apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I'd start with Howards Restor-A-Finish and the Feed-N-Wax on the wood.

If the fabric is in good shape, leave it alone - just have it cleaned.

I would definitely not paint it. From the photos at least, it doesn't look like it needs much beyond a good cleaning with Murphy's Oil Soap or similar mild product. Is the upholstery in good shape? You could reupholster if needed.

Overall, I would recommend enjoying the fact that this chair has some history. Clean it and care for it, but don't try to make it look new.

Painting and restoring are generally two contradictory words. That chair was designed to show the wood, so if you want to restore it, don't paint.

If the chair has real monetary value, you will want to preserve the upholstery by a slipcover. If you can reupholster it by not removing the fabric, that's workable too.

Of course, if it's not the original fabric, don't worry about it.

Just realize that if you're going to remove and replace the fabric, you're going to have to remove those wooden buttons on the back, so you can access whatever screws are attaching the back to the spine thing so you can replace the upholstery. You have to hope that you don't destroy them when you remove them, or they won't go back into place.

If you DO do that, and you destroy one of them, then you'll need to bring one of the NOT destroyed wood buttons into some place that sells new ones and try to match up the exact shape of the wood buttons (and there are a lot more than you'd think). THEN you have to decide whether to buy a whole new set of identical ones, or re-use the ones that you CAN re-use.

I'm not telling you not to do this, I'm just saying what I'm seeing down the road from what I'm seeing in the photos.

Thanks for all the advice. It seems all opinions are in favour of restoring rather than painting.

After un-screwing the seat and washing the wooden frame with sugar soap and fine grain steelwool I noticed that the wood is spilt in some places and will need to be filled.

Curtis the buttons on the back are in fact plastic not wood and came away without any difficulty. I will try an find wooden ones (thanks for the idea)

Off to get some varnish stripper and look for some retro purple fabric.