How do I refinish a bergere chair?

Ruth Ollis
by Ruth Ollis

I am getting a Bergere Chair that needs Reupholstery. The upholsterers do not do any painting of the wood areas of the chair. There is not much wood showing but, I want to chalk paint it a very light gray and use white wax on it. Fabrics will be Pink and White Pearl. Would I be creating a mess if I do the wood trim myself??? HELP!!!

  4 answers
  • Johnavallance82 Johnavallance82 on Nov 08, 2018

    Hi Ruth, No! that will be fine as long as you do it before you have it reupholstered!

  • K. Rupp K. Rupp on Nov 08, 2018

    NO NOT AT ALL...NO WAY YOU CAN MAKE A MESS!!!! The mess is what the re-upholster will be dealing with the guts of the chair. LOL It's just tricky because you will want to do the refinishing of the wood after the chair is stripped of the old fabric. Please check out my blog post https://karupp-did.net/fabric-removal/. This will give you an idea how to remove the fabric yourself keeping everything for the upholsterer that they will need to redo the chair. I explain all of that in the post how to label it and keep the pieces organized. If you remove the old fabric then you can get to the refinishing of the wood right away. But talk to the upholsterer first to make sure they know what you are doing. The other way is to have them remove the old fabric and then you would pick it up again to do your refinishing and when you are finished drop it back off so they can re-upholster it. They won't have a problem doing this I am sure but you will have to wait longer for the finished project because they will put other jobs in between yours. I hope this helps understand the process. Good luck! I forgot to explain, the reason the wood is refinished after the fabric removal is because the refinishing will be neater and you can get all of the wood so it is seamless. Trying to refinish around the old fabric is much harder and you wouldn't want to miss tiny spaces. Good luck!!!

  • K. Rupp K. Rupp on Nov 08, 2018

    NO NOT AT ALL...NO WAY YOU CAN MAKE A MESS!!!! The mess is what the re-upholster will be dealing with the guts of the chair. LOL It's just tricky because you will want to do the refinishing of the wood after the chair is stripped of the old fabric. Please check out my blog post https://karupp-did.net/fabric-removal/. This will give you an idea how to remove the fabric yourself keeping everything for the upholsterer that they will need to redo the chair. I explain all of that in the post how to label it and keep the pieces organized. If you remove the old fabric then you can get to the refinishing of the wood right away. But talk to the upholsterer first to make sure they know what you are doing. The other way is to have them remove the old fabric and then you would pick it up again to do your refinishing and when you are finished drop it back off so they can re-upholster it. They won't have a problem doing this I am sure but you will have to wait longer for the finished project because they will put other jobs in between yours. I hope this helps understand the process. Good luck! I forgot to explain, the reason the wood is refinished after the fabric removal is because the refinishing will be neater and you can get all of the wood so it is seamless. Trying to refinish around the old fabric is much harder and you wouldn't want to miss tiny spaces.

  • 2dogal 2dogal on Nov 13, 2018

    Do the painting and waxing before you take it to be reupholstered. You'll do fine.