Wicker dining chairs
Dining room chairs are often hard on the derriere. Chairs with woven wicker seat inserts, however, provide much needed comfort. The only compromise is that wicker is not as durable as solid wood and is prone to frays and tears. Restore the function as well as appearance of a wicker dining room chair by stretching new wicker into the chair seat.
Instructions
1. Run a utility knife in the seam between the wicker seat spline and the solid chair seat to remove the spline. The spline is the wood cord that is wedged into a groove around the wicker to hold it in place. It is just like the rubber cord that holds the screen in your screen door in place.
2. Use a spline chisel, which has a thin, flat head, to work your way around the seam and gradually pry up the spline.
3. Remove what remains of the original wicker.
4. Use scissors to cut the sheet of wicker cane weave so it is about 1 inch longer than the hole in the chair seat in all directions.
5. Soak the cut piece of wicker and the spline in water for 30 minutes to make it flexible and easy to work with.
6. Center the cut piece of wicker cane weave on the chair seat.
7. Use a hammer to gradually tap a small wood wedge into the groove at the front of the seat, securing the wicker with it. Also put wedges in the back and sides. As you work, keep stretching on the wicker so it ends up being taut, not loose.
8. Run a bead of glue on top of the wicker, along the groove line where the spline goes.
9. Use a hammer to tap the spline back in place, securing the wicker with it. As you go, run a bead of wood glue under the spline, remove the wood wedges and use scissors to cut off excess wicker.
Tags: chair seat, , cord that, , piece wicker, securing wicker