1940’s Chair New Upholstery

 

1940s Chair Before

1940s Chair After

This was a super challenging reupholstery project. This chair was purchased by my customer’s grandmother in the 1940s. The story was that her grandmother had saved her money so she could purchase this heart-shaped back chair. I’m sure at the time she bought it, it was in much better condition than when I received it. Made of green satin, the chair was made with tufting, buttons and formed to accentuate the heart shape, which is part of the chair’s wood structure. 

Because the original fabric was much thinner than the upgraded fabric, it had a skirting along the bottom edge which surrounded the chair. Popular for the time, this skirting was a definitive feminine design for a small chair such as this which was commonly found in a woman’s dressing room. The chair’s petite size is an attractive feature because it was small enough to put into a corner of a bedroom or dressing room. The heart-shaped top was surrounded by shirred fabric to match the arms. Piping in an off-white was the accent color for the green. However, the chair had seen better days and had spent many years neglected,  suffering the elements and its share of rodent damage as well as other crawly things that made the interior their home. To say the least, it needed a major overhaul.

Back of chair after

Back of chair before

My customer had her heart set on a nautical theme and chose a lovely fabric with light blue, gray, white and navy with various nautical elements including sea shells, lighthouse, seagulls and a compass. The colors were muted but worked well with the overall design and theme of the fabric. 

I spent four evenings removing the old fabric, including the old thread and taking the sections apart, measuring and marking them, so that I could replicate them in the new design. However ambitious this was, it didn’t turn out that way. As I reconstructed the new underlayment of the chair, i.e. webbing, burlap, foam, rolled raw cotton batting, etc. the dictation that I take it into a different direction. I had always planned on adding the skirting, but the more I worked on the fabric, the less I wanted the skirting. It just didn’t look right with the new design of the chair.

Because the chair had zig-zag springs, it required a strong foundation so that you wouldn't feel the springs when you sat on the chair. And because the upholstery fabric was considerably thicker than the original satin, creating the “loose cushion” style was not possible. I was able to maintain integrity of the chair’s original “heart” design in the back by following the form of of the wood and being conscientious about keeping that shape while adding the various layers of cotton batting and foam. 

The most difficult part of the top heart shaped area was adding the fabric covered buttons. Because I made the back as a single, attached unit, the buttons has to be pulled through all those layers and stitched individually into place before the back fabric could be applied. This proved to be quite a task which involved using various tools of the trade. (I have learned to keep bandaids on hand while doing this type of work!)

Because of the shaping of the new fabric, I could only add piping to the very back of the chair, but I used two rows for character and keeping the back area straight, so I could easily apply the back fabric by using tack strip. Tack strip (or curve ease) attaches the back fabric in a way that you can’t see any fasteners. It’s got sharp “teeth” that grab the fabric’s edge, then gets hammered down to close the fabric on itself. 

Because the chair’s arms were built with fairly thin wood strips, it was a bit tricky attaching the batting layers and eventually the fabric because it was difficult to find where the wood was. This was quite time-consuming, but turned out great. Plus with all the padding, the chair is much more comfortable than it was before since the seating is much thicker than it was originally made. I finished the chair by making arm covers (to protect from your skin’s natural oil) and made a matching pillow with ruffled edges. I refinished the chair’s legs, because I opted to omit the original skirting, which simply didn’t look good with the updated fabric and style of the chair. The legs weren’t in bad shape, but they needed a touch-up so this completed the chair. Now it’s ready to face another 70 years as a cute little chair that graces a woman’s dressing room.