In my last post I shared the before and after of this restored and reupholstered antique settee. I briefly talked about what steps I took to restore and reupholster this antique bench. I promised I would cover the details of the restoration project in a later post. As promised and as you probably guessed from the title that’s exactly what today’s post is all about. Today I’ll be explaining not just how I restored this antique bench, but I’ll cover the steps on how to restore antiques in general!
If you’ve read some of my other furniture projects, you’ll have heard me say that I love pieces with wood detail.
When I saw the online listing for this antique bench I was immediately intrigued. I saw what looked like wooden carvings detailed on the middle back portion of the bench.
How to Assess a Piece of Furniture as a Potential Project
If you’re learning how to restore antiques, there are several things to consider before picking up a piece to refinish.
However, one thing I always pay special attention to. Regardless if the piece of furniture is an antique or not is the structural integrity of the frame.
This doesn’t mean the frame of the furniture in question has to be in pristine condition. What’s important to think about when inspecting it however is the extent of the damage (if any).
If the antique is damaged and requires repair you should ask yourself 2 things:
- Am I capable of fixing this myself, or can I learn how to fix it if I don’t already know?
- If I can fix it, is the time required for repair worth it in the end.
Regardless, if you’re planning on selling this project, or plan to keep it for yourself, it’s worth asking; “is the project worth the time?”.
I say this because as I work on projects, I’ve learned oftentimes- a chair, sofa, dresser, whatever it is; was not actually that unique after all.
I’ve passed up pieces I was considering restoring. Later down the road finding another identical or almost identical piece somewhere else.
Keep this in mind when hunting for your next project.
In this case, the benches’ frame looked to be in pretty solid condition. However, the upholstery needed to be replaced and the seat was sunken in.
I knew I’d have to do some reconstructive surgery on the seat. That kind of stuff doesn’t scare or bother me since I’ve done this kind of work before.
The question that remained unknown, was the overall condition of the wood and the back where the wood carvings were.
As expected from an antique the wood was nicked and scratched and dirty. The back with the design had me wondering if it was carved wood detail or rather a veneer design. Which would make it far less interesting to me.
I ultimately decided it was worth the risk.
So we loaded it into the car and brought it inside where I immediately went to work.
Repairing the Settee Seat
I carefully stripped the existing upholstery. Revealing underneath a layer of cotton mesh, layers and layers of horsehair. Making up the entirety of the seat cushion and the back padding.
If you’re new in your journey on how to restore antiques with upholstery, you’ll find this bit of info interesting.
Horsehair was used in furniture dating back to the 1600s. Finding horsehair in antiques is an indicator that that piece was well made and/or came from a wealthier household.
This was the first time I’ve seen a piece made entirely of horse hair which I find pretty exciting. In the past when I’ve reupholstered antique pieces I find a combination of cotton batting and horse hair.
I’m ALWAYS in favor of preservation/restoration and repair over replacing whenever possible. I stress this same consideration to anyone who is learning how to restore antiques.
Therefore, it’s important to me to be very careful with the settee. So you don’t damage the delicate horsehair batting during the repairing process.
I left the layer of cotton fabric attached to the settee. This keeps the hair in place and decided to fix the wonky cushion first.
Side note
I noticed some faded lettering on the backrest of the fabric. From what I can tell the largest lettering at the top in red reads “PATENT”. Underneath, in the same color but harder to read “McCook Milling CO.”. There’s more lettering underneath, but I’m unable to make it out.
I’m so curious and would absolutely LOVE to know anything about this company and it’s origin. I have reason to believe this is the original upholstery. Therefore it could possibly tell me more about the settee’s history.
It’s hard for me to even guess what general time period this settee is from because of the design. The carving designs suggest one era while the curves of the frame makes me think of a different time.
If anyone has a better idea I’d love to know! My guess is the 1920’s but I could be way off.
Okay, back to the seat repair…
I flipped over the settee so the base was facing upward and removed the canvas covering on the bottom.
I could tell pretty quickly that the seat was given its structure with the use of springs. The springs were copper and several if not all had become loose. Especially in the middle due to years of wear and that was causing the deformed cushion shape in the middle.
Like I said, I opt to repair instead of replacing when possible. So I added additional support where necessary. Then went through and re-threaded all the springs with a new upholstery thread. Securing them nicely before covering the base back up with the canvas.
Stipping the Frame
While I thought overall the wood finish was in good condition. Ultimately I decided to strip the wood frame bare and re-stain.
I was hesitant to do this because of all the wood detail on the back.
If you’ve ever striiped wood before you’ll know how difficult stripping and cleaning wood detail can be.
That being said, I could tell this was a nice piece of furniture. If I was going to restore it I was going to do it right the first time.
To know the absolute best way to strip wood/furniture read my step-by-step post I wrote specifically on this topic HERE.
Since I was using the existing horsehair batting I had to do an extra step and cover the cushions so they didn’t get dirty during the stripping process. However, you can still see some staining leftover after the stripping process was complete.
I started stripping the wood with Citristrip following the process I outlined in the earlier mentioned post.
If you’re dealing with significant small wood detail you’ll have to take an additional step. To clean the smaller wood detailing, take a wool bristle brush and a 50/50 mixture of lacquer thinner and acetone. Clean the crevices thoroughly using the sttel wool or brush.
Next, I sanded areas in need of special attention with a mid-grade git sandpaper. Then I sanded the entire piece with fine 0000 steel wool. Finally wiping the frame down with Mineral Spirits to get rid of as much dust as possible.
Staining The Settee
I was having a hard time deciding on a stain color. I decided to do a few sample staining areas on the back first. From left to right I tried Dark Walnut, English Chestnut, and Golden Oak.
Very surprised that English Chestnut appeared darker than Dark Walnut but none of the stains seemed to take very well despite a second coat.
I decided to try again but this time I conditioned the wood first with distilled white vinegar. Going forward. I highly recommend this because after conditioning the wood with the vinegar the stain took wonderfully.
Creating a Custom Stain
However truthfully none of the stains I was in love with, but I had at least ruled out English Chestnut. There were elements to the Dark Walnut and Golden Oak that I liked. However, both seemed to be lacking the overall color I was hoping for. So I decided to test out a combination of the two with a 50/50 mixture.
My intuition proved correct because the combination stain was exactly what I was looking for.
I sanded off the stain samples and mixed a ¼ cup of Dark Walnut and a ¼ cup Golden Oak.
With a painter’s rag, I moved in sections. Saturating the wood first in white vinegar, then quickly with a brush applied a nice layer of combination stain.
I’d move on to the next section of the settee without wiping the excess stain from the previous section.
Only after I’d applied the next section would I go back and wipe off the excess stain from the previous section.
This allows the stain to soak into the woods pores and take nicely to the stain. As the stain dries on the wood the color will lighten slightly.
Feel free to apply another coat if you feel areas need it. But try to let the wood dry a bit before applying a second coat. This will give you a better idea of its true color.
There were a couple areas I applied a second coat but overall I only had to apply one coat.
I allowed the settee to dry overnight. The next day I wiped the frame down with a dry towel and then Mineral Spirits.
This helps to get rid of any residual stain before moving on to the next steps of reupholstering the bench.
Learn How To Upholster Furniture
I’m not going to go over the upholstery process because it was a simple one for this bench. However, reupholstery is almost always required when learning how to restore antiques. If you are interested in learning how to upholster furniture I have an in-depth 3 part series I’ll link below. It covers the upholstery process that I highly recommend you checking out:
How To Remove Existing Upholstery: Part 1
Learning To Recreate Patterns for Upholstery Projects: Part 2
Finishing Up Reupholstering Furniture: Part 3
I hope you enjoyed reading about how to restore antiques and furniture! If you have more questions about how to restore antiques for your own restoration project feel free to reach out. I’m not an expert but I like to help answer questions whenever I can!
Don’t forget to take a look at the Before and After post where you can see the difference side-by-side. Those before and after shots are always so satisfying to look at!
Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today!
If you enjoy these posts, want to read more posts on how to restore antiques, and other furniture, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
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My goal is to continue to learn from you guys and share what you all find most helpful!
