Dining Chairs - restoration

I found these two chairs by a communal bin.  I think they’re made of oak. They were badly broken (someone had tried to do a repair job), upholstered in a funky zebra print material, and the melamine seat panels were rotten as they’d been out in the rain.

I started by taking out the seat panels and using them as a template to cut new seat panels out of some salvaged ½ inch plywood (also found by a bin!)

I dismantled the chairs frames, found a large family of earwigs living inside!  I stripped all the old adhesive off with a chisel, and then re-glued and clamped overnight.  I took out the old screws and nails from the bad repair job, and filled in the holes with a wood filler.

I sanded the frames down a bit (but not enough to remove some of the characterful knocks and bumps) and then applied a dark teak stain followed by rubbing in some varnish with a cloth to restore it’s sheen.  Once that was dry, I applied Briwax and buffed them with another cloth.

I bought 2m of cream fabric offcut from Furniture Warehouse in Norwich for £5.50 and upholstered the new seat panels.

They’re really beautiful chairs, and are nice and sturdy and comfortable now, and the golden inlay gives them a regal feel. I’d keep them if I had somewhere to put them. But I don’t, so they’re for sale.

Total cost to restore these was probably under £10.  Sold on eBay.

 

 

Images: