Most of a chair needs to be All of a chair

Specularity

So I need help from some of you more hands-on folks. I got this great wooden chair from Freecycle -- well. I got most of a great chair. It has the frame fully intact, if a bit raw (a couple joints need solidified), but it's missing the seat and the back. I'm wondering if anybody has some ideas about how I can construct a usable chair out of this skeleton.

Limiting factors:

While I passed shop class, I'm certainly no carpenter. Also, I have very limited access to tools; I may be able to use my roommate's parents' power drill or saw, if they have them, but that's not certain. A hot glue gun or staple gun are probably doable.

I'd like it to end up looking as least Holly Hobby as possible. That said, I realize it's not going to look uberchic, but I'd love to try.

Here are some photos of the sad excuse for a chair:

Thank you for any ideas you might have!

P.S. Thank you to everyone who helped me with my cone thread, I didn't realize it would be taboo.

Casket

Looks like you could put some beams of wood through that middle hole and make yourself a seat that way. Evenly space them out. Good to go. Or sit.

DrFrylock

The seat obviously had some kind of cloth covering on it. It's hard to tell from the picture whether the corners of the seat are aligned such that you can cover the whole seat with a flat surface.

What you want to do for a seat like that is to cut a piece of plywood out to make a seat, then you want to put some batting or stuffing or foam on top of it, maybe glue it if you use foam. Then you want to wrap the whole thing in cloth and staple the cloth to the bottom of the plywood all around the edges. Then, you want to glue or screw the whole assembly to the chair. Presto, seat.

For the back, I can't really imagine what was there. You could do something similar. You could put some curved slats back there and make it a ladder-back. You could get creative and put little eyebolts all around the edges and weave a sort of rattan. You could drill evenly-spaced rectangular holes all up the sides and fit strips of cloth through. Sew little loops at the ends that stick through the holes and then slip dowels through them to keep them from pulling back through the holes, as such, seen from the top:

O-+

---

+-O

(with little dowels through the Os)

Uncle Long

You're going to need to get some sand paper and some varnish, methinks. You want to look up a few books on upholstery. I'd say you take that chair really dark. Not quite black for the wood but close, enough so you can tell it's got a hearty wood tone in the sunlight. Then lay some thickish beams across the bottom and the back and get a cushion or some foam that you can make into a cushion and fit it to the chair. I'd say you use some red or dark crimson, perhaps a silken paisley pattern? and wrap the cushion to the chair, stappling the cloth into the wood beneath and securing the cushion. For the back, I'd try to cut a piece of ply wood to fit that hole and upholster with the same cloth as the seat but without cushion (the plywood should be flush with the front part of the back...the part that your back will lean against).

Well, that's my idea anyway.

Ruckus

Step 1: Check the yellowpages for your area, find a furniture restoration company.

Step 2: See if they want to buy the frame from you, it's hard to tell from the photos but depending on it's age, quality, if they can determine who originally manfuctured it, its original intended style, etc, it may be worth something (though probably less than $200 at the highest).

Step 3: Buy a new chair.

Szechuanosaurus

Alternatively, take a night class in furniture restoration.

TBH, there's not a whole hell of a lot of furniture left to restore. You're going to have to sand down and re-varnish the frame, construct a seat cushion, probably need something else on the back as well. It's not something that would be worthwhile restoring, except if it was a project for the sake of learning how to do all that stuff, hence night class in furniture restoration.

amateurhour

I used to refinish furniture for a job. It's a massive pain in the ass, but it's not impossible. Above poster had it right. First thing you need to do is get that frame back in shape, before you worry about the seat cushions.

1) Get some paint stripper and make sure everything is off the chair.

2) Sand that mother down

3) Use some putty to fill in any cracks or nicks in the wood, so it looks smoth again

4) Repaint, varnish, etc.

It's a little harder than that, but those are the basics. Now to the seat cushion

The bottom is the easiest part. That's basically a match cut piece of plywood with the seat cushion stapled to the top of it. It goes: Plywood that matches those four triangle corners, foam pad, cushion stuffing, cloth cover that comes around the plywood and staples to lock everything in place.

Essentially it's the same step with the back cushion too, but you're working with a curve, so you're going to have to be more careful, and use different tools.

It's not impossible to do yourself, and it might be a cool project for the weekends. If you do want to get it restored though, depending on the age and value, expect to pay. I think our minimum price to restore a chair where I worked was $200, and it went up from there.

Slagmire

On sanding, you may want to stick to hand-sanding for the majority of getting the chair back to its former glory, and I would probably stick with staining instead of painting - it looks like it already had a kind of red oak color to it previously.

What are the dimensions of the chair though (height, width at least); from the look of it, was this more of a lounge chair? I ask because of that curve from the seat to the back, and wonder if it might have had only one long cushion instead of two.

amateurhour

Slagmire wrote: »

On sanding, you may want to stick to hand-sanding for the majority of getting the chair back to its former glory, and I would probably stick with staining instead of painting - it looks like it already had a kind of red oak color to it previously.

What are the dimensions of the chair though (height, width at least); from the look of it, was this more of a lounge chair? I ask because of that curve from the seat to the back, and wonder if it might have had only one long cushion instead of two.

see, I thought just the opposite. Based of the seat bottom, and the style of curve, I pictured to cushions that meet at the bottom and kind of tuck into each other. You're definately right about hand sanding. Staining is good too, you just have to make sure you're well ventilated and you've got the tools. It might be more costly for him to stain instead of paint, but I don't know, I haven't priced that stuff in a while.

Slagmire

amateurhour wrote: »

Slagmire wrote: »

On sanding, you may want to stick to hand-sanding for the majority of getting the chair back to its former glory, and I would probably stick with staining instead of painting - it looks like it already had a kind of red oak color to it previously.

What are the dimensions of the chair though (height, width at least); from the look of it, was this more of a lounge chair? I ask because of that curve from the seat to the back, and wonder if it might have had only one long cushion instead of two.

see, I thought just the opposite. Based of the seat bottom, and the style of curve, I pictured to cushions that meet at the bottom and kind of tuck into each other. You're definately right about hand sanding. Staining is good too, you just have to make sure you're well ventilated and you've got the tools. It might be more costly for him to stain instead of paint, but I don't know, I haven't priced that stuff in a while.

Well, I doubt the stain will be more expensive then paint, but if he does stain, then that means he will need to put on a few coats of polyurethane for protection. Still, staining furniture typically looks loads better then painting it - though it depends on the room its in too.

Specularity

Hm, it sounds as if this chair may be more work than it's worth (which, granted, was "free").

I was planning on painting it "Satin" black, which I've been using to refurbish old tables and lamps, so that much wouldn't be as much of a hassle as staining. However, the seat sounds like it may be more than I can necessarily handle.

One idea I've gotten from you guys, though: What if I somehow suspended strips of cloth (canvas or something heavy) across the seat and down the back, then laid just one big cushion down the length of it? I can certainly sew a nice-looking seat cover, so that might not look too DIY, but do you think that might be feasible?

Of course, I'm also playing with Ruckus' suggestion. Thanks for the advice, guys!