This gorgeous antique chair was hidden away in my grandmother's basement only to surface years later and get a complete makeover.
Full of bora holes, chipped wood, and ruined by paint, the chair is in need of some tender loving care. I am currently in the process of stripping the chair down. Watch for further updates on my progress...
Pulling off the old piping and finishing
There were about 3 or 4 different fabrics on top of each other including patched sections
The traditional upholstery stitching at the front of the chair.
Choosing fabrics...not many that inspire me. Trying to decide whether to go with traditional or modern/unique.
Some bora holes need filling before sanding the whole chair down.
I went to buy paint and unfortunately was sold (by the expert) a water-based undercoat, and oil-based gloss which ididn't double check. So the final gloss isn't going on too well and I'm going to have to do another coat.
The grey is the undercoat, and the black will be the final gloss.
Re-strapping the base of the chair. The springs are still okay but the ancient strapping is so old that it is brittle and sure to give out at some point.
The bottom of the chair is now re-weaved with the old rotten strips removed and the new black ones stitched to the springs inside the chair so they're nice and secure. Think I've been annoying my neighbours with all the banging to remove hundreds of old tacks and hammering to replace them.
Next! To the re-upholstering...But first I had to rebuild the structure/cushioning I had thrown away due to dust and age.
The old cushioning seemed to be made of chopped up bits of cloth or rag, I haven't looked into it but I am sure someone can tell me when it was common to use this type of padding. I am trying to work out how old the chair is, though it may have been re-cushioned at some earlier time too.
After much deliberation and hunting, I came across the covering I wanted to use for this chair, and it turned out to be an great choice in lots of ways and was really enjoyable to work with.
The Skin of Calf.
Sounds bad when you put it like that. And I am sorry for the poor wee calf-ies that died and donated their skins. But they made a really great job of producing some beautiful skin, and it feels amazing.
This was certainly the hardest part of the project, but in some ways it was the quickest once I had started. One of the problems I came across, was the areas of the skin that didn't quite cover the chair. I had to do a bit of imaginative work, and re-working, and testing, and envisioning what sections of the skin would fit where and how that would look.
I also had to learn how to stitch leather together with upholstery thread and a stitching awl and needle.
The final result was really worth all the hard work and I am loving looking at the chair every day!
My last task is to be able to give up ownership of the chair. It used to belong to my grandmother, so it is going back to my dad for positioning in my parents house.
