Our dining room set is a family heirloom and we are the fourth generation of my husband's family to have it. It has been in need of some TLC for quite a while. The chairs have become very wobbly to the point where some of the pegs come out of the holes. They also need to be reupholstered. I was able to get the three wobbliest chairs finished for Christmas Eve dinner and the other three by mid-January.
On the underside of some of the chairs there are labels that say Normandy Walnut and some of them have numbers. I have tried to do some research on their background without much luck.
I had reupholstered these chairs about 20 years ago but I have never taken a chair frame apart and reassembled it. With a little guidance from YouTube, my dad and my father-in-law, I started the project.
Here are links the how-to videos I found helpful, from Wooden It Be Nice Furniture Repair:
Wood glue from Lowes: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Titebond-8-Oz-III-Ultimate-Wood-Glue/1094969
Upholstery Fabric from JoAnn Fabrics: https://www.joann.com/richloom-studio-multi-purpose-decor-fabric-eshe-peacock/15365125.html
2 inch Cushion Foam from JoAnn Fabrics: https://www.joann.com/soft-support-cushion-foam-24in-x-72in-x-2in-thick/15367832.html
Wood Repair
Upon taking the chairs apart, I found that the seat pans were in worse shape than I expected. I was worried I was not going to be able to salvage them. The wood drying out over time, the holes left from staples and nails being removed during reupholstering over the years, and the stress of being sat on by many adults and children over the past 100 years had taken its toll.
My dad repaired all the seat pans by brushing all the cracked wood with a glue and sawdust mixture. “Typically the strongest wood glues contain polyvinyl acetate. I use fine sawdust preferably from sanding wood. I mix wood glue with the sawdust until it forms a workable paste. The narrower the crack I am filling, the more glue I add to the sawdust so it will work into the crack easier.”
I also took one of the side chairs and the armchair over to him. The joints on these last two chairs were a little more secure. With the help of the vice mounted to his workbench, we were able to get the rest of the chairs taken apart. Chair number 5 had some splitting wood, which he also repaired. The seat pan from the armchair is bigger than the rest of the chairs and had multiple cracks across the middle section of wood that couldn’t be sealed with the glue mixture. He added a thin piece of wood across the underside to reinforce that seat pan.
Reassembly
We oiled all the pieces with lemon oil while they were disassembled. Lemon oil will help keep the wood from drying out while restoring its depth of grain and natural beauty. All the pegs were sanded to remove any residual glue before applying a new coat of glue to the page and holes. One trick I learned, from the how-to videos, was to use the handle end of a paint brush to apply glue inside the holes and use the brush end to apply glue to the pegs. Once the frame was reassembled, it was clamped for 24 hours to give the glue time to set.
While the glue dried, I replaced the old foam and fabric on the seat pans. This time, I used a thicker 2 inch cushion foam for a little more padding to make the chairs more comfortable to sit on. My daughter and I chose a nondirectional paisley upholstery fabric that blends nicely with our current decor. When covering the seat pans this time, I attached the fabric on the inner part of the seat pan frame to avoid the areas that my dad had sealed.
The chairs turned out really well and will hopefully last for many years to come.
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