The Bishop's Chairs!!!!!!!!! Beautiful Rehab Without Painting!

 Last week, I picked up this set of furniture from a client.

I couldn't decide whether I should paint them.

A quick FB poll gave me the answer:

NO!

 So there shall be no paint.

(On the chairs anyway. I'm going to finish them as a pair.

And I'll finish the settee at a later time….)

Now time to deconstruct.

The webbing is hanging down,

and the springs are loose.

 The cushion in this chair is so uncomfortable, 

I just decided to rip everything out and make a new cushion.

I removed the webbing, 

and cut and removed all the springs,

and then all the horsehair/straw/burlap.

 Oh, and about one million tacks……….

The frame is pretty scratched and beat up...

Secret weapon:

Howards RestorAFinish.

Have you tried this? 

It's amazing!!

Before:

And after.

Look at the beautiful richness of the wood!!

Time to tackle that seat.

 I made a paper template of the seat 

and traced it onto thick plywood.

 Then I used my handy dandy jigsaw to cut out the seat base.

 Perfect.

 I added a layer of foam, a down pillow, and a couple of layers of batting,

which I pulled tight and stapled to the bottom of the plywood.

 

The new seat cushion is ready for upholstering.

I have a little remnant of this ikat fabric.

 Luckily, there is just enough to do the two chair seats.

I'm going to reverse the print on the 2nd chair.

 I'm going to have to disquise that front edge, though, 

with all the nail holes.

So I edged the fronts with a strip of thick trim 

and added pewter nail heads on either side.

I'm SO glad now I didn't paint these!

(Thanks, voters!)

They will be traveling to Greenwood this weekend.

For Sale: $299/pair.

Greenwood Antiques & Uniques.