, old wallpapers, newspaper and magazine clippings, multilayer napkins are suitable for decoupage. Cut out the necessary fragments from them and separate the top layer with the pattern. If you want to glue the whole chair completely, it is better to randomly pick the drawings into small pieces and create an interesting papier-mâché effect.

Treat the sanded and painted surface with PVA glue, attach a drawing and smooth it with a roller or brush. You should not be left with bulges, creases or air bubbles. Lightly moisten thick paper with water to soften for ease of transferring the picture.

By the same principle, you can paste over the entire chair with a cloth or dissimilar patches. Such furniture will complement eclectic and ethnic interiors, boho and other styles with an abundance of hand-made. On top, it is enough to apply a layer of matte or glossy protective varnish.

13. Self-adhesive film

In order not to mess with PVA glue and brushes, check out the range of self-adhesive decorative films. It can be simple patterns, photo printing, textured coatings. There are collections with sparkles, luminous elements, mirror effect.

To mark the film, you still need to disassemble the chair and pre-draw original patterns. But this is the most difficult stage of preparation. Therefore, it is enough just to carefully and evenly paste over the chair, immediately expelling all the air bubbles and straightening the folds.

Decor of old chairs - photo ideas

It is impossible to sort through all the ways of restoring old chairs in one material. After all, you are not limited by anything but your own imagination. You can even combine several techniques in one or design a set of chairs in different ways, but keep their shape and configuration. Then they will become an independent interior decoration: look and be inspired!

Almost all pieces of furniture are subject to wear and tear. Even with careful handling, time takes its toll, and the material from which this or that thing is made undergoes aging and loses its appearance, and in some cases already ceases to fulfill its main function. In the case of chairs, the seat of the chair, that is, its upholstery, wears out first. And also the legs often suffer due to the fact that they constantly have a load. They can break, loosen and eventually fall off completely, causing the chair to become unusable.

This is where the need for its restoration arises, because this process will not take much time and you will not spend as much money as if you bought a new chair. The process of restoring furniture is especially relevant if it is an expensive, old, rare thing or someone else's gift that you do not want to throw away.

Chair restoration

You need to know that old chairs are repaired for a number of reasons, which are characterized by certain damage. This may be an insignificant defect in the form of erasing the paintwork. Viennese chairs usually have such a defect. In this case, it is only necessary to clean the wooden surface and paint. There are more significant damage.:

• breakage of wooden elements (legs, backs);
• upholstery wear.

When the upholstery fabric is worn out, it is necessary to carry out such a restoration process as a hauling. It cannot be said that this is a very time-consuming work, rather simple, in contrast to the one when you need to restore the "backbone" of the chair when it is loosened.

Old wooden chairs, stools, stools and stools can be repaired with some tools and the necessary material.

Instruments

• coarse sandpaper;
• fine-grained sandpaper;
• different types of screwdrivers;
• stapler;
• mallet and hammer;
• scissors;
• tassel;
• screwdriver;
• clamps.

Material

From materials, to repair wooden chairs with your own hands, you will need the following items:

Operating procedure

Repairing chairs with your own hands is not a difficult process. Many people have already gone through this and know all the nuances of how to restore an old chair with their own hands. All you need is to thoroughly study the master class on chair decoupage and other restoration techniques.

Disassembly

To start, refurbished chair needed properly clean from dust and dirt, applying to it also wet cleaning with a sponge. After waiting for the surface to dry completely, you can proceed to the next step.

Before proceeding directly to the restoration of the chair, it must be disassembled. There are two types of disassembly: complete and incomplete. Complete disassembly includes the dismantling of the entire structure of the chair. Of course, this option is more complex and time-consuming, and if you choose it, then you can give advice on how to do it. If the entire structure of the chair is fastened with screws, then this will not be difficult. In the case when the legs, backrest and all parts of the chair are held together thanks to the glue poured into the grooves, you will have to make a little effort to disassemble it.

As a rule, the seat and back are removed without difficulty. The difficult step in disassembly is the disassembly of the frame itself. Here it is necessary to apply a certain force to knock the parts out of the grooves. For these purposes, it is best to use a mallet (rubber or wooden), because a metal hammer can easily chip the components of the chair or form dents.

Removing old glue

In any case, when knocking out parts, you will need to get rid of the old dried glue (in some cases it can be epoxy). To do this, use a dampened sponge or some unnecessary rags. It must be applied at the attachment point of the two parts and left for a while so that the glue or epoxy gets wet. After that, the parts will easily move away from each other.

If it is difficult to get close to any place to remove the glue, you can use another method, which, by the way, is more effective. This method is based on the principle of removing glue with high pressure steam. Most likely, most people do not have special devices that create a targeted effect of hot steam under high pressure. . But there is a way out here too.. It is enough to find a piece of rubber hose about a meter long and put it on the spout of a kettle filled with water, which at that time is put on the stove. On the hose itself, you can pick up some kind of nozzle that narrows its diameter.

Recovery steps

Below we will consider the restoration of the chair at home with incomplete disassembly. The stages of stool recovery will be in the following order:

1. Inspection of the coating and repair of cracks if necessary.
2. Strengthening loose legs.
3. Seat restoration.
4. Creating covers.

The last stage is optional and is performed at the request of everyone. DIY chair covers will protect the chair and make it look newer. And also due to the fact that they can be changed, there is a factor of variability in the design.

So, first of all, you need to prepare the work surface and take care of hand protection and overalls. To protect your hands, use pharmaceutical rubber gloves and wear clothes that you don't mind getting dirty. If you are restoring a chair outdoors, then there must be appropriate weather conditions for this (no wind or rain). If you do this at home, then you can lay oilcloth or large garbage bags on the floor under the chair.

After dismantling the seat, it must be removed from the old upholstery and fitted with a new one. Upholstery fabric can buy at any furniture store, with matching pattern and color. Upholstery can be glued or nailed. In the second case, you will need pliers. It is advisable to remove the old coating, and not fit a new one over it. The filler should also be removed. Then it needs to be sanded with medium grit sandpaper and, after wiping the dust with a damp cloth and waiting for it to dry, cover it twice with a primer.

The interval between coats of primer should ideally be 24 hours, but the manufacturer usually specifies a shorter time. The primer also has bactericidal properties, which is especially important for old furniture. When two coats of primer are applied, you can proceed to close-fitting.

Note: You can sheathe the seat with a special master. As a rule, such services are quite cheap, especially if you provide the master with your material for covering.

Synthetic foam rubber or batting is suitable for filler. When using batting, the number of layers is about 4, but more can be done, depending on how soft the seat you want to achieve. . Batting or foam rubber cut strictly to the size of the seat and fixed on its surface with a furniture stapler or small nails.

The upholstery material, the so-called seat cushion, should be fixed not only around the perimeter, but also in the middle. This will prevent the material from slipping during operation. Now, in order to fit our seat, we cut off the cape along the contour of the seat, stepping back about five centimeters from the edge. Having placed the filler, you can drag it, fixing each side with a stapler and overlapping the corners, which are also fixed. The reverse (invisible side) can not be covered.

How to make a chair

Perhaps, The easiest way, if you have a chainsaw and a grinder, make it using ordinary acacia hemp or another tree with a beautiful texture. It is done in the following way. A stump of a suitable size is cut off, the diameter of which will vary from 25 to 30 cm. You choose the height yourself, focusing on the one that will be comfortable for you. The height can be determined by measuring some home stool. After that, an incision is made with a chainsaw in the form of a cross, about half the depth of the stump.

Then, with an ax, a small depression is made in the middle of the stump and a small amount of combustible material - gasoline or diesel fuel - is poured into it. In the process of burning, the inside of the stool will burn out, it is important to monitor this process and prevent the legs from becoming thin. The thickness of the legs should be at least five centimeters at the base and it expands towards the seat. All burnt wood is scraped off with an ax or knife and polished with a grinder. A special nozzle in the form of a brush with coarse bristles is put on it.

After cleaning the inner surface, using a grinder and a grinding disc, the edges of the legs and the seat are processed along the entire circumference . Then painting is done stain diluted to the desired shade and, after drying, varnish.

Stool

To make a simple stool, you need quite a bit of time and a minimal set of tools. Of these, you will need:

The diagram below shows with a dotted line the shape of the leg that you need to cut out in the amount of four pieces, as well as the required dimensions for the board. The shape may be different, it is shown here as an example.

Important: The base of the leg must be flat to give the stool stability.

After marking the workpiece, cut with a jigsaw strictly along the line. In the future, the resulting leg can be used as a layout simply by applying it to the material, circling and cutting it off. When all four legs are cut off, we proceed to their processing. You can clean the edges with a semicircular router, but if there is none, use ordinary sandpaper. True, it will take a little longer. The stool seat requires a board of the same section in the form of a square with a side of 320 mm. The edges of the seat need to be smoothed and made semicircular. The workpiece is also cleaned from all sides with a grinder.

Then, when all four legs and the seat of the stool are ready, provided that they are well processed with sandpaper, you can start connecting all four legs. First, we drill two holes in each leg in the upper part. The drill must be used with a slightly smaller diameter than the self-tapping screw, otherwise it will not hold. Then a small indentation is made with a drill of a larger diameter, so that when the screw is screwed in, its head is drowned and it can be safely primed in the future.

An approximate connection diagram is shown in the figure below, for this you need to attach one leg perpendicular to the other and connect with self-tapping screws.

In the same way, we connect the other two legs and fasten them to the rest. Such a connection is very reliable, since four screws hold one leg. When all four legs are connected, we apply the entire fastened structure to the stool cover and mark its contours with a pencil in order to know where to screw the screws when connecting the seat to the legs. We make holes on the outside of the seat, not forgetting a small hole of a larger diameter to hide the heads of the screws. After tightening all the screws, it remains only to clean the places where the joints were and cover the entire surface of the stool with varnish and stain (if desired).

Covers and capes

Tools needed to make your own chair cover:

• sewing machine;
• scissors;
• fabric and thread.

First of all, remove all marks from the chair: height, width, distance from the back to the seat, length of the legs. An alternative way to remove marks is to make marks directly on the fabric when you apply them to the chair.

The cover itself will consist of two capes. One of them will extend from the bottom of the legs to the back and throw over it. Another cape covers the side of the legs. The two capes are held together with bandages of the same material as the capes. The fabric is sewn on both sides on a sewing machine, and the bandages are sewn on by hand.

Do not rush to throw away old furniture. From a “four-legged friend” battered by life and honed by moths, you can get a real work of art with just a little effort and imagination. Today you will learn how to update an old chair with your own hands to give freshness and newness to your home interior.

Method number 1: decorating a chair with paint

Not only a real “old man’s” Soviet chair, but also a wooden “Viennese” and a folding country version are easily transformed with paint.

Coloring technology

To paint old chairs, you will need:

• acrylic paint;
• flat brushes made of synthetics (separately for varnish, paint and putty);
• gloves;
• putty;
• white spirit (for metal);
• lacquer remover (for lacquered models);
• matte varnish or wax;
• fine to medium grit sandpaper.

Restore old chairs according to this scheme:

1. The first step is to prepare the furniture for painting: wash, sand with sandpaper. The surface should remain slightly rough.
2. It is better to degrease the iron model with white spirit before painting.
3. Treat lacquered furniture with a special lacquer remover.
4. Mask all cracks and scratches on the surface of the legs and back with furniture putty.
5. After that, paint the entire surface of the furniture in 2-3 layers, waiting for the complete drying of each layer. Open the product with varnish.

Interesting! If you want to achieve an interesting worn effect, then initially apply a dark shade of paint to certain areas, and then cover them with wax. Paint the entire area with the desired shade in 2 coats, and then go over the previously marked areas with fine-grained sandpaper to “expose” the dark areas.

• If you have not decided what color to paint the furniture in, then you can not go wrong by choosing a bright white shade. This color is versatile and goes well with all bright upholstery materials.

New! Chalk paints are a newfangled type of colorants that are not yet very common in stores, but we recommend using them because of the bright colors and super-fast drying.

• Use masking tape to paint individual areas of the surface.

Method number 2: seat constriction

Do-it-yourself restoration of old chairs by the method of constriction is the second most common technique after paint.

Interesting! Even if the stool does not have a comfortable soft seat, you can make it yourself.

Tightening process technology

For work you will need:

• dense upholstery fabric;
• furniture stapler;
• screwdriver or screwdriver;
• tape measure;
• self-tapping screws;
• overlocker for processing edges or a sewing machine.

An old upholstered chair is restored in this way:

1. Turn the product over, laying it with a seat on the work surface. Using a screwdriver or screwdriver, unscrew the soft part from the frame of the product. If it is screwed not on self-tapping screws, but on nails, then pull them out with pliers.
2. Measure the width and length of the seat, add 7 cm to each value, open the part from the new fabric. Finish the edges of the fabric blank on a sewing machine or overlocker.
3. Lay the pattern face down on your work surface. Place the seat on it with the wrong side towards you. Make sure that the distance of future bends of the pattern is the same on all sides.
4. Bend and fasten two opposite sides of the upholstery fabric to the seat with a stapler. At the same time, slightly stretch the material. The staples of the stapler are fastened in steps of at least 10 cm, and the corners are not yet fixed.
5. Do the same with the rest of the sides.
6. Lastly, pull the corners into the center of the seat and also secure with staples.
7. Install the seat on the frame, fasten again with self-tapping screws. If initially it was held with nails, then it makes sense to replace them with self-tapping screws.

• A soft seat can be decorated with beautiful furniture carnations around the perimeter.

• Choose upholstery so that it matches the style of the stool. So classic jacquard does not look on modern designer furniture, and an old wooden chair with a back and patterns looks strange with geometric print upholstery.

• Often, chairs look perfect if their style uses the same fabric from which the curtains or curtains in the room are sewn.

The match looks harmonious.

Method number 3: sewing a cover with gathers in the corners

A clear advantage of sewing a cover is that this method is much cheaper than seat upholstery.

It is enough to purchase 2-2.5 m of fabric, correctly make a pattern and sew.

The fabric is selected on the principle of wear resistance, as products are constantly subjected to increased stress, especially in the dining room and in the kitchen.

To sew a cover on an old chair, follow these steps:

1. First of all, you need a pattern. For measurements, you will need masking tape, paper or newspapers.
2. Attach a large spread of the newspaper to one or another part of the product, mark the outlines of the furniture on paper, remove the excess with scissors.
3. Prepare the second part, and attach it to the first, gluing it with masking tape. Having fully assembled the pattern, cut it in those places where the seams will be. Thus, you will get a more or less accurate pattern specifically for your product shape.
4. Remember that you need to leave allowances for the seams and take into account the fractional orientation of the matter, especially if it will have a pattern in the form of stripes or large flowers. Pay special attention to the back. It happens that in order to recreate the exact bends, you will have to cut out a separate part along its side. If you do not have a goal to convey all the frills, it is enough to make wide allowances of 5-7 cm along the side cut of the back.

Important! It is better not to make the back cover very narrow, otherwise you simply will not be able to put it on the chair. Cut the back part wide or flared, then fold the excess into a pleat, and tie a beautiful bow at the back. If you like a "stretched" cover, then install a twisted zipper in one of the seams.

Method number 4: Decoupage of a chair with paper

Remaking old chairs with your own hands does not always require drastic changes. Sometimes a new chair will turn out from an old one if you mask minor defects, scratches and stains with an original fashionable print or beautiful patterns.

Decoupage will help you. Take:

• multilayer napkins with the desired print;
• PVA glue;
• a pair of brushes;
• scissors;
• matte clear lacquer;
• roller

To make original designer furniture out of old chairs, follow this algorithm:

1. Clean furniture, paint as directed in Method #1.
2. Separate the top layer of the patterned napkin, cut out the desired size fragment from it.
3. If you want to change the whole decor of the old chair: from the back to the legs, then randomly tear the napkin into pieces of 10x10 cm.
4. Lubricate the desired place of the future decor with plenty of PVA glue. Lay a cut-out piece of napkin on the desired piece of furniture, smooth it with a brush with the remnants of PVA, removing bubbles and smoothing out the wrinkles with a roller.
5. The top layer of PVA should be as thin as possible. Leave it to dry for a day.
6. At the end, cover the entire surface of the furniture with a transparent varnish in 3-4 layers, allowing each to dry.

As you can see, remodeling an old chair is not as problematic as it might seem at first glance.

Creative furniture decor solutions

• To give an old stool a touch of vintage, you can paint it pink, blue or cream. For painting, gold or silver paint is useful. On top of everything, apply craquelure varnish to the entire area. The effect of antiquity is created by small cracks from the varnish.

• An old stool will be saved by upholstery made of multi-colored straps. Weave them according to the “basket” principle, and fix them from below with self-tapping screws.

• Let your kids get creative with acrylics. Cover the result with varnish. You will not only receive designer furniture, but also a future family heirloom.

Now you know how to restore an old chair, turning it into an exclusive little thing for mere pennies. If you have other modernization ideas and restoration experience, share with readers in the comments.

Video: Restoration of an old chair

Time passes, and even good things wear out, lose their former gloss and simply break. But do not rush to send a shabby stool to the landfill, it can still become a stylish and functional piece of furniture. Restoration of the chair will take a lot of time and effort, but the result will exceed all expectations.

Before deciding how to restore an old chair with your own hands, you need to take care of its stability. With prolonged use, the furniture loosens: the wood dries out, and the glued tenon joints cease to fulfill their function.

A stunning effect can be achieved simply by painting the chairs in different colors.

Joinery

• First, the nodal connection is disassembled. Be careful not to damage it. The spike is swayed and at the same time tapped with a hammer on the knot.
• The groove site is cleaned of old glue and dust. It is convenient to do this with a chisel or knife.
• Then the spike and socket are evenly and thinly smeared with glue with a viscosity of 200.
• After the knot is assembled and clamped in clamps. The product must be in the clamping device for at least three hours. The remains of the dispersion are removed with a damp cloth.

Important! If a bolted connection needs repair, place metal or plastic washers under the nuts and tighten the nuts.

• If the wooden elements are not adjacent to the eyes, you can increase the missing volume with a thin piece of wood. Use casein or skin glue. The seal is left in a pressed state for 8-10 hours in a warm room. Professional craftsmen use a belt tie, which allows you to achieve the desired force when gluing.
• If the spike is broken, it is better to replace the defective part with a new one. The leg is processed with a hacksaw and the nest is cut out with a chisel to a depth of 50 mm. After that, the insert of the desired size is cut out and hammered into it.

Advice. Use a PVA dispersion, it is non-toxic and non-degradable. Epoxy glue "Master" or "EDP" is also suitable.

You can securely fix the legs with wooden scarves. You will also need studs with nuts and washers

Removing the old coating

To get rid of the old coating, use sandpaper. It is not necessary to remove the entire top, it is important to create a smooth and even surface. Restoring chairs with your own hands will not seem too exhausting if you use a grinder.

Advice. You can remove the varnish with technical acetone. They moisten a napkin and wipe the product well. At the same time, the natural color of the wood remains.

Speed ​​up the process of removing the old layer with a grinder

Finishing: painting and varnishing

Since the tree absorbs liquid quite well, it is necessary to prime the surface before finishing, this will reduce material consumption. A colorless primer is suitable if the tree will only be varnished. In other cases, choose a white primer. Chairs in white or black look great with contrasting upholstery.

Important! Before work, put on a respirator and gloves.

• Apply 1-2 coats of primer. When the chair is dry, go over it with a fine-grained sandpaper.
• Now use a wax balm, it will give the surface a special shine. Then polish everything with a brush.
• Paint the chair twice. The second layer is applied to a dry surface.
• Apply a thin coat of varnish along the grain of the wood.

Advice. Use water-based paint, it is easy to apply and dries quickly. You will also need a stencil if you want to decorate the chair with an original pattern.

Polishing and painting is best done outdoors.

Dismantling and hauling the seat

You will need: a furniture stapler, staples, a screwdriver with nozzles, foam rubber 5 cm thick (or two pieces 2-3 cm thick), thick fabric for the backing and upholstery fabric for the top. A synthetic winterizer, batting, foam rubber can serve as a filler for seats.

• First, remove the seat and upholstery. Don't throw away the solid wood base.
• Turn the chair over and remove all fasteners that hold the seat. Remove factory staples.
• Pull out the spring frame. Free it from the remnants of the filler.
• Cut out a rectangle of thick fabric according to the size of the seat, cut out the upholstery with a margin. The allowance should be 6-8 cm.
• Place a thick fabric backing on the spring. Attach the fabric to the frame with a stapler.
• Lay a layer of filler on top. The optimal thickness for the seat is 4-5 cm.
• Then install the upholstery material, it is most convenient to do this with an assistant. Upholstery can be a special textile material, as well as linen and leather.

The fabric at the corners can be fixed in this way

Creative solutions for exclusive design

• First, the chair is painted with two paints of different colors, for example, turquoise (1st layer) and white (2nd layer). Then the surface of the back and legs is carefully treated with fine-grained sandpaper so that the “worn” effect appears. The color of the upholstery material must be in harmony with the color of the painted part.
• To give the chairs a vintage flair, they are painted in cream, blue, pink colors. After that, the entire chair or only part of it is decorated with a painting. Then individual parts are isolated with gold paint or craquelure varnish is applied to the entire surface. Small cracks will create the effect of antiquity.

Also a curious vintage

• If you want to recreate the Empire style, choose milky satin with a floral print. Cover the frame with gold paint.
• Make a chair cover, it will not only protect the furniture from dirt, but also change its design.

Sewing a cover will take a couple of hours of time, even a novice seamstress can cope with such work.

• The seat can be upholstered with 30 different colored leather straps. They are intertwined with each other according to the “basket” principle and are fixed from below with self-tapping screws.

Seat strapping

Patchwork - patchwork upholstery for a "bright" mood

Often there are things in the closet that have not been worn for a long time. An old shirt and worn jeans are quite suitable as "raw materials" for the upholstery of country chairs. If suitable shreds were found, you need to choose shades and cut out the constituent elements.

Tip: Do not use elastic materials. At first, choose simple, uncomplicated drawing schemes.

Bright accents will dilute the strict monotony

We decorate a stool using decoupage technique

Do you want to update your kitchen in an inexpensive way? Decoupage is able to make the most nondescript furniture original and attractive. You will need napkins or fabric with a suitable pattern, leather applications are also suitable.

On sale you can find special cards for decoupage

1. After processing with sandpaper, the cracks are sealed with putty, the product is primed and coated with a water-based emulsion.
2. Then a suitable picture is cut out from a napkin, the surface of the chair is smeared with glue and the pattern is carefully applied. Moving from the center to the edges, smooth it out.
3. Absolutely dry surface is varnished.

You can decorate in this way the seat, back or legs. Decoupage is ideal for furniture in the nursery or in the kitchen

Great solution for transforming an old stool

Video master class: renovating old furniture

An unstable chair irritates with its creak and carries a potential danger - at any moment it can fall apart under the weight of a person sitting on it. If you have experience, you can strengthen the structure, repaint the base and drag the seat yourself. But if you do not know the secrets of carpentry, you should turn to professionals who know how to restore an old chair, and therefore they will carry out repairs efficiently and quickly.

Photos of chairs before and after the transformation

In my coral room, everything has been in its place for a long time: above the bed - instead of a bicycle -. And only the old chair was an eyesore to me. Finally, I got around to restoring it: paint and reupholster the seat.

I talk about how I did it and share the process. Perhaps this story will inspire some of you to update your furniture.

A few years ago, I read a post on the A Beautiful Mess blog about a dining room remodel. I remember the different chairs that they put together, painted with bright yellow paint, and due to the same color, the chairs began to look very harmonious and original. Since then, these yellow chairs have not left my head.

Please note that I am not a restorer and the process that I describe should not be used to restore antique pre-revolutionary chairs. In this case, it is better to contact a professional. But if you have old Soviet chairs lying around that are a pity to throw away, then you can update them and give them a new life.

To restore a chair with your own hands, you will need:

• newspapers to protect the surface;

1. Remove the seat and sand the surface

I didn't use a special primer, just removed the seat from the chair (it can be attached with nails or screws) and sanded the entire wood surface of the chair with sandpaper.

2. Paint the chair with paint

An important question is what paint to paint the chair with. Very simple: I came to the store and asked the consultant for advice on what kind of paint would be suitable for painting a wooden chair. I was advised semi-matt Tikurilla Pesto 30. I chose the color from the palettes in the store and the consultant mixed the right can of paint for me.

In total, I painted the chair three times. When you apply paint for the first time, you want to exclaim “Whoa?”. The paint lays down in a thin layer, dark wood shines through it, grooves remain on the paint from the brush. The main thing here is patience.

Between applying each layer, I waited a day until the paint was completely dry.

3. Choose the fabric for the chair seat upholstery

Ohhh! The choice of fabric was almost the most difficult moment in this whole story. I went to the Internet to ask Google what he would tell you about fabric stores in St. Petersburg. What I found was sad sadness. Sites in the style of the beginning of the 2000s and photos of the assortment are such that I was amazed. Driving around the city in search of fabric, not being sure that I would find what I needed somehow did not smile at all for me.

And then I remembered my favorite fabric store Myata Fabric with beautiful modern prints. Now the guys are starting their own fabric production and will soon open a relaunched site, and I was lucky to grab one of the last pieces from the old collection. And I do not regret for a second that I had to wait until the fabric reached me by mail from Yekaterinburg. The wait was clearly worth it.

4. Cut out the fabric for the seat

A few years ago, the seat was already pulled over, but the cat sharpened its nails on the old fabric and it became unsightly. At the same time, the seat itself was completely normal, so I did not change the fabric and foam inside, but simply decided to wrap the seat with new fabric.

I laid the seat on the fabric and cut it around the perimeter with an allowance of 4-5 cm.

5. Fix the fabric with a construction stapler

First, I fixed the fabric with a construction stapler on four sides so that the fabric did not fidget and then separately walked along the perimeter. First on the sides of the seat and only lastly - the corners. In the process, I made sure that the fabric was well stretched, but still not too much.

Maybe it was my simple construction stapler, or maybe the plywood seat, but the staples didn't go all the way into the seat, so I tapped them all with a hammer to secure them properly.

6. Cut off excess fabric

I cut off the excess fabric to make it look neater. It is especially important to do this in the corners. Separately, you can cut a plug for the bottom of the seat, so it will look even neater. But my chair will not move much, but will stand in one place, so I decided to neglect this step.

7. Attach the seat to the chair

Depending on which fasteners you used initially, attach the seat to the base of the chair with them. I attached the seat with a glue gun, since my chair is used more for decorative purposes - it stands in a corner, I put a blanket, clothes on it, and put a bag. If you plan to use the chair in full, then it is better to take care of a more serious mount.

Here's what happened in the end!