Refurbishing Old Furniture: Step-by-Step Guide + Photos

With Stoolstory, we share a step-by-step guide to restoring old furniture. Learn how to process wood and reupholster furniture using a chair that has seen many years but is still much loved as an example. You can use this principle to reupholster your favorite sofa or old armchair. Save this page!

Tatyana Vorontsova — EXPERT and co-founder of the vintage furniture workshop Stoolstory

Start your experiment with a simple vintage model—perhaps a chair with a solid backrest, no carving or edges, and few decorative elements.

Check the furniture for strength—try rocking the joints. If they are loose, disassemble and re-glue the chair using professional wood glue and tightening elements.

If you're not compromising, thoroughly clean the surface of your chair—this will involve a special tool like a scraper, sandpaper, and sanding machines. If you apply new finish over old layers of varnish, grease, and dirt that have accumulated during the furniture's 50-year lifespan, you won't get anything good.

After cleaning the piece down to bare wood, proceed to staining—you've already decided what color it should be? Use any special wood stain.

When the glue has set and the stain is dry, it's time for the most interesting part—applying the finish! This can be varnish or oil with wax for wooden furniture. Varnish is applied in multiple layers using the method recommended by the manufacturer, with intermediate sanding using fine sandpaper or other sanding materials. This is a more complex way to apply finish to wooden surfaces.

A simpler option is oil and wax. Oil with wax is applied and worked into the surface several times using a soft cloth at intervals specified by the manufacturer until you're satisfied with the result.

Now for the seat—don't forget about it! Remove any remaining old upholstery and stuffing. Use dense foam—35 density or higher. Density is important to prevent the seat from losing shape within a month and the upholstery from looking like an empty bubble.

Cut the foam slightly larger than the seat, place it on a plywood form, and cover it with a synthetic fabric piece.

Upholster the seat with fabric. The fabric should be furniture-grade—it will last much longer. Secure the fabric using a furniture stapler and brackets.

Beauty in details: cover the bottom with spunbond or another attractive fabric using the same stapler.

Assemble the frame and seat. The chair is ready!

In the 'How To' section, we regularly share successful ideas.

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