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

With Stoolstory, we share a step-by-step guide to restoring old furniture. We show how to work with wood and reupholster seating, using a well-worn but beloved chair as an example. You can apply this approach to reupholstering your favorite sofa or old armchair. Save it for later!

Tatyana Vorontsova - EXPERT, Founder of the vintage furniture workshop Stoolstory

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

Check the furniture for strength—try rocking the joints to see if they are loose. If they move, disassemble and reassemble the chair with professional wood glue and fasteners.

If you're not compromising, clean the surface of your chair thoroughly—this will involve special tools like a scraper, sandpaper, and sanders. If you apply new finish over old varnish, grease, and dirt that have accumulated over the last 50 years of furniture use, you won't get good results.

After cleaning the piece down to bare wood, begin toning—have you already decided what color it should be? Use any special wood stain.

Once the glue has set and the stain is dry, start the most interesting part—applying the finish! This can be varnish or oil with wax for wooden furniture. Varnish is applied in several layers according to the manufacturer's instructions, with intermediate sanding using fine-grit sandpaper or other sanding materials. This method is more complex to execute.

A simpler option is oil and wax. Apply the oil and wax with a soft cloth several times at intervals specified by the manufacturer until you're satisfied with the result.

Now for the seat—don't forget about it! Remove any remnants of old upholstery and filling. Use dense foam—35 density or higher. Density is important so that the seat won't lose its shape after a month and the upholstery doesn’t look like an empty bubble.

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

Upholster the seat with fabric. The fabric should be furniture-grade—it will last much longer. Secure it 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 Make’ section, we regularly share successful ideas.

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