Antique Boudoir Chair: Makeover Edition

Since my post two weeks ago on the anatomy of an antique boudoir chair, I have slowly but surely been rebuilding that same chair from the frame up and giving it a redesign.  Follow along with me below to see how I did it.  But first, for those of you who prefer a little immediate gratification, a before and after:

For the refurbished chair, I've created a channel back, rather than the more simple button back on the original.  I've also mixed two different kinds a fabric -- a satiny golden flower pattern with a black vinyl accent ribbon on the front. 

Back to where we were two weeks ago with the frame in pieces . . . the show wood was badly scuffed and nicked.  I wanted to repair this wear without going through the process of totally stripping the wood.  To do so, I lightly sanded each piece, then put on another coat of mahogany stain followed by another coat of varnish. The finished show wood is a uniform and lustrous color with the imperfections nicely masked.  This of course made it all the more painful when I inevitably dinged the arms and legs during the re-upholstery process. 

Next, I re-glued the frame using bar clamps and a bicycle inner tube that I had cut in half.  When stretched out and tied together, the inner tube exerts enough pressure to firmly hold together the rounded frame of the seat while the wood glue dries.  As you can see by the holes on the seat and back where the arms will fit, this frame is held together with dowel joints which are commonly used in antique furniture. 

After the frame is back together, webbing is attached to the seat and back which serves as a scaffolding for springs and padding.  I've used the traditional jute webbing, which is a strong and slightly stretchy burlap-type fabric; more modern pieces of furniture may use elastic webbing.

The coil springs are then attached to the webbing and tied in six places to each other and to the frame.  The springs must be tied together tightly enough that pressure exerted on any one spring will cause the entire web of springs to flex.  For this type of seat, the springs must also be tied to the frame in such a way that they are contoured to form a rounded seat.  Thanks to Ray Bender at Kalona Upholstery for the master class in coil spring tying. 

Burlap is attached over the springs in the seat after which comes the edge roll and padding. I used a large curved needle to attach the cotton and horsehair padding to the burlap and to the edge roll; this helps to ensure that the padding will not shift over time. The padding on the back and inside arms is stapled to the frame.  For this piece, I was able to primarily re-use the original cotton batting. 

The standard order of work when reupholstering a piece of furniture is to do the seat, or deck, first, then the inside arms and inside back; next are the outside arms and then finally, the outside back.  Here, I've got the fabric attached to the insides of the chair. Since the fabric I used had a large pattern, I chose to center the pattern on each piece of the chair. This was my first time experimenting with a channel back which is made of individual pieces of fabric sewn first to each other, and then to a backing fabric and stuffed. To add to the challenge, I did my best to cut and sew the fabric so that the pattern would match seamlessly across channels. I used cotton from the original back of the chair to stuff the channels; doing so made for channels that were a little more lumpy than they might be had I used synthetic fiberfill or foam. 

Finally, I've got all of the padding and fabric attached.  Since part of the wood on the arms is exposed, the fabric for those pieces is stapled and cut right up to the edge of the show wood. I'll be covering up this raw edge with decorative nails, but gimp (a patterned, lace-like fabric), ribbon, or single or double welting can also be used to finish off exposed edges. 

Decorative nails for upholstery come in a variety of shapes, finishes and colors; I chose to use the oxford style of decorative nail for this piece. In order to better cover up the raw edge of the fabric and staples, I've sewn together a narrow strip of  fabric and attached this along the edge as I drive in nails.

The (mostly) finished piece! I'll do a little more fine-tuning to make sure all of my nail heads are straight and that everything else is as I want it before attaching a black drop cloth on the bottom of the seat and putting it up for sale next week. 

Anatomy of an Antique Boudoir Chair: A Photo Essay

I've been very excited to work on this antique boudoir chair that was given to me a couple months ago. This week I brought the chair out of storage and got down to business. If you've ever wondered what the insides of an antique chair look like, follow along as I tear it all the way down to the frame. 

The before picture.  The primary issues with this chair are that the seat fabric is worn through (as we'll see later, this is because a few of the springs under the seat have come untied), the show wood looks worn, and the fabric is old and musty. 

One of the things I love about this chair is the way the tacks on the arms contrast with the delicate style of the frame and fabric. Here you can see how the wood on the arms is scuffed and faded.

The first step in tearing down a chair is to remove the black dust cloth on the bottom.  Here we can see the webbing and some of the spring apparatus. Also notice that tacks rather than staples are used to fasten all of the upholstery.  This tells me that the last time this piece was upholstered may have been 50 or more years ago before staples were commonly used in upholstery.

Next we remove the fabric and burlap from the outside back.  The pieces of cotton you see are holding the buttons on the inside back. 

On the outside back rail we find a clue to the making of this chair: a tag that tells us this is frame number 35 with a mahogany finish. 

After the fabric comes off, we reveal the padding.  Burlap provides a scaffolding on which cotton batting is then layered.  This chair has horsehair (actual hair, not synthetic!) in the center of the inside back to provide additional cushioning. The burlap will be replaced with new material because it is stretched out, but all of the cotton batting and horsehair will be re-used. 

After the padding comes off, we get to the springs and webbing.  The burlap covering the springs has seriously deteriorated and some of the springs have come loose from their ties.  The webbing on the back has also loosened over time and will be replaced. 

A close-up of the coil springs once the burlap is removed.   Each spring is tied to the others in multiple places and then tied to the frame.  Here we can see that many of the ties have ripped.  The springs themselves are still very strong and will be re-used. 

After all of the upholstery and tacks are removed, we are left with the frame.  This one is made out of soft wood with dowel joints. Only the show wood (the legs and arms in this case) is treated with stain and varnish while the inner parts of the frame that will be covered with fabric are left in their natural state. 

Chair deconstructed. Since the chair was wobbly in places, I decided to re-glue the frame. Using a mallet and a pry-bar (used sparingly) I was able to totally deconstruct the chair into individual pieces with the exception of the three pieces that form the back, as those joints were still quite sturdy. 

Next time we'll be putting it all back together, so stay tuned!

How to Find a Good Piece in the Wild, Part 3: Gut Check

We've all had those moments -- you see a piece of furniture on the curb or at a second-hand store that looks like it could be a good find, but you can’t tell for sure if its worth saving and rehabilitating.   Maybe you make the decision to leave it behind while the not-knowing haunts you; or on the other hand, you decide to take it only to regret your decision when you realize its cheaply made and unsalvageable.  Follow along with our “How to Find a Good Piece in the Wild” series and don’t let this happen to you again.

Part 3: Gut Check

Starting to tie coil springs which are attached to the webbing.

If a chair’s frame is the bones of a piece, the springs and padding that give the chair its hold and shape might be considered its guts. Chances are if your chair has good bones, it probably has good guts too.  When you find a piece you like, have a seat and see how it feels.  Do you sink into the floor, or is the seat firm and slightly springy? Do you feel lumps in the padding, or what might be a spring sticking up, or is the seat uniform? If the piece has a padded back, does it seem to be sagging or uneven? Knowing the components that make up the guts of a chair will help you spot potential issues with your find and give you clues as to the quality of the piece and what it might cost to rehabilitate it.

Webbing & Springs

Chair with a broken piece of webbing.

• Webbing are the bands of material that stretch across the bottom of the frame and form the scaffolding on which a padded seat or back is built. When coil springs are used, each spring is sewn into the webbing matrix. On more basic chairs, a foam cushion may sit directly on top of the webbing. If you are sinking too far into the seat of your chair, it may be due to webbing that has been stretched out or come loose. For furniture in which the cushion sits directly on the webbing, you can easily find out if thats the issue by lifting up the cushion. For other pieces, look at the underside to see if it is sagging or feel around the frame to see if you can feel a piece of webbing that is not attached.

• Coil springs are used primarily in antique furniture and may be used in good quality furniture made today. Traditionally, many individual springs are tied together to form a web while more modern pieces have drop-in coil spring units. These types of springs are long-lived and can be re-tied and re-used many times.  Run your hands over the seat and look out for any areas where it seems the round head of a spring may be poking up into the fabric; this may indicate that the springs need to be re-tied.

• Zigzag springs stretch across the bottom of the frame, usually from front to back, and hold up the padding.  Zigzag springs are more likely to be used in contemporary pieces and are extremely strong - the primary problem encountered with zigzag springs is that they have come loose from their fastening. If a spring has come loose, you may feel it poking up into the padding, or it may be curled down under the frame, causing you to sink into the chair.

Broken or stretched out webbing will need to be replaced while coil springs can be re-tied or zigzag springs can be refastened rather than replaced. In most cases, this type of work should not add significantly to the cost of re-upholstering your found piece.

Padding

An antique chair with coil springs and cotton padding.  Some of the springs have come loose and worn through the fabric. 

• Foam padding is used in most, if not all, modern pieces of furniture both in stand alone cushions and inside the piece. If you sit in your found piece and feel like you are falling in, unless its an antique, the foam is likely the culprit. Mass-produced pieces of furniture are often made with cheap materials, especially when it comes to the foam padding. Over time, this foam will compress in areas that take the most stress or even crumble apart. The cushion cover will start to look saggy and loose as the foam gets more compressed, or may bulge in some areas and sag in others if the foam has started to crumble. Depending on the thickness and how much of it you need, good quality foam can add another $60-$200 to the cost of re-upholstering your piece, but if you decide to make the investment, it can last for decades.

• Cotton padding is used primarily in older and antique pieces, often in conjunction with coil springs. Cotton can be re-used many times unless it has started to smell bad or if it has gotten wet at some point and started to mold. Cotton will get compressed over time, but one can easily add a few more layers of fresh cotton to help bulk up and fill out the seat without adding much cost. A seat padded with cotton will not be quite as springy and soft to the touch as a foam padded seat would be.

• Horsehair is used in antique furniture and may be utilized as an added filler between the springs and cotton padding. Similar to cotton padding, horsehair can also be reused many times and can even be washed and re-used if its started to smell or if it needs to be fluffed up. Natural horsehair can be replaced with a synthetic horsehair fiber if one wants to use newer materials while staying true to the antique aesthetic.

Springs and padding in any piece of furniture can be fixed or replaced, though expense varies depending on the issue. The components, including the guts, in an antique piece of furniture are generally well-made and usually need maintenance rather than full replacement. If your find is a more contemporary piece of furniture and the seat seems to be sagging, keep in mind that you will likely need to purchase new foam. Knowing your options and possible issues will help you decide whether your found piece is a worthy investment, or one better left on the curb.