Danish Mid-Century Modern Chair Restoration | Woodworking

In this video, I restore a Danish Mid-Century Modern chair frame to (close to) its former glory by installing corner blocks, making a seat and chair back, and upholstering it. Unfortunately, the upholstery footage was lost, but it was mostly me making a mess of sewing!

Some of the challenges involved in this were the angles and the curves. Having to fit everything perfect to a chair frame that, though very solid and well built, was slender and fully of interesting lines made things a bit unusual.

For the curved back, you'll see that I resawed some yellow pine to about 1/4" thick and then planed them down to about 1/8" and glued them in a bending form. Though this gave a great curve, it didn't leave much thickness to sink a screw into so I could mount the chair back. I added some blocking to the edges and blended it all together to keep it looking light and thin, but it have the substance now to take a screw and a dowel, too.

About the grain direction of the seat, I oriented it so it would try to cup in the direction the seat is actually bent. I left some wiggle room in the screw holes in the chair frame corner blocks, too. These boards are very dry and should not move much, but that said, I think I've got it all taken into account.

For the upholstery, I used regular seat foam for the seat itself, stapling it down. That was easy. The back needed to have stitching all the way around, and I didn't want the final hand stitches to show very easily, so I hid them along the bottom with about 200 minuscule stitches. It was also tricky trying to get the lines of the fabric to flow from seat to back, but I managed it.

Overall, a great experience that I learned a lot from. I ended up not having to redo the finish, thank goodness. It now sits in our living room, and it looks great! Thanks for watching, and I hope you like the video!
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Thanks!
Andrew

[JoiceMilacci]

This chair turned out amazing! Love it!!!

[davidstewart]

Those corner blocks are where hand tools excel. A shaving here, a slight angle adjustment over there, and a perfect fit.

[rebecapacifico]

Amo seus vídeos e os vídeos da Joice, que Deus abençoe sempre a família de vocês

[What_Other_Hobbies]

Very good looking chair.
Without the curve in seat, I'd run the grain left to right. That makes matching the front/back curve more difficult.

[wlmounce]

Nice fabric choice. The seat warp at all years later? Great find.

[marcelareis]

Muito legal vc é uma pessoa muito habilidosa Parabéns pela família, adoro os vídeos da Joyce também.

[fsfcvvy]

Really wanted to see you doing the polstering