Giving New Life To An Old Rocking Chair

Adam was lucky enough to inherit this sweet, child-size rocking chair from his Grandma.  When she moved from her house, one of Adam's uncles insisted he take it before it got thrown away.  The seat was broken and it was mighty dirty, but I'm glad Adam could see the potential.  It sat in our basement for a long time.  But I remembered about it the other day and decided it was time to bring it back to life before Archer and Lyla get too big to use it!

The frame was still sturdy, but the seat needed some love.  After doing a bit of research, I found out it is called a rush-style seat.  I decided I could try my hand at replacing it. 

Before I could tackle the seat, I needed to clean it up a bit.  I cut out what was left of the seat and boy was there a lot of dirt and dust in there!  Then I used a bit of water and Murphy's Oil to wipe down the frame.  Adam saw that I was working on fixing this up and suggested he restain the frame.  The wood was dried out, so a fresh coat of stain was the perfect idea.  Adam used some stain he already had on hand to give the frame some new life.  It sure gussied up the chair and left the finish smoother.  

Next, I turned my attention to figuring out how to weave a rush-style seat.  This article and this video were super helpful in figuring out what to do.  I tried to find some fiber rush at a craft store, but didn't have much luck.  I ended up ordering some off Amazon, so I had to wait a bit until it arrived.  Don't worry, I wasn't bored while I was waiting for it to arrive.  I tackled some Roman shades for the kitchen while I was waiting.  But once the fiber rush came, I got to work.  

The trickiest part was getting started.  I didn't have all the tools that were recommended, but I didn't want to go buy them since I don't plan to start a chair restoration business.  So I had to work with what we had.  It was recommended to use a special staple gun to get the first strands attached to the chair.  I used a regular staple gun and it didn't work out.  So then I tried to use some carpet tacks which were recommended as an alternative.  Adam had some in the garage, but they ended up being too big for the small chair.  After a trip to Home Depot, I found some smaller carpet tacks (#6 carpet tacks to be exact) and those did the trick.  

After I got the first strands attached, it wasn't too difficult.  It went pretty quickly and I was able to finish it in an evening after Lyla and Archer went to bed.  They must have been tired since they slept through me hammering carpet tacks into the chair!  

It's certainly not perfect.  The man from the video I used as a guide would probably be horrified at all the gaps in the seat.  But at least it's functional now.  Archer and Lyla seem to enjoy it and find it worthy of fighting over.  

It's pretty special we have this rocking chair from Adam's grandma.  And even more special that we have two sweet kids to sit in it.          

While I definitely don't like hoarding lots of kid stuff, I do appreciate the items that have sentimental meaning like this rocking chair.  Who knows?  Maybe Archer or Lyla will get to see their kids sitting in it some day.