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General Upholstery Questions and Comments => General Discussion => Topic started by: jhaislip on August 21, 2016, 01:07:14 pm

Title: reupholstering antique rocking chair
Post by: jhaislip on August 21, 2016, 01:07:14 pm
Hi All,

I purchased and repaired an antique rocking chair for my wife since we are expecting our first child in January.  I now need to reupholster it but have no clue where to begin.  Here are some pictures:

https://goo.gl/photos/oBjU81x6pPxZR8Q2A

The seat is removable.  My current plan is to remove the existing springs and purchase a 'marshall spring cushion unit' such as this:

http://www.upholster.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=G&Product_Code=marshall-cushion-5 

I was going to glue 1-inch foam to it on all sides and then see if I could wrap it with some sort of polyester or cotton batting before putting it into the removeable seat and covering it with upholstery.

For the back,  i plan to run seat belt material vertically between all of the cross pieces.  Then tack batting to it before also wrapping it in upholstery.

Does this sound reasonable or should I be doing something completely different?    Instead of the spring unit,  should I be purchasing coil springs such as these:

http://www.rochfordsupply.com/shop/Upholstery_Accessories/Springs_and_Accessories/Coil_Springs/index.html


Thanks!
Josh
Title: Re: reupholstering antique rocking chair
Post by: MinUph on August 21, 2016, 02:38:01 pm
  Marshall units are for cushions not meant to be used in a seat base. The coil springs seem to be ok. Best to remove the twines and retie the existing springs. If you want to replace them its fine but use coils springs like what is there. Same height.
After it is resprung, cover the springs with burlap or some strong fabric that doesn't stretch, the filling. Hair pad, foam whatever you want to use then topped with cotton or polyester (dacron). Then the top fabric.
  The back need to be webbed. Seat belt webbing will work if that's what you have, Very expensive to use in a back but hey. Web side to side to keep the contour of the frame then top to bottom just taking out the slack. You want to keep the shape of the the frame.
Filling about two inch foam then cotton or dacron.
  Good luck with it and have fun.
Title: Re: reupholstering antique rocking chair
Post by: jhaislip on August 21, 2016, 02:59:33 pm
This is precisely what I was looking for.  Thank you very much Paul.
-Josh
Title: Re: reupholstering antique rocking chair
Post by: SteveA on August 22, 2016, 10:20:26 am
Nice chair - good luck.  I did one like that last year
(https://forum.upholster.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi934.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fad181%2FSteveA_2010%2Fth_IMG_8253_zpscc770b15.jpg&hash=eace9afbcb605b82277c008b0b93e990) (http://s934.photobucket.com/user/SteveA_2010/media/IMG_8253_zpscc770b15.jpg.html)
The seat springs were re-tied - put back the horse hair and cotton.  Mohair fabric -  a small amount of refinishing to the wood + some joint gluing
The back rest has a lumbar shape - pretty good for an old chair that they curved the back for comfort.
SA