Furniture Fixer: Woven Chair Seats, Part One

This is a guest post by Carolynne Reina.

When shopping for antique or vintage furniture you will occasionally come across a piece with a woven seat.  But just what is that material on the seat?  There are many different types, including cane, rush, seagrass, shaker tape, and Danish cord.  In part one of this series, we’re going to focus on rush.

Weaving rush into a usable material is a very old process — it dates back as far as 4000 B.C. in Egypt!  Rush seating can be made in either natural cattail, bulrush, or a man-made paper fibre.  It is woven around the four dowels of the seat of the chair frame and makes a distinct pattern (as shown in the picture). Cattail and bulrush are not used as often nowadays as paper fibre, mostly due to the cost and availability of materials, but if you have an antique piece that you want to keep historically accurate, these would be the types to use.  Paper fibre is the more modern choice, as it is readily available, inexpensive, and looks great.  Plus it seems to be more durable than the other types, since it is made out of a heavy brown craft paper, which does not dry out and become brittle like the natural grasses can. You can then leave the seat as-is or coat with a clear lacquer for added protection. (Remember adding the lacquer makes a hard seat without any ”give”  like the uncoated version.)

The bad thing about rush is that if a segment is broken or split, it can’t be repaired – the whole seat must be rewoven.  The good thing is that you can hire someone to do the work and it’s not terribly expensive.  You can also opt to learn how to do it yourself, but it will require a lot of patience and practice.  Sure, it looks easy enough - but to get the weaving tight and straight is a lot of work! So next time you see a great chair in an antique store with a damaged seat – don’t pass it by, reweave it!

Carolynne Reina is a Chicago-based, alley scouring, dumpster-diving, vintage furniture fanatic who writes about faux finishes, repair & restoration in her spare time. Read her blog at Madcap-Design.Blogspot.Com.