CITIZEN CANE
INTERIORS
1115 Station Road, Coombs, British Columbia / 250-248-2633
Specializing in furniture restorations, furniture repairs, antique restorations and woodworking.
Serving Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Port Alberni, Nanaimo and Courtenay
Current Project #1
Click on images to enlarge
These are Wegner lounge chairs made by Hans J. Wegner the master of Danish chair design. They were likely made in the 1950s from teak wood. Coming in they had a few issues that needed to be addressed. One of the chairs was quite damaged and probably had a story or two to tell. Both needed a good cleaning and the seats replaced.
Usually I show all the before pictures and then the finished. On this project I wanted to show each problem with the before and then the after, showing a good picture of what had been done. Before on the left, after on the right. The three pictures below show the Danish cord seating. Danish cord is almost always used on teak furniture. The wood and the cord really do make the other look good. The two pictures on the left show the cord as it came in. Remember it probably was 70 years old and according to the owners these were the favorite chairs of the family and well used. The picture on the right is the new cord in place.
On the left shows a crack in the back where the arm joins. Teak is a very strong wood so it would take a lot to break it like it is. The good thing is, when a wood is strong quite often the breaks are clean and easier to repair than a soft wood. On the right shows the damage repaired and any touch ups of colour necessary are applied. Very hard to see the cracks. Wood that is glued or laminated together often has more strength than the original wood.
This is the arm piece that attaches the arm to the seat of the chair. It was on the opposite arm. The repair was very similar to the one above - glue and colour touch ups.
Here the back leg had been broken and someone had tried to repair the damage so the chairs could still be used. Drywall screws are not really a good thing to use on furniture. It required a bit more than glue and touch ups. The screws were removed and the pieces drilled so a metal dowel could be inserted. The back legs take all the weight of the person sitting in the chair so they need to be very strong. Not an easy fix but it worked well.
This picture is the back of the back rest. It had been banged and worn. This part of the chair was made from bent plywood. Although not really visible it was fixable and makes the chair look so much better. The bottom left picture shows the damaged wood that is to be cut out and the new wood that will be laminated in it's place. Much patience is needed for these kind of repairs as the new wood has to be cut in the same curve as the wood it is replacing. Putting a straight piece of wood in and hoping to glue it in a curve will not work. The finished pictures show the new wood in place before staining and then the final product after colour matching.
This picture is just showing the wood before and after a cleaning. Quite often on chairs there will be a place that the chair is handled a lot that seems to go darker than the rest of the chair. It is the result of lots of use and just needs a bit of a cleaning every now and again. The pictures below are showing water marks on the wood in the picture on the left. The other two pictures are after a cleaning and wax.
And here we have the two chairs ready to go home. All clean, shiny and ready for another 70 years.
Like all our projects it was a delight to work on them.
