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zuludog
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23-11-2017, 06:17 PM
1

Furniture repair advice please

I can do a bit of DIY, and I make model planes.
On the strength of that I'm helping a friend to repair an old upright dining type chair
It's not valuable, but it's a nice shape. We've had a poke around and found some faults

The joints are all loose, and one of them is starting to come apart, so it wobbles.
The seat is a lift out frame that seems to be more tacks & staples than wood. The webbing is in poor condition and the padding is probably horse hair.
The easiest thing would be to chuck it away, but we both fancy doing it up; she also has a bureau that needs a bit of TLC.

The problem is that the books we've seen tend to be either 'upcycling' which is mostly covering things in wallpaper or painting them pastel blue; or full blown painstaking restoration of expensive antiques.
The videos we've found on YouTube are mostly American, with an irritatingly long winded mosey on down style

So, can anyone suggest a book or videos on basic furniture repair please?
All we want to do is to make it usable without spending a small fortune or taking 6 months
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Eliza
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23-11-2017, 06:29 PM
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Re: Furniture repair advice please

I did my dining chairs,some years back. I went to fabric shop and bought a leatherette material , enough to cover 4 chairs , then i used a Staple gun to attach, getting the corners to sit flat was awkward and i needed the help of hubby to keep it streached taught ...The padding was ok so no need to replace that .
Im not keen on horse hair it feels horrible ...

Sorry i cann't recommend any books but if you dont like the audio , perhaps turn it off and just watch it , you will get the jest of it im sure .

Forgot to say the joints did work loose but it was a modern set and just needed the screws tightening up at regular intervals .
realspeed
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23-11-2017, 06:39 PM
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Re: Furniture repair advice please

have you looked on youtube? everything seems to have a video on how to.
Tartlet
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23-11-2017, 07:55 PM
4

Re: Furniture repair advice please

Might this help? There are others on YouTube.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_3JGqULJLKg
Chatterbox
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24-11-2017, 02:40 AM
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Re: Furniture repair advice please

I agree with previous posters to have a look at Youtube. You could try glueing the wobbly bits on the chair, but you must do it carefully and securely as it can affect the integrity of the structure and you dont want to sit on it and the whole thing splays!

You could try leaving the current padding, supplementing it with some foam and then covering the seats, although to be honest by the time the horse hairs exposed its not that much more work to remove it and replace completely with foam.

Staple guns are handy for the recovering but a mains one is probably best as some woods are hard to staple into. If its a one off and you dont want that expense you could use tacks instead and glue on some sort of edging to cover the staples.

Whatever you decide, in my experience things always look lovely when theyre restored, whichever route you decide to go.
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24-11-2017, 05:39 AM
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Re: Furniture repair advice please

Ive restored a few things but I'm not an expert, as others have said look on utube it's what I do when I find a piece to restore. It's great fun by the way and very satisfying. Good luck with it
swimfeeders
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24-11-2017, 07:10 AM
7

Re: Furniture repair advice please

Hi

The joints are normally easy to do.

Wood Glue and then use a ratchet strap to tighten them up whilst the glue is setting.

Seat frame first and then any stretchers.

Hope this helps.
zuludog
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24-11-2017, 10:19 AM
8

Re: Furniture repair advice please

TARTLET - Yes, I watched that video last week, but he did a lot of waffling before he got to anything useful

I know that there are videos on YT about just about everything, but some are better than others
If I just work my way through 2 or 3 at a time I'm sure I'll pick up suitable advice

But we already have a pretty good idea of what to do. Really we should take it apart, but I think we'll get away with just getting some glue into the joints & splits and clamping everything up
I have some G clamps & F clamps, and I can borrow some sash clamps

The seat webbing & stuffing was in poor condition, so we'll renew that with modern foam padding & a new cover
My friend has decided to paint it white, so we'll remove and/or key the old brown varnish, but fortunately we won't need to get it absolutely perfectly back to immaculate bare wood
 

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