Curb chair

This old rocker cost $5.  It must have been someone's great-grandmother's chair.  My instructor called it a straight back rocker.  With some updated fabric, it was going to the college house when finished!  

When you sit in it, it rocks w-aaaay back.  I asked "how do you know when the springs need replacing?"  The instructor replied, "when you rock back and land on the floor"!   Ha ha!!   Well, I didn't land on the floor but the springs did need replacing.

It's arm was "slightly" broken when I bought it.  No problem, I could fix that!

Then, while moving the chair around, I leaned on it and the arm broke completely off!  Still not a big problem.  With some wood glue and screws it could be fixed.

A couple of posts back, I mentioned that you never know what you're going to find when you start taking these things apart.

It had 3 layers of fabric on it.  Wonder which one would be best for a pattern?  The top layer was attached using glue.  So I ripped it right off thinking I would use the next layer for a pattern.  That gold and red layer was attached using really small tack nails.  It was easier to tear the fabric away from those nails than remove the nails first.    It was impossible to get them all off so I hammered them in.   The staples on that green layer were so rusty they practically fell apart.  That fabric was some kind of nylon that was so brittle it came off easily.  

Not one piece could be used as a pattern.  The good thing is the fabric pieces were straight forward enough that I could just measure the new fabric instead of using an old piece as a pattern.  No problem.  10 hours, 2 cuts and 2 very sore hands later, I had all the fabric off.  

When I took the final burlap and straw layer off, it released the tension on the springs and pulled the bottom frame apart!  Oh no! 

My instructor can fix any piece of furniture so he proceeds to explain how to repair it.  And it wouldn't have been too difficult with his help, of course. 

A fellow student who works in a cabinet shop, pointed out that one of the back rails was split and that he could make a new piece to replace that one.

I really appreciate their offers to save the chair...


Curb chair

But it became the curb chair instead.  

Had it been my great grandmothers chair or one that I was working on for someone else it would have been different.  I would have stuck with it and saw every piece to the finish.

But sometimes you gotta know when to call it quits!