SO. Excited. To see your thrift store chair newly clothed in your latest fabulous fabric find. You’re almost finished stripping off the old fabric. Let the reupholstery begin! Peeling back the seat padding you get your first look at the springs, and ‘Woe is Me!’
Seat springs with broken twine
The bottom webbing is in good shape but the twine has come loose on some of the springs and it’s clear that they will need to be retied before you can proceed. What to do??
If you’ve gotten this far, first of all give yourself a pat on the back and a word of reassurance that YOU CAN DO THIS! Since the springs are essentially in their original positions (eg. they’re not sprung every which way), you can use the old ties as guide.
Find the most intact twine and carefully mark each separate run of twine with it’s own color. This can be tricky to do without untying the twine, so try to use the already-broken pieces to see how it’s wrapped.
Carefully mark each separate piece of twine with its own color
Color coding on new spring twine matches original twine colors
You can leave the old ties as a guide for how to knot the new twine around the springs
Example showing old twine used as a reference for new – top view
If the only problem is that your webbing is tearing out of the bottom of your chair, check out this post on “How to Repair Sprung Springs & Upholstery Webbing‘.
Finally, be sure to keep the springs the same height and position you found them.
If your chair is really a hard-luck case, here’s a great book (by Singer) to get you started with setting and tying chair springs from scratch.
Want to learn more? Stay in the loop by signing up for the mailing list to receive home decor tips, do-it-yourself upholstery tricks, ‘chair love’ and more!
Are you the ‘visual’ type? Join us on Pinterest!
Leave A Comment