Reupholstering a Bergere... Part 1

About a month ago, while in the middle the run of The Confusions of Young Torless with the Great Recession Theatre Company, I decided to buy a pair of Bergere chairs off Craigslist. I had to trek ALLLLL the way out to Queens and take a weird car service home (Thank God Crown Victorias have humongous trunks). I just couldn't pass them up -- the size was ideal and the price was right. They've been sitting in my living room in all their pink glory for the past month, and I can barely stand to look at them anymore.


In the midst of a Friday evening wine-haze I decided I should probably start tearing down the chairs. The fabric is due to be delivered on Monday, and, honestly, what better time to do a little DIY!? In fact, the wine dulled my nerves just enough that I didn't even need any tools... I just pulled all of the old fabric off by hand.

So, off came the hideous pink fabric.

Now, to be fair, the fabric is of a very fine quality and the original (at least to me) upholstery job was really very well done. Individual upholstery tacks with nary a staple in sight! I, most likely, will not be treading down that same garden path.






You can see here that behind the upholstery fabric there is a layer of muslin. Behind the muslin is the stuffing for the back of the chair. It is comprised of horsehair sandwiched between two layers of Dacron. All of this is backed by a layer of burlap or Hessian which is also tacked to the frame of the chair.

Here is the chair stripped of its back cushion.


The arm rests came off very easily. It looks like there was some other former upholstery on the arms that was left in place (and painted over) when the pink upholstery job was completed.

I decided to leave the seat intact for now because I don't want to make a huge mess until I'm ready to paint. Hopefully I will be doing so this weekend. The seat appears to be comprised of some Hessian, some sort of green faux horsehair stuffing, and a layer of Dacron. When I really dig in we'll see if there is any webbing holding the seat up!

Well, that's the tear down of one of the Bergere chairs. I'll hopefully be back soon with a post on painting the frames. I'm planning on doing navy or slate, but that's all going to depend on how I feel about the spray paints I find.