Update an old wooden chair. Restoration of chairs at home. The order and stages of restoration work

There can be a great many reasons to update old chairs or decorate new ones with your own hands. This is the need to adapt furniture to the interior, the desire to correct design flaws, restore chairs inherited from the grandmother or found for nothing at the flea market. In this article, we will talk about 4 ways to transform your “four-legged friends” (including office and garden chairs) beyond recognition, and also present 70 cool photo rework ideas.

Method 1. Painting a chair

Even the most old-fashioned or just ordinary chair, say, a "Viennese" wooden, plastic, folding or office chair, can be transformed with the help of staining. The main thing here is to choose the right color. Here are some inspiring examples where color alone saved furniture from landfill.

Old Viennese chair before and after renovation

A few more examples of reworking the most common bent beech Viennese chairs, which can be found in almost every house or cottage.

And here are some cool ideas for painting stools.

Inspired? Then let's get down to practice!

To paint a chair you will need:

Acrylic paint, and preferably chalk paint in one or more colors;
Synthetic flat brushes (separately for primer, paint and varnish);
Protective gloves (it is better to buy at a pharmacy);
Primer for wood / metal (depending on the frame material);
Wax or matte varnish (polyurethane or acrylic);
Sandpaper of medium and fine grain.

How to paint a chair with your own hands:

Prepare the chair for painting: wash it to remove coarse dirt and dust, then sand it with medium-grit sandpaper to remove the top layer of old varnish or paint. The surface should be slightly rough.

If you want to update a metal chair, then it is not necessary to sand it (although it is still safer to sand the top gloss), but before priming / painting, the frame must be degreased with white spirit.
Also, you can avoid the tedious sanding step if you use chalk paint, but you can’t do without a primer.
If your stool is varnished, it can be removed with a special varnish remover.

If the chair has damage, such as scratches, chips and cracks, putty them with furniture putty.

Wipe the chair from dust, wait for it to dry and apply a primer on the entire frame in two layers, allowing each layer to dry for about a day. Between coats, it is advisable to sand the primer with fine-grained sandpaper (No. 220 is suitable).
Take a new brush and paint the chair in 2-3 coats, letting each coat dry completely. Make sure that the paint does not form smudges.

If you want to paint a chair with a scuffed effect, then first some places (for example, on the edges of the seat, back and armrests) need to be painted with a dark paint, say dark gray or dark blue, and then waxed over them. Next, you should paint the chair with the main paint in 2-3 layers. And, finally, having slightly worked with a fine-grained sandpaper, expose the dark “substrate”.

Do you want to achieve the effect of the perfect factory painting? Then be patient: each layer of primer and paint (with the exception of the finish layers) will have to be sanded with fine-grained sandpaper. So the coating will turn out to be as even and reliable as possible.
To paint only certain parts or parts of the chair, use masking tape.

Treat the chair with wax or matte varnish. Voila, your "four-legged friend" has found a new life!

Helpful Hints:

Don't know what color to paint the chair? You can't go wrong if you paint it white, because this color is the most versatile, goes well with any bright upholstery;
Before staining, stucco decor can be glued to the back of the chair using wood glue;
Achieve the effect of a very old and dirty chair in Provence style, you can use dark brown wax;
Chalk paint is a relatively new type of paint that is not yet commercially available. However, we recommend using it, because due to its density, increased adhesive properties and super-fast drying (in 30 minutes), it saves a lot of time and effort. In Russia, you can buy chalk paints from designer Daria Geyler, and in Kazakhstan - at Vernenskaya Manufactory. Also, you can always order paints from foreign manufacturers - Annie Sloan and Rustoleum.

It’s better to figure out how to paint an old chair with your own hands this video master class will help you.

Method 2. Seat upholstery

Most often, if the chair has a soft seat, then painting the frame is not enough to completely update it - you need to change the upholstery. Here are some photo examples of how upholstering a seat can turn an old chair into a stylish piece of decor.

Office chair before and after painting, reupholstering the back and seat

By the way, if your chair or stool does not have a soft seat, then you can make it yourself: first, cut out the MDF base exactly according to the shape of the seat, then, following our master class, upholster it and, finally, screw it onto the chair frame with screws.

To make a soft seat for a stool, it is enough to glue the foam rubber directly onto the base, and then cover it with a cloth, hammering the stapler staples onto the inside of the seat.

Upholstered stool

For work you will need:

Anti-stapler (or its alternative);
Furniture stapler and staples with a height not exceeding the thickness of the seat base;
Textile;
Foam rubber about 4 cm thick;
Batting or synthetic winterizer;
Scissors;
Knife-serreytor for bread (with teeth);
Screwdriver.

How to reupholster a chair with your own hands:

First we need to remove the seat from the chair frame with a nail puller or a screwdriver.
We remove the old upholstery with an anti-stapler and remove the filler if it is dilapidated (if it is in good condition, then it can be reused). Next, wipe the base of the seat from dust and dirt.

If the wooden base of the seat seems too old and unreliable to you, use it as a template to cut a new seat out of plywood.

We put the seat on the foam rubber, trace its outline and cut it out.

We cut the fabric and batting in such a size that they can wrap all sides of the seat (along with foam rubber), leaving free 10-15 cm. These surpluses are needed to make it more convenient to stretch the material.
So, we got four blanks: base, foam rubber, batting / synthetic winterizer and fabric. Now we need to put it all in a sandwich. First of all, we spread the batting, put foam rubber on it, and on the foam rubber - the base of the seat with the wrong side up. Next, we simply bend the edges of the batting onto the seat and, slightly pulling the material, fix it with a stapler. The corners of the batting can be cut off, or you can simply bend and fasten in the same way.

How to restore a chair seat

After all the batting is attached to the seat, trim off the excess.

If desired, the foam rubber can be pre-glued to the base or stitched around the perimeter with a stapler, retreating 5 mm from the edge of the seat.

The most crucial moment has come - the stage of reupholstering the seat with a cloth. Spread the fabric inside out and place the seat on it. Next, fold the edges of the fabric along one of the sides and fix with a stapler. Now stretch the fabric slightly over the opposite side of the seat and fix it with a stapler in the same way.

Repeat the procedure on the remaining two sides and proceed to the design of the corners - they need to be wrapped as shown in the photo below.

Chair after restoration

We return the seat to its place and fix it with "native" fasteners.

Helpful Hints:

The upholstered seat of the chair can be additionally decorated with furniture carnations around the perimeter.
Upholstery fabric should be selected in accordance with the style of the chair. So, for example, a traditional jacquard fabric is not suitable for a modern chair, and a classic chair with an elegant back is unlikely to “make friends” with a fabric with a new-fashioned geometric print.
The same fabric from which your curtains are sewn is ideal for upholstery of a chair. In the interior, such a coincidence will look very harmonious.
The print on the fabric may overlap with the carved crossbars as shown in the photo below.

For a more visual master class of upholstery of an old chair seat, see this video.

Method 3. Decoupage of a chair with paper

Do you want to decorate a chair with a cool print or cover up minor defects like scratches and stains with drawings? This can be done using the decoupage technique.

chair decoupage idea

You will need:

Any paper with the desired print, for example, it can be multilayer napkins, pages from magazines and books, maps, posters, wallpapers, etc.;
PVA glue;
Brushes 2 pcs (for applying glue and varnish);
Scissors;
Transparent matt varnish acrylic or polyurethane;
Water (if necessary);
Roller for working with large formats.

How to update decoupage chairs:

Step 1. Clean the chair from dirt and stains, paint if necessary, following the first instruction in the article.

Step 2. Cut out the fragment that you need from the selected polygraphy. The workpiece can be either large (for example, in the shape of the seat and back) or very small.

If you are using napkins, then first you need to separate the top layer with a pattern and only then cut it out.
If you want to cover the whole chair, including the legs, the paper needs to be randomly torn into small pieces of about 10x10 cm, as shown in the next photo slider.

To decoupage the back and seat, they must be removed from the chair frame with a screwdriver, and then used as a template for cutting the workpiece (see photo below).

Step 3 Lubricate the place you want to decorate with PVA glue liberally and attach your drawing to it, then smooth with a brush with the remaining glue, releasing all air bubbles and smoothing out the wrinkles.

If the cut out print is small, then it is better to grease not the chair, but the reverse side of the workpiece itself with glue.
If the paper is very dense, then it needs to be moistened a little in water - so it will become more plastic.

A top layer of adhesive is not required but is often desirable (it should be thin anyway).

Step 4. Repeat step 3 with other parts of the chair and leave the glue to dry for about a day.

Step 5. Coat the decorated areas or the entire chair with 4 coats of clear lacquer, allowing each coat to dry completely. Ready!

Method 4. Decoupage of a chair with a cloth

It would seem, how else can you radically modify the chair with your own hands, except by painting. In fact, there is another cool way - decoupage with a cloth.

A chair updated in this way will last a surprisingly long time even under heavy loads. And if individual threads are knocked out of the fabric along the edges of the chair, you can simply cut them off and process them with a layer of PVA glue.

Decoupage idea for an old chair

You will need:

Textile;
Wooden chair;
PVA glue or special glue for decoupage;
Sharp clerical or dummy knife;
Brush for applying glue.

How to update a decoupage chair:

Step 1. Using a screwdriver, remove the back and seat from the chair. If you want to paint the chair, do so before taking it apart.

Step 2. Spread the fabric on a flat surface, put the seat on it and circle it along the contour, stepping back about 2.5 cm from the edge, then cut out the blank.

Step 3 Coat the outside of your seat with PVA glue, then place the fabric over it and smooth it out. Once the fabric is leveled, coat it with PVA glue and leave to dry overnight.

Step 4 When the fabric is dry, make sure it is completely stiff. Next, cut off the excess fabric with a sharp knife exactly along the edges of the seat.

Step 5. Now again treat the perimeter of the seat with PVA glue to prevent wear at the edges.

STEP 6. Repeat steps 2-5 with the back of the chair and other details you want to decorate and finally put the chair back together. The main condition for the successful restoration of the chair is that the pattern must exactly repeat the shape of the surface to be decorated.

Here are some more photo ideas for decorating a chair with fabric.

Decoupage of an office chair with a fabric with additional protection with polyurethane varnish

Decoupage ideas for stools

In almost every home you can find a few old chairs, the appearance of which leaves much to be desired. Don't be in a hurry to throw them away. Restoration will help to breathe a second life into an old, but favorite piece of furniture.

Restoration gives the chair a second life and creates unique furniture.

Just a little effort, and old chairs or armchairs will turn into real works of art and will delight their owners for many years.

Give a second life

Restoring chairs with your own hands is not so much a difficult process as painstaking.

Before proceeding with the case, it is necessary to carefully inspect the product. Based on the results of the inspection, it will become clear what to do: just drag the seat of the chair, update the paintwork, or carry out a more serious repair.

If the chair is loosened, then the cause should be sought in the spiked joints. Over time, the wood shrinks, the connecting elements begin to hang out in their nests. To eliminate this and strengthen the structure, it is necessary to increase the size of the spike, seal the sides and replace the power jumpers.

Scheme of assembly and constriction of the chair.

Restoration of a paint and varnish covering will demand smaller efforts. Old paint will have to be removed, the surface of the parts sanded and coated with paint or varnish. For high-quality performance of work, the chair must be disassembled: remove the seat, unscrew the back and legs. If the design of the product is complex and has many small parts, then during disassembly, a diagram of the location of each part should be drawn up. This will facilitate the assembly of the chair after the restoration is completed.

The easiest way to update an old chair is to replace the upholstery. Replacing old and worn fabric can change the appearance of furniture beyond recognition. If necessary, updating chairs with your own hands can be done in any one way or include all of the listed types of work.

Preparing for recovery

Before starting work, it is necessary to prepare tools and materials. If the chair needs serious repairs, then you will need:

Before restoration, the old chair must be disassembled.

Screwdriver.
Screwdrivers.
A hammer.
Mallet.
Clamps.
Clamps are metal.
Sandpaper of various grain sizes.
Construction stapler and staples.
Acrylic paint and brushes.
Scissors, pencil or felt-tip pen, cardboard, tailor's centimeter.
Foam rubber.
Thick fabric for upholstery.
Bucket, rag and dishwashing liquid.

The first step towards restoring a chair is to clean it of dust and dirt. To wash it well, you will need warm water, a soft cloth and some dishwashing liquid. This solution will help to quickly clean the chair not only from dirt, but also from part of the old varnish. The washing procedure should be carried out promptly so that the wood does not come into contact with water for long, and then everything must be thoroughly dried.

The next stage of restoration is dismantling. First you need to remove the back and rear legs. The main thing here is to follow the rule: the assembly of the chair must be carried out in the reverse order. Only in this way will all the holes coincide with each other. In addition, all parts and fasteners must be marked. This will also make assembly easier.

Tools for restoring chairs: batting, upholstery fabric, stapler, staples, foam mounting adhesive, cardboard, screwdriver, scissors.

If the heads of the screws that fasten the parts are hidden in the sockets and they are covered with wooden plugs, then they can be removed using a chisel. If it does not work, then you need to use a drill, the diameter of which is equal to the diameter of the plug, and drill it out. The opened screw is turned out with a screwdriver. A drop of technical oil applied to the screw will facilitate the work.

If the chair was held together with epoxy, then hot water will help remove it. Wet a rag or napkin and put it on the place of gluing. Repeat the procedure until the glue is completely softened. Then you need to scrape it off with a knife and dry the parts. Hot steam will help soften the glue in tight joints. To do this, a rubber hose is put on the spout of the kettle, a jet of steam is directed to the connection.

Processing and assembly of parts

In order to qualitatively restore the chair, it must be carefully examined. All details must be processed with sandpaper. Glue the large cracks found and tighten them with clamps. Glue the smaller ones and secure with paper tape. Excess holes and chips on the parts should be filled with a slurry of glue and small sawdust. You can continue to work only after the glue is completely dry.

To facilitate work with sandpaper, it must be cut into narrow strips and glued to wooden blocks 20-40 mm wide and 300-350 mm long. Paper must be used with different grain sizes. The surface after processing should be even and smooth. A grinder will help to facilitate the work and significantly reduce the processing time.

Be sure to check all connections. If the legs of the chair are inserted directly into the seat and eventually become loose in their nests, then to strengthen them, it is enough to wedge them. At the ends of the upper narrowed parts of the legs, a cut is made and a wedge is driven into it. Thanks to this technique, the end diameter will become larger and it will sit more tightly in the socket, which must be pre-lubricated with glue.

It will be more difficult to restore chairs with crossbars between the legs and drawers under the seat. In such designs, a tenon-groove connection and sizing are used to fasten parts. When the seam weakens, you need to drill a hole with a small diameter from the inside and drop a few drops of glue there with a syringe. When the spike is weakened, it must be strengthened with thin wedges. Matches or wooden chips that are dipped in glue are suitable for this purpose. They need to be hammered into the nest along with the spike.

If the chair is very loose, then in addition to gluing the joints, it is necessary to strengthen the structure with wooden bars. They should be attached with screws to the sides, which are used to connect the inner corners of the frame. Bars and tsargs should be perfectly fitted to each other. Even the smallest gap between them will cause the entire structure to skew.

Now you can begin to assemble the chair frame. All parts must be installed in their places. In order for the adhesive to grab, it is necessary to provide sufficient pressure. Tighten the elements to be glued with clamps or cords. A bucket of water can be placed on the seat. This will provide the necessary pressure. With such a load, the chair must stand for at least 24 hours. Excess glue should be removed immediately with a damp cloth.

Soft seat replacement

If the chair has a soft seat that needs to be replaced, it's time to get started. First you need to remove the old fabric and padding. If there are defects on the wooden surface, then they must be eliminated.

Marking should be done on the new foam rubber. The old seat is applied to the foam rubber and outlined with a felt-tip pen. To cut straight, you need to take a sharp knife. Then make a pattern on the fabric, taking into account allowances for hem and foam rubber. Next, lay the pattern face down on a flat surface. Foam rubber is placed on top, and then the seat. The allowances must be wrapped on the wrong side, pulled and aligned with the front side. Align the folds in the corners, bend the edges and attach the material with a stapler. If it is not at hand, then you can use small carnations, which have wide caps. Fix the updated seat on the frame with metal corners and self-tapping screws. If the chair has a soft back, then it is restored in the same order as the seat.

A fully restored and transformed chair will serve its owners for many years.

Regardless of whether each of us carefully or carelessly uses furniture, over time it loses its original appearance and becomes unusable. Worn upholstery, an unpleasant appearance, the joints of structures are loosened - these are signs of aged, unusable furniture. Throwing away, for example, your favorite chair or stool is a pity, but is it possible to make repairs with your own hands, and what are the ways to do this? Many masters believe that repairing chairs with their own hands will be a simple, reasonable and useful solution.

Natural wood and products from it do not lose their properties, while maintaining the quality of parts. If the wooden chair was in the room, the legs, individual elements and connections may loosen in it. Do-it-yourself repairs will allow you to bring the structure to an impeccable appearance and give a new life. It should be noted that there are several types of damage. It is possible to restore the appearance and strength characteristics with the replacement of individual parts, for which the structure is disassembled in parts. During operation, defects may appear:

damage to the paint or varnish layer;
thorn-groove joints loosened under the influence of constant loads;
the appearance of chips, cracks on a wooden surface;
fading, damage to the upholstery;
damage to the wheels, loose, broken legs and other problems.

The chair can be repaired with your own hands in all of the above cases, for which you do not need to purchase special equipment.

Steps for a simple chair repair

It is quite possible to transform a chair into a new state after repair and restoration at home. To know how to repair a chair quickly, you should determine the defect. A simple repair of wooden chairs with your own hands can be done without disassembling the product.

When a stool or chair is not pleasing to the eye, it can simply be painted or varnished. For consistent work, you need to perform several actions:

remove the upholstery so as not to spoil the fabric during the painting process;
remove the old layer of paint or varnish;
we repair the surface of wood by grinding, priming;
apply new paint or varnish;
put the upholstery in place.

Carefully remove the leg from the socket. Remove old adhesive and apply fresh. Place a weight on the seat. Excess glue that comes out, remove

We pull the parts and inject fresh glue into the socket under the spike. A narrow wedge will expand the trunnion and the connection will be stronger. A close inspection of old chocks will help you determine if they need to be replaced.

We cover the cracks

It is important to properly remove the paint so as not to damage the wood. Cracks must be sealed, primed, allowed to dry, and then sanded. Repairing a chair with your own hands can be a rewarding and exciting experience.

Loose Chair Repair

Strengthening the corners on the frame of the chair How to glue the drawer side

It is important to understand that in the design of a loose wooden chair, there may be a drawstring under the seat, and crossbars in the leg area. Step-by-step instructions will allow you to repair chairs at home quite easily and quickly, which will require the installation of bars to increase rigidity:

The first step is to replace the upholstery. You can do it yourself, but if it is complicated, then use the services of masters in the studio.
If you replace the upholstery yourself, you will need to disassemble the old upholstery layer from the seat, replace the foam rubber.
Inspect the surface for damage and repair.
Put new upholstery on the surface, bend the edges, nail to the tree with carnations, or with a construction stapler.
If the legs inserted into the seat are loose, you can pull out the swing leg, remove the old glue, then apply fresh glue to it and insert it back. For a better understanding of how to properly repair wooden chairs in stages, if not only the leg, but also the back is loosened, you can watch the video.
Chairs with a drawer side and crossbars will be more difficult to disassemble and repair due to the presence of a large number of tenon joints. If the legs of a chair of simple solid wood construction are loose, it is necessary to pull out the loose legs, clean them of glue, and glue them back into place.
If one seam diverges, drill a hole from below or from behind and inject glue into the damaged part into it.
A damaged trunnion can be repaired with special thin pegs, or a bandage made of paper strips smeared with glue. The strips should be the same width as the trunnion.

Repairing wooden chairs and stools on your own does not require large investments, which every master and craftsman will like. And if the chair has wheels built into the legs that have become loose, you can also repair it yourself, without the help of a furniture repair shop.

How to fix wheels on chairs

Broken chair

The most common problem with modern chair designs, including office chairs, is wheel breakage. To make the chair on wheels last for a long time, you can also repair it yourself using a Phillips screwdriver, pliers and a hammer. The reason for the loss of the wheels may be.

Sooner or later, every person needs to buy new furniture, this applies not only to large interior items, but also to chairs. But before you go to the store, you need to think carefully, because perhaps your house has a lot of furniture that you can update yourself and transform beyond recognition. In addition, prices in modern salons and markets are often overpriced. For example, restoring chairs with your own hands is an ideal way out of this situation. Today we will tell you how the restoration of old furniture takes place, how to proceed in stages in order to achieve a good result.

The main advantages of furniture restoration

This option of restoring interior items has a lot of advantages. The most obvious of these include:

This process takes quite a bit of time, especially if you follow the instructions clearly.
The transformation of old furniture allows you to save a lot on the purchase of new products.
Restoration of chairs allows you to get as a result completely new, unique things that are not found in any other home.

Chairs, like other pieces of furniture, tend to wear out, and quite quickly. Even the highest quality products are subject to breakage and aging, especially when a person accelerates this process with his actions. This can be serious damage caused by negligence and too intensive use. Seats suffer the most, as they bear the maximum load.

To restore worn-out products, it is not at all necessary to have extensive experience in the field of repair and decoration. It is enough to familiarize yourself with several workshops on painting, hauling, decoupage, decorating, reworking old furniture, and you will succeed.

Important! This experience will certainly come in handy in the future if you decide to reupholster an old sofa or reupholster an armchair. Using this approach, you can breathe a second life into any product, instead of sending it to a landfill.

In addition, this idea has another huge plus: you will not only restore old chairs on your own, but also experience maximum positive emotions from the realization of your own creative idea.

Features of updating an armchair or chair

Remember that the method you choose to restore the chair with your own hands depends on the nature of the damage. There are three main types of damage:

Upholstery wear.
Back problems, broken leg, seat, or other piece of wood.
The paintwork on the wooden surface has fallen into disrepair.

Based on this, we can conclude that the repair and restoration scheme is selected, depending on where the problem arose on the furniture:

Often it is enough to connect the loosened parts, to replace the connecting part that has failed over time. This applies to spikes and grooves.
Expansion and wear of these very elements leads to the fact that the chair slowly begins to loosen and becomes completely unstable. In such cases, the repair consists in the complete disassembly of the furniture with the build-up of a spike. Here you have to work hard.
If the problem concerns the wear of the paintwork, then it is easier to fix it. If the varnish is cracked, it is enough to remove it, sand the surface with sandpaper and apply a new layer of paint or varnish.
Reupholstery of old chairs can also be called a simple matter, because you just need to replace the torn or worn fabric with new material.

Now we will consider the most popular restoration options in stages.

Step by step reconstruction of an old chair

Before you restore an old chair with your own hands, you should familiarize yourself with the sequence of this work. If this is your first time doing this, then check out the short tutorial below.

Training

If you approach the work correctly, you can completely restore the furniture yourself, even if the upholstery is torn on it, the legs are loosened, the paint or varnish is completely or partially cracked.

The first step is to prepare a minimum set of necessary materials and tools:

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

After that, prepare the chair: clean it from dust, dirt, wash it thoroughly.

Disassembly

Naturally, before updating an old chair with a backrest with your own hands, it must be completely disassembled. Once it dries, you can get to work:

First of all, the back and seat are removed, only then the frame is disassembled.
When knocking out parts, use a rubber mallet so as not to damage them. Work as carefully as possible.
If the chair is assembled with screws or spikes, then it is enough to unscrew them.
Fold all the details neatly or mark them in some way so as not to confuse them later.
If there is old glue left somewhere, in particular epoxy, then attach moistened rags or sponges to these places. Any unnecessary old rags will do. Let it stay on the parts until the glue is completely soaked, then it can be scraped off with a knife. A dull old knife will do the job.
After the old glue is removed, let the wooden elements dry a little.

Important! If epoxy gets into hard-to-reach places, you can use steam instead of water to remove it.

Reconstruction

So, the preparatory work is fully completed, now you can proceed to the process of restoring the old chair.

Do it in this order:

First, get rid of possible cracks and chips with putty.
Sand the wood thoroughly with sandpaper so that the entire work surface is perfectly smooth.
Look carefully at all the details. If the legs are loose, then solve this problem now. Use a wedge, drive it in from the end of the trunnion or wrap the trunnions with a bandage, then carefully coat it with glue.

Important! If you were unable to secure the legs in the suggested ways, then try using another method that is more effective. Drill a thin hole at the junction, pour glue into it with a syringe. To secure the adhesive, to make the connection more secure, place some weight on the seat and wait for the adhesive to dry.

Then refurbish the seat if needed. It can be wooden or made of soft fabric. It all depends on the design of the furniture itself.
As for updating the frame, this can be done by restoring the paintwork or using decoupage techniques.

Important! If desired, you can sew new covers in order not only to update the chair, but to make its design more interesting and attractive.

Ideas for decorating old chairs

The alteration of old chairs does not end there, you can decorate them in various ways. Below we will give options on how to restore antique interior items in an interesting way and decorate them.

Decorate an old chair using one of the suggested options:

Decorating with fabric. This decoration option is considered the simplest, because it is enough just to drag old soft places or sew covers. You can use a similar approach to update other interior items.
Back update. You can decorate the back using the decoupage technique or lining with some interesting fabric, such as denim. Any novice master will be able to figure out how to sheathe a chair with a back with his own hands, and this work will not take much time.
Upholstery lining. It is important to choose a durable and high-quality fabric. It can be tapestry, jute, jacquard. In some cases, even velor is suitable.

Important! Tapestry upholstery gives the best result, since it is a reliable material that looks quite attractive on the outside.

If you find that an old chair is completely worn out, do not rush to throw it away. Often old pieces of furniture bring with them pleasant memories of people and events in the life of your family. Yes, and what's the sin to conceal? Previously, furniture was made for centuries ...

Therefore, the restored chair may well serve not only you, but also your children. Simply by changing its appearance, you can return the furniture to its former attractiveness and novelty. Fortunately, there are many options now. Everything will depend only on your imagination.

How to update an old chair? Precleaning

To begin with, the surface of the chair must remove old coating whatever it was. If there is a soft seat upholstery, it must first be removed. To do this, it does not necessarily require "male power". Try turning the chair upside down and you will see that the seat is held in place with screws that need to be removed. To do this, you need to arm yourself with a hammer (for knocking out the seat) and a screwdriver (straight or Phillips).

Now you can start removing the old coating. To do this, you can use the usual "sandpaper" of different grain sizes or a grinding sponge. It is important to sand the surface of the wood well. This will help to easily apply the coating of your choice in the future. Needless to say, this job is not easy.

But it is possible to simplify the process a little by periodically moistening the surface to be treated. This way you can get rid of the dust. Just do not be afraid that the old varnish becomes viscous from moisture. This is fine. After the chair is completely dry, you need to once again sand the entire surface well with fine “sandpaper”.

How to update an old chair? All right

Now it all depends on your imagination. If you decide to varnish the surface of the chair, then you need to use a colorless primer so that the texture of the wood is clearly visible through the protective layer. A layer of primer will have to be used in any case. Even if you decide to paint the chair later.

The fact is that the paint lays down better and lasts longer if the surface is pre-primed.
It is necessary to cover the surface with varnish in two layers. It is important that the first layer is well dried before applying the second. The varnish can be applied with a brush or sprayed on the surface.

You can paint the chair in any color. Now white furniture is considered very fashionable. And the upholstery of the seat can be chosen in contrast. Now there are many ways to show originality. For example, use a stencil. Let it be flowers or any other ornament.

Another way to cover the surface of a chair is beeswax balm. The surface is also pre-sanded and primed with drying oil. Then cover with a thin layer of balm with a cloth. After twelve hours, the surface is polished with a brush.

Now you can start restoring the upholstery. The old one must be removed. Previously, it was attached to the seat with ordinary nails. You will also have to get rid of the foam rubber. It is necessary to cut a new one according to the old standards. The fabric needs to be cut with a margin for hem. The upholstery material can be very different: as a special fabric for upholstered furniture, as well as regular linen or thick cotton. It is better to fasten the fabric with a furniture stapler. But if you don't have one, don't worry. You can use ordinary nails by nailing them with a hammer. It is important to remember that the material must be well stretched on all sides.

Now the seat can be inserted into its original place and fastened with screws.

Upgrade an old chair with a slipcover

There is another way to how to update an old chair use case. It can be made from any fabric, hiding defects and imperfections without major intervention. The cover can be with a variety of frills, ruffles, bows, tassels ... You can make several options. Festive and everyday. Show your imagination! Do not rush to throw away old furniture, try to become a designer, we are sure that you will succeed!