I got these vintage chairs on marketplace a few years ago for only $5 each. They were wobbly and needed new cushions and cane but they are the perfect height for sitting at a sewing machine so I held onto them and finally got around to finishing as we pulled the final space together.
Here’s a step by step on how I went about breathing new life into these vintage chairs
Removing cane and cushions
First thing to prep them for paint was removing cushions and damaged cane. One chair the cane wasn’t damaged but it still had to come off bc I knew matching new and old would be nearly impossible so off it all came. A steamer helped loosed the glue and a flat head screw driver to lift spline and help with removing the fabric from cushion. Since the seats had been repaired over the years it needed a new plywood base as well so I only had to remove one seat cushion cover to make a template. This and removing cane was the most tedious part of this project.
Painting
Before painting we glued and checked all the fasteners to make sure the final result was stable. I didn’t want to risk popping off the wheels and not being able to get them back on so I just taped those off. I used the same enamel paint on these as on our floor trim in the studio space. I painted them at a different time though and the temps/humidity meant these may not have cured as nicely. (In hindsight it might’ve been worth trying a chemical stripper before painting.)
Recaning
There are two types of caning- hand woven and spline. Hand woven is basically holes on a chair seat or back and you weave the pattern, spline caning is what these chairs have and it involves cutting and sheet of cane and inserting it using spline and glue. To size this you have to measure the channel the spline is inserted into and then order accordingly.
Cut to size and Soak spline and cane to soften it.
Line it up with chair and use wedges to press it into channel and hold it in place
Use chisel and hammer to trim cane
Insert spine using wood glue into the channel and a mallet to hammer it in without shifting the cane. Actually relatively easy
Let it dry and the cane tightens and glue holds cane and spline in place
New seats & cushions
To fix the seat cushions we started from the plywood base and cut 4 new ones using the old seat as a template. Dry fit to make sure it works
Then k carefully seal ripped the old seat cushion to make a pattern for new cover.
Or this I am using an old set of curtains as material for the new seat cushions (cutting on the floor since our cutting table had not arrived yet)
Also cut new foam for the seats and test fitted this once before getting it right and cutting and assembling all 4
Next step was stapling the fabric to base and adding dust cover to that, then securing it to the seat with screws.
Final result
From start to finish these look like totally new chairs and match the details of the space perfectly. The new storage hutch in the coffee bar area is also black with pale cane and it really ties the look of the space together to have these details echoed throughout the space.
