The Ugly Rocking Chair

Rocking Chair Original Cushions

I came across this pitiful rocking chair at an estate sale. It was in the garage, which meant it didn't have much value to the owners, but to me it had presented a challenge, so I had to have it. No doubt about it. This chair was ugly! More than just ugly, it had

Rocking Chair With New Cushions

been filthy dirty, smelled musty and moldy and had been covered with spider eggs. I wouldn't even attempt to sit in it, because it was so nasty-looking. After closer inspection, I made an interesting discovery. This was no ordinary chair; it was a Windsor-style cricket rocking chair, likely an antique that had gotten re-covered with the yellow fabric sometime in the 1970's. Underneath the skirting were two springs on either side of the chair, so that while all the legs touched the ground, the chair had a gentle swivel and rocked easily back and forth. This added new value to my little gem. After I paid for my chair, a nice gentleman had offered to carry it to my van and after placing it inside, I closed the back and headed home for a closer inspection.

Rocking Chair Before

Indeed, there were many spider eggs and spiders crawling all over the stained gold corduroy fabric. Immediately I pulled out my shop vac and thoroughly cleared the debris and spider eggs. Goodbye, spiders! (I hate spiders!) Then I assessed what would have to be done to bring this chair back to life. Since it had looked like it once belonged on the set of "The Brady Bunch" I knew this chair needed a brand new seat cushion and rear cushion as well as new skirting along the bottom. I had originally planned on simply washing the cushion and re-covering it with new fabric, but after washing it, the musty smell remained, therefore I had to take it all apart. I sighed, but got to work, first removing the nasty, smelly foam stuffing from both the seat and rear cushions. This was incredibly messy as I got the stuffing all over myself and my living room! Once I was satisfied I'd removed as much stuffing as possible, I cut apart the pieces to make patterns for my new fabric, a soft brown tone with a suede-like feel.

Rear of Chair After Refinishing

New webbing on chair's seat

The back of the chair had three straps which were connected to screw snaps on the underside of the top. These snaps held the cushion into place. I liked the idea, so I decided to keep them. I then set about making a brand new seat, but was able to use the original cording, which was made of a bendable, hard plastic. It had lent itself well to the curves which went around the arms of the chair inside both top and bottom piping. Making this cushion was quite a challenge, as I had to follow the tight curve to go around the chair’s arms at the same time keeping the cording taut against the edge of the seat and making sure top and bottom line sup. After hours of careful sewing, the top edge of the cording didn't line up with the bottom, so I had to take the entire cushion apart and start again. Ugh. I know from experience that it’s good to sometimes step away from frustrating sewing projects, so I left it for a while and I began sanding the chair.

I had removed the old webbing, which consisted of plastic that is customarily used in lawn chairs; not at all appropriate for a chair such as this one. It was also gold, matching the hideous fabric and it was sagging. It had to go. Once I had gotten the entire chair sanded, it was ready for staining. I chose a dark walnut stain and it proved to be the correct choice. It gave the chair a rich, earthy look.

The next day I returned to my cushion, and after again struggling with the cording, I finished it, satisfied with the overall results. Next I'd needed to make custom fabric buttons, but soon discovered the fabric I'd chosen for the cushions was too thick to wrap around the metal buttons, so I elected to use a contrasting fabric with a brown and beige swirl pattern. This fabric was much better suited to the buttons, so I made sixteen of them, eight for each cushion. Fabric buttons are not hard to make, but they do require careful measuring of the new fabric so they fit nicely into the button form.

Once both cushions were done, I hand-stitched the buttons to the cushions, pulling them through the layers of foam for the bottom, which was extremely difficult to do. I had to use an extra long needle and had poked my fingers numerous times before the job was done. The upper cushion was easier, because I chose to use fiber-fill, a much softer way to fill the cushion and easier to get a needle through. After both cushions were done, I attached the new webbing into place using upholstery nails and began attaching the skirting, which had required approximately three yards of fabric. I had serged all the edges, then had used the same upholstery tacks to adhere the skirting to the underside of the chair. It was a long, tedious process, because I had to line up the ends and pleat as I nailed the tacks into place. After over two hours of careful nailing, the chair was finished! I then steam ironed the pleats and put the cushions in place.

My once ugly rocking chair had taken on a brand new look. Gone was the musty-smelling gold corduroy of 1970 and in was the new, plush fabric of the 21st Century! The chair had good bones and now it has new cushions and skirting.

Seat Cushion Before

Seat Cushion After