Restoring old designer armchairs – how to do it with WEICON!

At flea markets, you can sometimes find real treasures – often at a bargain price, too! But in order to distinguish valuable pieces from junk, you need a sharp eye. Like Andreas Gattwinkel. He has a passion for restoring antique designer furniture in order to resell them afterwards. He gives new life to old pieces of furniture, which many of us would just walk past disdainfully.

The other day, Andreas bought three shabby designer armchairs and restored them himself. In the picture on the left, you can see one of them.

All three chairs are the model Tecta D99 and were designed by the architect Hans Könecke. In case that doesn’t ring a bell: the pieces are very rare and thus equally valuable. You’ve probably already guessed it: for restoring the designer armchairs, he used some of our WEICON products.

Before restoring the designer armchairs, the classics from the 1960s looked a little worn-out: The chromed elements were tarnished, the suede was blotchy and the bonded plastic gauze under the seat was torn. For a layman, the chairs would have been bulky waste, but for Andreas, they were a new and interesting challenge.

So he got right to it and removed the whole leather cover first. He also removed the frayed gauze entirely and replaced it with robust jute.

To give the dusty leather a new shine, Andreas put in a lot of time and effort. First, the old adhesive residues from the 60s had to be removed. By means of a wire brush and cordless screwdriver, he milled off the adhesive. Sounds brutal, but is not harmful to the robust core leather. With the patience of a saint and a special detergent especially for suede, the leather was as good as new after a few days.

In order to give the chrome frame back its high gloss, Andreas used our WEICON Citrus Cleaner. With this miracle product, all kinds of soilings and stains can be easily removed. For the final touch, he also applied some chrome polish.

The supreme discipline when restoring the designer armchairs, however, was bonding the stabilising jute fabric to the underside of the seat. This was supposed to replace the completely frayed gauze mesh. The challenge: to find an adhesive which bonds both materials (suede and jute) without leaking through the material, which is long-lasting and also matches suede. The additional obstacle: the leather care product, that was used, contained slightly greasing substances. And everyone knows that adhesives and grease don’t mix very well.

Despite all adversities, the wide range of WEICON products offered the right product: our WEICON Adhesive Spray extra strong.

After the leather and jute had been adjusted to the right position and the areas, that needed protection, had been masked, Andreas applied the Adhesive Spray to both materials from a distance of approximately 30 centimetres. Thanks to the adjustable spray head, the masking wouldn’t even have been necessary, but even this handy specialty of the spray cannot offer protection against accidental incorrect movements.

After spraying, dexterity was needed: Andreas asked an assistant for help and together they very carefully – without making creases – positioned the linen fabric on the leather. With a hammer and wooden board, they joined both materials evenly and smoothly. After the linen surface had been attached to the underside of the seat, it had to be driven into a leather seam. Andreas also sprayed the seam with the extra strong Adhesive Spray.

Then, all pieces could be reassembled and riveted. The result: three beautiful, very comfortable design classics, which, thanks to a little effort and the right products, are in perfect shape for the upcoming decades.

• By the way, Andreas Gattwinkel has his own shop on ebay. Take a look here!
• In another post, which also covers comfy seating solutions, we also used WEICON Adhesive Spray: here is the article drum seats made by WEICON!