What can you do with a wooden chair? How to restore an old wooden chair at home with your own hands

The first article of our cozy blog about DIY restoration of an old chair. We had 4 old ones chairs, without soft back. We tried them restore so that they don’t wobble and match our color. We also recommend furniture for the hallway to order or in a ready-made version, at a very attractive price and with high quality manufacturing. Here's how we did it and what happened, step by step:

1. Since he was so unsteady that it was impossible to sit, the analysis did not take much effort. The chair was completely disassembled.

2. Then each part of the chair needs to be cleaned of old covering. All I had at hand was a knife and some skin... 🙁

3. Cleaning with a knife is, of course, tough... But this is how it happened. Everything needs to be cleaned, the grooves where the parts are inserted must be cleaned. Then we assemble the chair, just as we disassembled it. Add glue to the grooves and insert). (we used universal quality liquid nails instead of glue, it’s hard to beat the hell out of it :) To assemble the chair evenly, we used a level.

4. We wanted a chair orange color with a soft back. I cut out a chipboard plate to fit the size of the backrest. Covered with Maple color stain. We waited 3 hours and coated it with one layer of varnish. The varnish used was Yacht.

6. Then they began to tighten the asshole). They placed foam rubber and covered it with parterre. (Certainly better fabric use gabilene or calico, but we had a parterre lying around 🙂) Fastened with a furniture stapler. To prevent the stalls from fraying, go over the ends with a lighter...

7. Then they placed three layers of foam rubber on the back and began to pull the stalls. Make the seam at the bottom; for decoration, you can also go through the bottom with decorative nails.

8. Here's how the back turned out. The decorative nails were different, but one horseradish is not visible from behind :). The seam goes along the bottom.

9. Well, the chair in front)

The other three chairs turned out better. Only the old coating was removed with a drill; there are special wheels with sandpaper. In terms of time, the other three chairs came out faster than this first one) Costs for 4 chairs: 100 rubles. stain + 120 rub. varnish + 250 rub. parterre fabric TOTAL: 490 rub. for 4 chairs.

But even if you bought new item furniture to replace the old one, the latter can be made into something different, but no less useful.

Old chairs can be found in almost every home, and if you really want to replace them, you still shouldn’t throw them away, since old chairs can be used to make other useful things for your home, garden and cottage.

For example, you can use an old chair to make a towel rack, a garden bench, a convenient pet feeder and much more.

Here are the most interesting crafts that can be made using old chairs:

Remaking an old chair with your own hands: a street bench.

For such a bench you will need two or three chairs. These chairs can be spray painted or left with an antique look.

1.1. If the chairs are too high, you can file down their legs a little.

1.2. You can purchase special cushions for chairs. Some are sold separately (in which case they should be joined with a stitch), but you can also find 4 pads joined together and cut off the excess part.

1.3. To make three chairs look more like one bench, you can purchase or find two or three boards that need to be cut to the required length (the length of three chairs) and joined.

*If desired, you can round the ends.

1.4. Prepare a piece of fabric whose length and width exceeds the length and width of the pads. Lay the fabric pattern down on the floor and place pillows on it.

1.5. Place the joined boards on top of the pads.

1.6. Bend the fabric and use a stapler to attach it to the boards.

1.7. All that remains is to place the boards with cushions on the chairs and add a few simple pillows for decoration.

New life for old wooden chairs: feeders for large dogs.

Tall dogs will find it easier if the feeders are a little higher, especially for older dogs who find it difficult to keep their heads down all the time.

You just need a file tool, a bowl and a pencil.

2.1. Before you start cutting a hole in the chair, you need to sand it first.

2.2. Place the bowl upside down on a chair and trace with a pencil. After this, inside the resulting circle, draw a circle of smaller diameter. This can be done with a compass or a plate of smaller diameter than the bowl.

2.3. Make a hole inside the circle with a drill, from which you can then begin to cut the circle. You can first cut a circle of smaller diameter and check the stability of the bowl in the formed circle. Make the circle even larger if necessary.

2.4. Process inner part holes with sandpaper.

*You can paint the chair and then insert the bowl.

Wall organizer from an old chair with a backrest.

By dividing the chair into parts, you can create a wall hanger or organizer, as well as a comfortable stool.

The back and seat will not be easy to separate, but then everything will be easy.

If necessary, sand all parts and paint.

To make a comfortable stool you will need:

Tools for separating chair parts

Chair seat

Durable fabric and pillow filling or regular small pillow

Stapler

Hot glue (if necessary) to hold the filled fabric in place.

1. Attach the fabric to the seat using a stapler, but leave one side untouched to fill the resulting pocket with pillow filling.

*You can also use a small pillow instead of filling.

2. Attach the seat back to the chair and you have a beautiful stool.

3. For the wall organizer you will need hooks. Once you have screwed or glued the (self-adhesive) hooks, the organizer can be hung on a wall in the hallway, room or bathroom (on a door, for example), where you can hang towels on the hooks.

Repurposing an old chair into a menu board

You can make it out of an old folding chair beautiful board menu.

To do this you will need:

MDF sheets

Seat separation tools

Blackboard paint

Sandpaper (if necessary)

Paint or spray paint (if necessary).

1. Cut out squares from MDF required size for each chair (if there is one chair, then accordingly there is one MDF square).

2. Color the square MDF paint for the school board.

3. Remove the seat from the chair and bolt on a painted MDF square in its place.

* IN in this example For beauty, 2 old wooden parts were attached to the board, which matched the shape of the board.

4. To ensure that the legs stand properly, you can attach a chain between them.

How to convert a chair into a coat rack

All you need to do is remove the back of the old chair, sand it down and paint it.

After that, attach the hook of the size you need and hang the hanger in any convenient place.

Bathroom hanger made from an old chair

You will need a chair back. It can be carefully cut down, sanded and painted if desired.

The seat can be cut in half and one half can be used as a hanging shelf.

This shelf can be attached with bolts and special glue. You can use corners to secure the shelf in place. This stage is optional, it is suitable for those who like to work with wood.

Such a hanger can be attached to the door in the bathroom, kitchen, cottage or other room where it may be needed.

How to repurpose old chairs into shoe storage

Separate the seat from the chair. If this is not possible, then you will have to cut it out big hole, into which you will then need to insert the basket.

Find any basket (metal or plastic) and use strong thread or wire, attach it to the chair (by tying it to the frame of the chair).

What to make from an old chair: swing

If you cut off the legs of an old chair, sand it with sandpaper and paint it, it can be used as a seat for a swing in the country or in the garden, for example.

You will need:

Strong rope

Metal rings

Eye screws

Additional details if necessary.

Here is another swing option:

Second life of a chair: garden shelf

An old chair can be turned into a convenient shelf for flowers or storing various garden tools.

You will need a chair back and part (or all) of the seat. Simply separate the desired part of the seat (you may need to saw off the chair legs) and attach the shelf to the wall or door.

Sand the part with sandpaper and paint.

DIY drinks shelf from an old chair

1. Find a bucket to hold ice and drinks. It is desirable that it have handles that rest on the frame of the chair.

2. Separate the seat from the chair, cut it down or make a hole in the seat.

* Using a strong rope, you can tie a bucket or large bowl to a chair if there are no handles. The most convenient way is to make holes in the bucket through which the thread is threaded.

Second life of an old chair: flowerbed

For the garden you can create beautiful flower bed using old chair.

To do this you will need:

A flower pot

Jigsaw

Sandpaper (for woodworking)

Paint (if desired)

Sealant paste for smoothing out unevenness in the opening of the chair (if necessary).

*If you want to attach more pots of flowers to the chair, you can use a pipe clamp to hold the pots or jars.

DIY photo of flower beds made from old chairs

Sometimes old unnecessary things can be turned into decent and functional decoration for the garden. In today's review we will talk about old chairs, from which, with a little imagination, you can make really interesting decorative, and in some cases, functional objects: garden flower stands, coat hangers, shelves, swings, benches, etc. Below are examples of what can be made from unwanted chairs. Let's get started...

1. Hanger.

Necessary thing in everyday life - a hanger, it can be in the form of coat hangers or wall-mounted. Option with wall hanger easy to implement, to do this you just need to remove the back of the chair, tie a rope on its upper part, drive a nail into the wall and hang this design on it.

In general, hangers are also not difficult to make; for this you need to stock up on curved hooks, the size of the crossbar in the closet and the backs of unnecessary chairs. Using a thin drill in the upper part of the back of the chair, you need to create a hole into which to insert pre-prepared hooks, covered at the base with a generous layer of glue.

2. Swing.

A great idea for making a swing seat. You need to take a seat with a back from an unnecessary chair, nail two crossbar boards from below, drill holes along the edges of which to thread ropes. Secure the finished rocker to a strong tree. Children will be delighted, especially if the seat is painted in some bright shade.

3. A chair made from an old stump.

There is an old, unsightly stump in the garden, so why not turn it into an attractive chair. To do this, take the seat of a chair and glue or nail it to the top of the stump. The seat can be painted in a bright shade or decorated using decoupage technique.

4. Rocking chair.

Many people dream of a rocking chair, but it can be made from an unnecessary chair. To do this, you need to order semicircular crossbars from the carpenter or remove several planks from wooden barrel, and secure the chair to them.

5. Bed for a pet.

Below you can see how loving owners make their beloved pets happy. To make such a bed, you need to prepare a box in which to put a foam rubber mattress, make the headboard from the back of a chair, and make the foot from the legs of the chair.

6. Bench or bench.

On three chairs without seats installed in a row, you can lay a board upholstered with a pleasant-to-touch material with a foam rubber layer. Various options improvised benches can be examined in the photo below.

7. Stand for a bowl of a large dog.

A large pet can be fed from a bowl attached to the seat of a chair; to do this, simply use a jigsaw to cut out a circle in the seat of the chair to the size of the bottom of the bowl. This way, the dog will not be able to throw the food or water bowl around.

8. Shelf.

The back of the chair, as well as part of the seat, will make an excellent shelf for small items; options for such shelves can be studied in the photographs below.

9. Sleigh.

And here’s another great idea on the topic “what you can make from old chairs with your own hands” - a sled. Very interesting idea, but requires design, the location of each part must be carefully thought out so that the sled is ultimately safe to use.

10. Flower stand.

The most popular idea for using old chairs is the garden flower stand. To make such decorative element It is necessary to cut a hole in the chair seat to the size of the future pot installed in it. The photo below shows the process of making such a stylish garden flower stand.

More examples of flower stands:

11. Box for storing magazines and newspapers.

From the legs of chairs you can put together a magnificent box for storing correspondence - newspapers, magazines, letters.

The box can also be made from flat boards and secured between the legs of a chair at an angle, as in the photo below.

12. Bright chairs.

This item involves restoring an old chair, or rather sanding it, and then painting it in a bright acid shade, as a result the chair turns out to be so fashionable that it is simply impossible to guess about its previous deplorable condition.

Flower stand from an old chair:

After this review, the question of what can be made from an old chair should stop bothering you; all that remains is to choose a suitable idea and begin to implement it. It would seem like an old chair, well, what can you make out of it, someone might say “throw it away and forget it,” but at the dacha the ideas presented above will be very relevant, so if you have such retro items in your home, don’t rush to dispose of them, Currently, this nostalgic trend is in great demand.

The interior portal "Decorol" invites its readers to subscribe to receive interior ideas for themselves. email, the subscription form is in the sidebar.

If you find that an old chair is completely worn out, do not rush to throw it away. Often old pieces of furniture bring with them pleasant memories of people and events in your family's life. And what’s the truth? Previously furniture made for centuries...

Therefore, a restored chair may well serve not only you, but also your children. Simply by changing its appearance, you can return the furniture to its former attractiveness and novelty. Fortunately, there are many options now. Everything will depend only on your imagination.

How to update an old chair? Pre-cleaning

To begin with, the surface of the chair needs to be clean off the old coating, whatever it may be. If there is soft seat upholstery, it must first be removed. You don’t necessarily need “male strength” to do this. Try turning the chair upside down and you will see that the seat is attached with screws that need to be removed. To do this, you need to arm yourself with a hammer (for knocking out the seat) and a screwdriver (straight or Phillips).

Now you can start removing the old coating. To do this, you can use regular “sandpaper” of different grain sizes or a sanding sponge. It is important to sand the surface of the wood well. This will help you easily apply your chosen further coverage. It is worth saying right away that this work is not easy.

But it is possible to simplify the process a little by periodically moistening the surface to be treated. This way you can get rid of dust. Just don’t be alarmed by the fact that moisture makes the old varnish viscous. This is fine. After the chair has completely dried, you need to sand the entire surface well again with fine sandpaper.

How to update an old chair? Everything is in order

Now it all depends on your imagination. If you decide to varnish the surface of the chair, then you need to use a colorless primer so that through protective layer the texture of the wood was clearly visible. A layer of primer will have to be used in any case. Even if you decide to paint the chair in the future.

The fact is that paint adheres better and lasts longer if the surface is first primed.
The surface must be coated with varnish in two layers. It is important that the first coat is thoroughly dry before applying the second. The varnish can be applied with a brush or by spraying it over the surface.

The chair can be painted any color. Nowadays furniture is considered very fashionable white. And the seat upholstery can be contrasting. Nowadays there are many ways to show originality. For example, use a stencil. Let it be flowers or any other ornament.

Another way to cover the surface of a chair is beeswax balm. The surface is also pre-sanded and primed with drying oil. Then cover with a thin layer of balm using a cloth. After twelve hours, the surface is polished with a brush.

Now you can begin restoring the upholstery. The old one needs to be removed. Previously, it was attached to the seat using ordinary nails. You will also have to get rid of the foam rubber. It is necessary to cut a new one according to the old standards. The fabric must be cut with a margin for hemming. The upholstery material can be very different: like a special fabric for upholstered furniture, as well as regular linen or thick cotton. It is better to fasten the fabric with a furniture stapler. But if you don't have one, don't worry. You can use regular nails by hammering them in. It is important to remember that the material must be well stretched on all sides.

Now the seat can be inserted into its original place and fastened with screws.

Upgrade an old chair with a cover

There is another way to how to update an old chair - use a cover. It can be made from any fabric, hiding defects and imperfections without major intervention. The cover can be with a variety of frills, ruffles, bows, tassels... You can make several options. Festive and everyday options. Show your imagination! Don’t rush to throw away old furniture, try to become a designer, we are sure that you will succeed!

How to update an old chair? Photo

Sooner or later, most of us are faced with the task of buying new furniture, including chairs. At the same time, it doesn’t always make sense to buy new furniture to a fairly high price, since we can restore old chairs.

This approach has many advantages. Here are just the most obvious of them:

• It won't take long, especially if you follow the instructions.
• Using the old one Soviet furniture Instead of buying a new one, it will save you a lot.
• It will help you create new, yet unique, interior items that no one else will have.

The thing is that chairs, like any other piece of furniture, are not something eternal. Even high-quality chairs are subject to aging and breakdown, especially in cases where we, in one way or another, “help” them, inadvertently causing damage. So it turns out that pieces of furniture become unusable. Of course, chairs, being one of the most actively used pieces of furniture, suffer first of all. In this case, as a rule, the seats of the chair are subject to the greatest damage, while all other parts remain more or less intact and unharmed.

If you are interested in restoring old chairs with your own hands at home, then you can be sure that you do not even need to have any extensive experience in decorating and repairing. It is enough to master a master class on reupholstery, painting, decoupage and other options for alteration and decoration old furniture and you can repair the chair. In any case, this experience will be useful in the future, since you will be able to upholster “grandmother’s” sofas and reupholster chairs of approximately the same age. Thanks to this approach, almost any furniture is provided with a second life, and not just a place in a landfill or in a closet, as often happens.

Meanwhile, the idea of ​​repairing furniture has one more, albeit not the most obvious, plus. The point is that how to restore old chairs at home will help not only make something new that already seemed unnecessary. In addition, you can feel the pleasure of embodying your creative energy.

How to update a chair or armchair

First of all, it is necessary to recall that the method of restoration depends on the exact nature of the damage. If we try to identify the main damage, we can identify the most common types of damage:

• A broken leg, problems with the back, seat or other wooden part.
• The upholstery is showing wear.
• The paintwork on the wooden surface(especially when restoring Viennese chairs).

So, the method of restoring the chair will depend on which part is broken or worn out. So, the restoration and repair scheme should be chosen depending on the places (or places) in which problems exist.

Often it is enough to simply connect the separated parts, restoring one of the connecting parts that may have deteriorated over time. It's about about groove and tenon. Wear or expansion of one of them leads to the fact that the chair gradually becomes unstable and begins to wobble on its legs. Repair, as a rule, consists of almost complete disassembly of the structure with extension of the tenon. To solve this problem you will have to, as they say, try.

On the other hand, if you need to restore wooden chair, in which the old paintwork has deteriorated, this can be done much easier. If the varnish is cracked, you just need to remove it and sand the surface with fine-grain sandpaper. And then apply another coat of paint. Or varnish, if this type of coating is provided for you. In any case, paint or varnish is your choice.

Reupholstering old chairs is also a fairly simple matter. To do this, you only need to replace the old worn or torn fabric with a new one. Let's take a closer look at the main stages of restoring chairs at home.

Recovery stages

Any chair can be made new. However, this requires at least general outline know the sequence of work. If you do not have experience in doing this, then it is recommended to study at least a short master class, which will be discussed below.

Preparatory stage

With the proper approach, even if the chair's upholstery is torn, the legs are wobbly, or the old varnish or paint is partially or completely cracked, it can be completely transformed by doing the restoration yourself. First of all, you will need the minimum required set of tools and materials:

1. Tools for restoring a chair: a screwdriver, a hammer, 2 different screwdrivers, scissors, a brush, a clamp, a stapler, sandpaper, a small mallet and scissors.
2. Materials: screws (self-tapping screws), staples for a stapler, glue for wooden furniture, foam rubber, paint and varnish, upholstery fabric.

After preparing the materials, try to clean the chair from dirt and dust by washing it thoroughly. To do this, you can wipe the chair with a slightly dampened sponge.

Disassembly

Before restoring the chair, it must be disassembled. After waiting for the chair to dry after wiping it with a damp sponge, you can proceed to disassembling it. The seats and backrest, as a rule, can be removed quite simply, after which the frame is disassembled. To avoid damaging the components when knocking them out, use a rubber mallet rather than a metal hammer. In any case, you should work very carefully.

If the table is assembled with screws or screws, then disassembling it is not difficult, since you just need to unscrew them. In any case, it is advisable to dismantle all parts, since they may interfere with repairs. In this case, if possible, you should mark the fastener parts or simply fold them in such a way that you cannot confuse them later.

As for how best to remove the remnants of old glue, especially epoxy. Those places where there are glue residues must be covered with pre-moistened rags or sponges. Any old and unnecessary rag will do. Keep it on the chair parts until the glue is completely wet, after which it can be quickly scraped off with a knife.

Please note! For this job, it is better to find an old dull knife, since there is no point in using a new or well-sharpened one.

Either way, after you've finished getting rid of the old glue, you'll need to leave some time for the wood pieces to dry. In cases where epoxy resin got into hard to reach place, it can be removed in approximately the same way, with the only difference being that you will need to use steam instead of water. If you don’t have any special devices that create hot steam under pressure, you can use the old-fashioned “method”, which involves using a hose with a tip that fits onto the spout of the kettle.

Step-by-step recovery instructions

So, after the preparation has been completed, we can proceed directly to restoring the old chair. Here's what you have to do:

1. First of all, get rid of chips and possible cracks. This is done using putty.
2. Then sand the wood thoroughly with sandpaper, first coarse and then fine, until the work surface is smooth.
3. Take a good look at the stele and all its parts. If the legs are wobbly, then this needs to be addressed. There are several options: either using a wedge (it is driven in from the end of the axle), or wrapping the axle with a bandage and then covering it with glue.
4. If the legs of the chair are very wobbly, but for one reason or another it was not possible to dismantle them, then there is one way that helps solve the problem. So, you need to drill a thin hole at the joint, and then pour glue into it using a syringe.
5. In order for the glue to “stick” better and the connection to become reliable, place any available weight on the seat and wait until the glue is completely dry.
6. After this, the chair seat is restored, if necessary. It may consist of either soft upholstery, and be made of wood. It all depends on the design of the chair. As for remaking the frame, you can use several different finishing options for it, ranging from varnish or red coating to such a rare technique as decoupage.

By the way! Alternatively, you can sew covers. This will not only update the old chair, but also make it attractive due to the interchangeable design of the covers.

DIY restoration

Now let's see what can be done with antique chairs during restoration and how best to decorate them.

Decor using fabric

This decoration is quite simple to do. You need to either reupholster the old soft places or sew covers. By the way, a similar approach can be applied to sofas and other pieces of furniture.

Backrest update

Available different variants. Among the most common ones that can give chairs new life– decoupage and the use of textiles (including denim).

Restoration by reupholstery

The main thing in this case is the choice of high-quality and durable fabric. These include: jute, tapestry and jacquard. Sometimes velor will do. Upholstering chairs using tapestry is an excellent technique, which, by the way, gives great result eventually. By the way, you can add a pattern woven using the macrame method to the fabric.

We use macrame for decoration

If we talk about macrame in a little more detail, it should be noted that this can be done even if you do not have the skills to weave using this method.

One possibility is this: If the back of the old chair is soft, remove the upholstery and weave a simple square mesh. By the way, the size of the cells can be either large or small. To give the updated chair a more harmonious appearance you can redo the seat upholstery too.

Decoupage technique

This option can turn your chair into a true decoration. Using this method, you can decorate a lot of things by performing various crafts, even decorating a souvenir box. So, you can extend the life of antique chairs, however, only if all their structural elements are made of wood.

Jute decoration

And finally, I would like to say a few words about how you can decorate an old, for example, Soviet chair if you have unnecessary or torn jeans. There are two options for decorating: completely upholster the chair using jute, and use denim as an additional decoration. This could be a strip or a small flap.