I have been checking Craigslist every week or so for years in hopes of finding French-style dining chairs. It started when I actually found four French chairs and purchased them. Ever since, I have been on the lookout. When I say years, I mean years. Probably 10 years, but who’s counting? They are hard to come by. As I found out, I am not the only one looking for them.
Last week, I was checking again and there was an ad for eight French dining chairs. It only showed one, an armchair, and that seemed like it was in great condition. And they were still available! The seller and I discussed social distancing, and we agreed that she would put the chairs in the garage and open the door when we arrived. She wore a mask and so did I. When I got there and saw the chairs, I was so excited. They were in great condition, except some of them needed new caning. The chairs themselves were solid and well-built. I asked the price, and she said twenty dollars. I thought she meant twenty dollars for each chair, which would still have been a great deal. But she was only asking twenty dollars for all eight chairs. She said they needed repair, and she already had a new dining set. I took them, and if I say I was beyond excited, that is an understatement!
These are the French chairs I purchased. As you can see, the caning is broken on several of them, but they are all structurally sound.
When it comes to removing upholstery, I rely on tools like an upholstery tack remover, a small screwdriver, and pliers. Ideally, the tack remover would easily remove the tacks, but that's rarely the case. It can be a time-consuming process, sometimes taking up to 10 minutes to remove just one tack. With eight chairs (I will be starting with the six dining chairs and tackle the armchairs another time) to work on and each one having a 100 or more tacks you do the math. The most frustrating part is that despite all the effort, the chair remains unchanged and the whole process can feel futile.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the hundreds of staples that also needed to be removed!
After removing the upholstery tacks and staples, the next step was to strip the furniture. First, I applied the stain remover with a brush, allowing it to sit for 20 minutes. Following that, I used steel wool to remove the stain and a wire brush to get into crevices to remove the sticky residue. I wiped it down with mineral spirits and repeated the process another two or three times.
As you can imagine, it took many hours and days to complete, but the difference here was that you could see the progress. (A list of products used will be listed at the end of the post).
After the stripping was complete, I painstakingly used a toothbrush, and a small wooden kabob stick and a dab of mineral spirits to remove the leftover residue in hard-to-reach areas.
When I was satisfied that as much of the stain and residue was removed, I hand-sanded each piece using 120 grit to start, then ending with 320 grit sandpaper for a smooth finish.
I don't know the exact number of hours spent on refinishing these chairs, but I do know that I worked on them every spare moment I had, and it took six months to complete six chairs. But the results are amazing, and now I get to pick out fabric and send them out for reupholstering.
Here they are! I chose an indoor-outdoor fabric in navy to cover them with. So beautiful!
Just a reminder of where we started and where we ended up. Quite the transformation. I cannot wait to have a dinner party!
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