Dining Room Chairs

[mjgrinnell]

Good Day, All,

I have a set of dining room chairs I inherited from my parents. They are in need of refinishing, reupholstering, and there is a sort of mesh, almost wicker that constitutes the back of the chair that also needs to be replaced. I'm looking for someone to do this work or enable me to at least find replacement mesh. Would anyone 1) know more precisely what this mesh is called and 2) where might I find replacement?

Thanks much for the assistance!

Mike

[mjgrinnell]

All,

I believe I have found what this is called -- woven cane. Thanks much for any consideration you may have provided.

Mike

[Kate]

You might want to give your general location if looking for somone to help with the restoration.

[Not Gimpy Anymore]

You can find lots of info on the net about re-caning chairs. A long time ago I had a project as a teen to recane a rocking chair seat - took about a month of casual time, but well worth learning.

Now Woodcraft (I suspect many others as well) sell pre-woven cane, but it gets more tricky, I suppose, having to tie off each individual hole - if using a long strip & actually doing the weaving, you only need to tie off ends that remain, which are much fewer, since you just loop from hole to hole on the "backside" of the "loom"... But, of course, you spend orders of magnitude more time doing the actual weaving. Look carefully at the piece you have if it's not too late - check how the "backside" is finished.

Most important point - SOAK THE CANE WELL before trying to use it. Otherwise it will break just where you don't want it to, and the prewoven stuff is not inexpensive. Soaking will limber it up to allow making the 90 degree bends you will need at each hole.

HTH, NGA

[Mekanik]