Dining Chairs

Six, nicely shaped, antique spoon-back dining chairs were in need of new covers. 

However, over the years, the chairs had suffered in all kinds of ways. The following is a list of some of their woes and the various corrective actions that were taken.

For them all, the first step was to remove the old hand made tapestry – of sentimental value to the owner.

For three, the back frame was parting company with the front. The chairs were taken apart, joints cleaned and the two pieces and corner braces glued back in place.

For one, a new corner brace was needed. 

One chair had a joint in the back that also needed attention – it was knocked apart, cleaned and glued.

Some chairs needed the supporting webbing tightened.

All chairs were given a good work over with 0000 wire wool and wax and then polished. This removed superficial marks and added a nice shine!

For all the seats the stuffings had compressed and new hair was added before being covered in calico. The amount of hair added was varied to ensure all the seats ended up with the same shaping.   

An intermediate layer of FR polyester wadding was added – for fire legislation compliance – and then the chairs were covered in calico.

The new covers were added. All six covers were cut out at the same time to ensure the final appearance for them all would be close to identical.

The final step was to add double piping around the seat .

All done!

The key issue with projects involving several pieces, such as these Dining Chairs, is to keep them all looking the same. Matching the pattern positioning is obvious. But so too, is the shape of the upholstery and colouring of the frame – all of which may be affected during the upholstery work.

JBerryUpholstery aims to do exactly that, whether with Recovering (plus a bit) projects or full on Restoration projects. The same care is taken when any Accessories are included. Please take a moment to look at Transformations – of which this project is one – and find inspiration for your next project.