How to Reupholster an Antique Chair

Making the old things new again. I remember this rocking chair in my grandparent's house when I was growing up. At one point it was all the same color, but somewhere along the way some cracks or cuts in the seat led someone to cover it with the green fake leather. When my grandfather died I took this memento home to revitalize it and keep it around for another couple of dozen years.

In this Instructable I'll show how I reupholstered and restored this rocking chair with very little sewing. With proper planning you could likely upholster with no sewing at all. There was one optional bit of sewing I did that wasn't really necessary and another that became necessary when I could only complete the project by joining two pieces of upholstery. Had I bought an extra half yard of fabric I would not have needed to do this. Now that I have the experience I could reupholster furniture with no sewing at all.

There was no branding anywhere to be found on this chair. The closest I can find online is similar looking chairs being resold as "vintage upholstered childs rocking chair." There are so many different chairs shown with this phrase that it's impossible for me to track it down. I can only guess it's from the 1940s - 1960s. Some of the silver change I found in the chair were from the 1930s. Who can say for sure?

• Utility knives
• Staples
• Glue
• Tools To Repair The Specific Issues Of Your Project
• Screw Drivers (manual or electric) And Screws
• Heavy Duty Staplers (pneumatic would be best, but manual would work)
• Staples
• Flexible Metal Tack Strip
• Upholstery Fabric
• Staples
• Upholstery Foam And Filler
• Sewing Machine (optional)
• Staples

My project began with stripping the old coverings off. This required a lot of cutting and prying little, super pointy tacks out. As you can see there is a broken spring that we'll deal with and metal hardware that could use some attention.

I removed the base and found some of the joints loose so I decided to gently knock it apart and redo the whole mess. The finish is some sort of shellack or varnish and it wasn't very smooth. This was a quickly built chair in some shop or factory.

I didn't like the sharp edges on the wood and knew that if I whacked my toe into it in the dark I'd prefer the edges smooth. So I rounded the edges with a router and palm sander where necessary. I knocked all of the old finish off with the sander.

I fixed a slight split in one of the feet by forcing in some glue into the crack and clamping. For the rest I cleaned off the old glue from the joints with a chisel and reassembled the base with a lot of new glue. I also hedged my bets by adding a couple of pocket hole screws into the joints.

I gave the same treatment to the arms. Any rough or sharp edges I rounded over. I removed the finish and glued the pieces back together. The top of the arms were upholstered originally and I intended to recover them, but I thought it'd be better covered by black leather. I never got around to going to a leather shop so until the day comes that I feel like doing that I decide to just fill the wood and sand it smooth.

After the glue dried I hung the base and arms and gave them a few coats of a satin black spray paint.

The springs were a dust covered mess and had a bit of rust. So did the screws. So I stripped the rust off with Evaporust and gave it all few coats of black spray paint as well. That rust remover is some amazing stuff. Just let it soak for a few hours or overnight and off it comes with a light brushing--if it even needs that.

The old ticking and burlap showed some years of staining. I had never considered keeping any of the original fill. I got a better look at the busted spring and found that the front edge of the chair had been made with some knotty wood and had a bit of a crack. Knowing that it would all be covered anyway I just fixed the crack and reinforced the knot area with a big dose of glue.

I removed the nails and metal clip holding the busted spring on. I had to order the springs as a set of four so now I have three to mess with down the road. The springs came with a paper wrapped metal cable and some clips to attach it. There's an actual set of pliers that you can get to use with the clamps for under $20, but I didn't bother. Using a pair of lineman pliers worked fine. To measure for the new springs I simply measured the existing ones and tracked them down online.

I left the original smaller springs that connected the larger springs and added the paper cable for extra support. These keep the springs bending in a more uniform manner so you can't feel them individually as you sit.

I had some old upholstery fabric from a project that never came to be from years ago and it became my base fabric. In many cases you'll see this first lay being burlap. It can be any sturdy fabric.

Staple it down on one side and then pull it firmly over the springs and staple it down on the opposite side. Do this for the front to back and side to side.

Here we cover the base cloth with some polyester upholstery batting. Attach it just the same as the cloth in the previous step directly over the top of the base cloth.

I attached 2" foam over the top of the polyester batting. Same as before, staple, staple, staple. In the back, where the back and bottom meet, I just tucked them into the framing.

To give the chair a smooth appearance we put yet another layer of polyester batting on and secure it with . . . staples. Again. You're air compressor will be red hot and running all day.

To make sure that there were no visible gaps in the fill or staple dimples seen through the final layer I used some spray adhesive to hold some batting on and overlapped the edges slightly. Where necessary I peeled some of the polyester thickness out to make a smooth transition.

I also cut away the fill in the areas where the arms would screw into the frame so that a tight fit was assured.

I bought some cheap, thin fabric to make a final layer over the fill and foam. Here's where I admit that I got that fill and foam from a fabric store that was moving locations and liquidating all of the inventory. Did I need that second layer of polyester fill or would just gluing some over the wood on the sides and leaving it to be the blue foam have been okay? I don't know, people. My ears are ringing from the air compressor running since the beginning of time and I probably have some kind of metal poisoning from all of staples I've had to look at and hear shoot in.

So, to make sure I had an absolute smooth surface and help against wear on the final fabric I stretched the fabric firmly over the fill and . . . affixed it in place with A LOT MORE staples.This had the benefit of giving me a trial run on how I might have to fold the last layer at corners. So I guess it was worth it.

By this point it should be a mantra in your head. Staple it on. You pick a side, staple that side in place, stretch across the body of the chair, then staple it in place. Hide your work. By that I mean of course staple on the under or inside of the frame. Smooth out any wrinkles or creases prior to stapling. Of course. Cut away any excess fabric. Leave whatever you can under there hanging loose. 1/2" to 1". You never know. Maybe a few staples will strip and you have to reattach.

After I completed this step I attached the arms to the chair. I had to have access to the frame in the back to screw them in so I need to do this before attaching the back.

I don't know why doing the back was the most intimidating to me. I turned out to be just about the easiest thing thanks the the flexible tack strip.

Optional Sewing

Here is where the optional sewing came into play. I decided to make some welting (aka cording, aka piping) to go around the back panel. I could have not done this, but in the end I'm glad I did. It was very easy to make it on the sewing machine. Measure the length you'll have to cover, cut some scrap fabric in a strip 1 to 1.5" wide, wrap it around some cord (anything from paracord to stuff you can buy in the sewing section specifically for it), and sew it on your machine as close to the cord as possible. Use a special foot that lets you get right up to the edge. It was really easy.

The non-optional sewing was that my back panel was a little sort so I had to join a cut off piece to my last long cover fabric to make the length. One straight sew. It was easy too. It probably took me the same amount of time to sew everything as it did to get the machine out, set it up, and thread it. If I'd bought just a bit more cloth this wouldn't have been necessary.

Attaching The Back

The tack strip made things super easy.

1. First attach the welting all around the back edge with A LOT OF STAPLES! If you're using welting that is.
2. Then staple on the metal the tack strip on top of the welting with A LOT OF STAPLES so that when the strip is bent to it's final position it will be just touching the welting. Not using welting? Just pick a nice spot for the back to meet the sides.
3. Prebend the strip so that it's mostly closed at this point. Leave yourself 1/4" to 3/8" open to work with.
4. Staple your back fabric to the bottom inside frame and pull it up tight to the top.
5. Tuck the fabric into the channel of the tack strip. The teeth on the strip will grab your fabric and hold it for it. Great stuff!
6. Trim away excess fabric so that what's left will be hidden in the channel of the tack strip.
7. Once you have it smooth and in place use a rubber mallot or a gentle touch with a metal hammer to tap the strip down the rest of the way until you have a closed strip and tight edge.
8. Go around your edge with some tweezers to pick out bits of thread and mess or tuck in stray bits with a screw driver.
9. Repeat this process for the sides. Stretch and tuck it into one side and tap it down, then do the same on the other side.

The final step for me was screwing on the rocking springs to the base and screwing the other side of the springs to the chair. We are once again rocking in the free world. Knowing how this chair was put together I can pretty well assure myself that I won't have to do so much work in the future if the need to reupholster ever arises again. I should be able to just pop off the outer layer and put on something new barring any major staining incident that ruins the fill and foam. Some truck carrying hydrofluoric acid hits the house or something, you know that old chestnut.

Was it worth it? Yes. This was really only two or three days of work. Not full days of it by any means. And finding that fabric store selling so everything so cheap I was able to get the material and foam and fill for just over $100. Springs and other expenses meant that this cost less than $200.