Caned and Upholstered Arm Chair (Ca. 1960)

I recieved a chair recently that had caned panels between the arms and the seat. The original cane was torn on one side and the other had a small hole in it. In addition, the chair was a little loose in spots. Below are a few photos of the chair being repaired followed by some photos of the chair with the new cane installed and the process of staining the cane to match the existing color of the original.

In this first photo, you can see the damage to the cane. Before removing the cane, all of the loose joinery was repaired on the chair.

 Sometimes, a previous repair prevents you from making a repair the way you want to! This was the case here. A dowel holding the arm in place was preventing the joint between the leg and the seat stretcher from closing up entirely. The answer was to glue in a little piece of wood to make up the difference. This is the lighter piece of wood seen in the photo below.

 

After the glue dried I carved the excess away from the scrap piece and touched it up to match the finish and color of the rest of the chair. The repair can be seen (or not seen) in the photo below.

 After the repairs were made I took the chair to the caner and she replaced both panels of cane with new material. Here is a photo of the chair with the new cane.

 The following photo shows the chair prepared for the staining process. I was starting to feel a little like the artist Christo!

 After the stain was applied and sealed with shellac, the plastic was removed to reveal the completed chair. Below are a few photos of the completed work.