I purchased some old rush seat dining chairs on Facebook Marketplace with the determination to repair them. It was a bit of a tricky project but definitely doable after I got through the initial difficulties of getting everything even. There are some tips and tricks that I have learned. So let me show you how to repair a rush seat no matter what shape of the woven seat or what type of fiber you are using.
How to repair a rush seat
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I think this is the longest time it ever took me to write a blog post about a project. This is partially due to the fact that I was preoccupied with all my cats and their health issues. Then vacations, kids, and family in general got in the way.
That doesn’t mean that I’m not excited about how the chairs turned out. I can say now, that after having them finished in our dining room for a couple of months, they held up great and I did a good job. So let me share my wisdom about this particular. DIY project with you.
As I mentioned at the beginning, I bought 4 old rush chairs on Facebook Marketplace for the great price of $25. These chairs are not antique and actually still for sale at Pottery Barn for $249 each. Yes, you heard that right. They are the Isabella Dining Chairs which used to be available in the dark stain that mine are and now only available in a natural wood finish which I love.
So with the extra cost of all the supplies purchased to fix these chairs, I ended up with very affordable chairs at about $34 each compared to what they cost at Pottery Barn.
What is a rush seat chair?
At first glance, people who are unfamiliar with these types of chairs might think they have some sort of wicker chair. However, rush seating is woven out of twisted natural materials.
Another frequent seat option for chairs is woven cane. If you have a cane chair then you can purchase premade chair caning on a roll to fix your chair’s seating.
What type of rush is there?
A traditional rush seat was usually made with twisted grasses native to the manufacturing area. Today, the most common rush seats are made with paper fiber rush and natural cattail rush/natural bullrush (common plants in freshwater marshes). But there are also some alternate cord materials that are less common.
Determining your rush seat structure and shape
There are many different rush seat shapes. Some chairs don’t have a removable seat and the rush gets woven right on the chair structure. Before you start a chair weaving project it is important to determine how your chair was put together and what shape the seat has.
The easiest rush seat shape to fix is a square symmetrical shape. When the shape is curved and unsymmetrical like my chairs, it gets more difficult.
In my opinion, rushing a chair seat with an almost round curved seat shape is the most difficult to weave.
Supplies needed to reweave a rush chair
- wooden pegs for chair weaving and caning
- wooden wedges for chair weaving and caning
- rush on a spool ( I used 5/32 brown paper fiber rush)
- pieces of cardboard cut into triangle shapes
- staple gun and staples
- strong scissors or snippers
- hammer and pliers
- large spring clamps
- wood glue or other strong glue such as hot glue or gorilla glue
- protective clear coat for rush material such as polyurethane
I know that I will get questions about how much rush to use for a chair or multiple chairs and I’m sorry but I don’t know how to answer that. It simply depends and I don’t know how to calculate that. The reason I purchased the materials from Amazon versus another store is that it is much easier to return should I purchase too much of it.
My tips and tricks I learned for repairing a rush seat
Mark the placement of the old fiber before removing it
Before you remove the old rush fiber from your chair seat, it is important that you use a marker or pencil to mark where and how the corners were wrapped. This helps you later while weaving the new seat to get the same look as previously.
It was also very helpful to mark the “front side/top” and “back side/bottom” on your empty chair seat frame before weaving the rush. When you flip and turn the seat, you can quickly get confused about which side is which.
Determine your seat shape
I drew up some common rush seat shape including the type of chairs that don’t have a removeable rush seat frame but where you weave the rush right onto the chair frame.
Number 5 is the shape of my chair seats.
Find the right video tutorial for your rush seat shape
After I determined the shape of my rush seat, I went on the search for good videos on YouTube to help me with the process of weaving the new rush seats.
Thankfully there are numerous wonderful tutorials out there on how to reweave a chair which is why I didn’t make my own video. Nobody wants to learn from me when there are professionals showing you how to do this. It really helped me a lot and I couldn’t have done it without the videos. This is not a project that is easily taught with a written tutorial and photos alone.
I was thrilled when I finally found a tutorial for the exact shape of my rush seat (#5) of the Pottery Barn Isabella chair. I would have never figured out the corners of the seat without the below video. This guy of Peerless Rattan Supplies knows what he is doing and I don’t think anyone else can do a better job than him with explaining the weaving process. (you can also buy all the supplies on their website)
It is also helpful to watch videos for other rush seat shapes so you can see what the difference is.
Use wood glue to secure knots
You obviously can’t use the entire spool of rush to weave with since it is too big. You have to work with smaller amounts of rush fiber. That means you will run out of fiber and need to knot another strand to the weaved section’s bottom to be able to continue. I secured those knots with some wood glue (or other strong glue) to keep the knots from unraveling over time.
Paper rush hurts your fingers less
I didn’t like using gloves for this project since I have more control with my bare hands. With that said, paper fibre rush is easier to use with your bare hands than natural grass fiber.
Soak the fiber before weaving
Use a large bowl with warm water to soak the rush for about 5 minutes. It can oversoak quickly and then it will unravel and get mushy. I used a bathroom towel to dab off access water after soaking.
It is so important to soak the rush because it helps with the entire weaving process and makes the rush so much easier to work with.
Reweave the entire chair seat
While I think it could be possible to only partially reweave a rush seat to repair a smaller section, I think it makes more sense and looks better to reweave the entire chair to repair it. It is so hard to match up fiber rush material, especially if the chair is old.
Symmetry and square corners are most important
This entire chair weaving process won’t work if you don’t keep everything square and symmetrical. The weaved seats won’t evenly meet in the center of the seat if the fiber isn’t symmetrical on all corners.
In order to get my chair weaving symmetrical I had to wrap them three times in the front at the corners versus once in the back. This is explained really well in the video.
The wooden peg and wedges are necessary to keep everything even. The large spring clamps help to keep everything tight and even as well. It is shown in the videos how to use them.
Below you can see that there are three strands on the left that were wrapped by one fiber string…
Versus the next photo of the back corner that was evenly wrapped once:
Stuff the rush seat with cardboard
It is very important to stuff the gaps between the front and back weaved sides of the entire seat with something. For this step, cardboard cut into triangles works really well. The old seats were not stuffed with cardboard but more natural fiber. This helps keep the seat sturdy and prevents it from sagging. Stuff as much carboard into the pockets as you can and leave the center open so you can finish the weaving.
In the below photo you can see how the triangle carboard pieces fit well into the 4 gaps of the inside of the seat.
Seal the new rush seat
I used a clear protective coat to seal the paper fiber rush. I’m not sure if you really have to do this step but I am afraid that people will spill food on the paper and some sort of protection might help any liquid or grease from staining the paper.
I ended up using the same General Finishes Flat Out Flat Topcoat that I used for the wood. More about that later in the post.
You can change the color of rush fibers
My friend Diane stained the color of her rush seats with wood stain which is a great way to change the look of your seats.
Keeping the natural colored wood of the rush chairs
This part has nothing to do with the rush seat weaving but with the fact that I wanted my chairs to look like the light-colored Isabella dining chairs that are still for sale at Pottery Barn. I love the look of natural wood but the wood also needs some type of protection.
So I stripped and sanded all 4 chairs down to the bare wood.
At first, I tried a light coat of champagne-colored wood stain on a small section that I bought for a different project and never used. I thought the stain looked too yellow which you can see below.
So I sanded that area again and tried to find a different solution which I found in General Finishes Flat Out Flat Topcoat. I had never used this topcoat before and can now say that I love this stuff. It has a dull protective finish and only slightly alters the look and tone of the wood which I’m showing you in the next photo.
I applied three coats of the “Flat Out Flat” to the raw wood and just skipped the wood stain altogether and after months I’m still happy with the results.
My finished rush seat chairs in our dining room
Tschüß,
