Chair seating

Do you have a cherished chair in your home that has been passed down through the family which has many happy memories attached to it? You can’t bear to throw the chair away even though its seen better days and is looking worn? Unfortunately, you cannot patch up a chair seat as it loses its strength when its broken. I can help you keep the chair and use it to its full potential by reweaving the chair seat. I am able to replace rush, cane and seagrass chair seats to keep your beloved chair usable for years.

To be able to give you an accurate quote to fix your chair you need to know what material was used. The term used to describe woven products is wicker rather than the material used to weave it.  There are images below showing the different materials used to weave chairs.

Please be advised that many older chairs require structural repairs, repainting or varnishing and I do not have the skills to undertake this work. Therefore, this work will need to be completed before delivery to me.

Rush chair seating

After many years rush chair seating will eventually become worn and broken which means the rush needs to be replaced. Rush can be replaced using pre-twisted rush or the more time consuming hand twisted rush. Pre-twisted rush looks the same on the top and bottom as it has been continuosly twisted. Hand twisted rush looks different on the underside of the chair as the rush is twisted on the top but not on the bottom. The images below show a beautiful childs rocking chair restored with hand twisted rush and another childs chair replace with pre-twisted rush.

COSTS

Large rush carver chair: hand twisted rush £175, pre-twisted rush £110
Standard size rush chair: hand twisted rush £140, pre-twisted rush £90

Hand twisted rush chair

Hand twisted rush chair seat

Pre-twisted rush chair

Pre-twisted rush chair seat

Cane chair seating

Cane for chair seating is usually woven using the 6 way weave. This means that there are effectively 6 layers of cane interwoven into each other making this a time consuming process. Sheet cane can be used as a quicker alternative. To tell whether you have hand woven or sheet cane turn your chair upside down. If there are individual holes around the edge of the chair it is hand woven cane. If there is a continuous groove then its sheet cane. Currently, I only replace hand woven cane.
If there are holes but they do not go all the way through this is called blind cane. I don’t currently replace blind cane as it takes such a long time to do.

Cost

Up to 100 holes £1.30 per hole
Any holes over 100 £1.50 per hole

Cane stool

Cane stool close up

Seagrass chair seating

Seagrass is a lovely hard wearing material but in some circumstances seagrass has been used where rush should have been. When you bring a chair to me I will advise you what your chair should have been woven with to let you decide.

COSTS

Square checkerboard stool £45

Seagrass checkerboard chair seat

Checkerboard seagrass chair seat

I hope you have found this information helpful. If you would like to proceed with a replacement of a chair seat then please email an image of the chair and I can give you a quote.