Upholstering antique furniture

[Lindsey]

Well, this Christmas I'm a little short on money due to the mortgage and renovations. My parents told me not to get anything for them, but I already got my dad a pretty expensive gift a month ago, and I want to get my mom SOMETHING! So I was searching classifieds and came across something pretty cool... an antique rocking chair that has been completely refinished, except it's missing the seat. My mom loves antique furniture and it would look great in the cabin! For only $85 I think it's a pretty good buy, considering most of the others on the site are $150 or more. I'm just worried about how much work and money it would be to find leather and make a seat for it. It's just a small round hole in the middle of the existing seat. The original seat was leather stuffed with horse hair, and tacked to the chair. I want it to look as authentic as possible, without the horse hair! lol

Has anyone done a project like this before? I may go look at the chair tonight but I don't want to make a decision before I know how hard (or expensive) it might be to finish it.

[DianaB]

What a cool idea!! Here's a seat that I found in just a few seconds of reading your post so there's places out there that carry what you need. I'm sure that you can find instructions or figure out what you need to do to get it finished as well.

http://www.rockler.com/ecom7/product...6&cookietest=1

[Lindsey]

I found that site as well Diana But when I searched for something in Canada I couldn't find anything. The price on that site is in American dollars so it would cost even more in Canadian, plus shipping up here could get expensive too. It would probably end up costing me closer to $200 for the chair after everything was all said and done. On top of that it's really hard to ship on a deadline from the USA because things can be held up at the border for days or weeks.

I found another nice looking chair that still has the original seat attached for $150. It hasn't been refinished so it still looks really old, and parts of the arm rests and seat are colored lighter from wear, but I think it looks nice too. It was posted in September with the stipulation "Must be gone by Friday" so I don't know if they ever got it sold by that Friday and just didn't take the ad down, or if they threw it out, or if it might still be kicking around! I emailed anyway in case it's still available.

Here's the first chair I liked without the cushion
chair1.jpeg

And here's the second older-looking chair
chair2.jpeg

Here's the cushion on the second chair
chair3.jpeg

[DianaB]

Here's one that's on E-bay. It's cheaper and says that you can make an offer.

http://cgi.ebay.com/L-9012-LEATHER-R...item22fe9005ec

You still have shipping but you could probably save a little bit. No matter what you decide I'm sure that your Mom will love it!!

[Lindsey]

Thanks Diana! Hmmmm the fiber ones are so much cheaper. I wonder if they would look bad...

[Lindsey]

Darn, that seller doesn't offer international shipping