Restoration Project - Antique Chair

This chair lacked a seat and had been damaged in a series of places, including one of the back legs having been completely split apart. This had been held together by a bracket made from a copper printing plate.

Each section of the chair was marked up with masking tape to make reassembly simple. The chair was then taken apart.

To repair the split chair leg, two headless wire nails were inserted between both sections.

Cracks in the seat frame were filled using PU glue and clamped until dry.

All the joints were cleaned and the chair was fitted back together. Wedges were used to fill in sections that had become loose.

The veneer banding in the back of the chair had to be heated using a heat gun to smooth down any lumps that were created over time.

Pieces of Satin wood veneer were fitted into the missing sections of the banding. These were sanded down and filler was put into the gaps in the black banding. The thin black and yellow banding had to be painted back in using a very fine brush.

The plugs from the back of the chair were put back in whilst filler and paint disguised the previous crack.

Repairs were gone over with pale french polish and then with garnet polish. The whole chair had to be waxed down with Liberon Black Bison wax and fine wire wool.

The upholstery was put over a wooden board and glued using spray on contact adhesive. This was then clamped to the chair until dry.