Old Rocker Makeover

Chair Before

Chair After

This rocker had a great structure, but the fabric was shot and needed to be replaced. It had also been used as a scratching post for a couple of cats, so the fabric on the backside was pretty torn up. My customer had asked for the chair to be refinished in addition to replacing the old, worn and torn fabric with fabric she had left over from a previous reupholstering job I had done for her dining room chairs. (See link below).
http://finalefurniture.blogspot.com/2018/06/french-dining-chairs-reupholstered.html

After removing the old fabric, as I had suspected, the chair had been stuffed with horsehair on the
seat and an old cushion and more horsehair on the back. Everything needed to be replaced, except the springs, which were in good condition. Once all the old fabric was removed, I began the tedious task of refinishing this old beauty, staining it with walnut stain and finishing it with two coats of semi-gloss polyurethane. The wood had dark spots, but they were inherent in the fiber of the wood and looked pretty good once the new stain had been applied. It lended to the old character of this chair.

I had to remove the old burlap which had covered the springs and replaced the torn burlap with brand new burlap. Once that was done, I began the upholstering process. I had purchased new foam to replace the old, dirty horsehair which was not usable. The foam was high density and 2" thick which would make for a comfy, soft seat. I covered the foam with quilt batting for that "extra cushy feel."

Once the foam was in place, I attached the fabric using new decorative metal furniture tacks with large nickel heads. The previous fabric had been attached with plain black tacks and looked, well, tacky. The new nickel tacks looked great and held the fabric in place perfectly. They were a bit tricky to pound into the very hard wood, wanting to default into the previous holes left from the old nails. Needless to say, it was rather difficult to get them to line up, but I made it work. Luckily I bought a package of 300 furniture tacks because I think I used 150 of them to remove and reinstall! Better prepared than running out of materials.

It's amazing how well the chair looked after it had been refinished and the new fabric and foam making it soft, comfortable and long lasting. Not only was it pretty, it was as comfortable as a chair could be and will last another one hundred years, or more.