Part 1: Stripping the Chair

I few days ago, I was wandering around DI (My town's big thrift store) and I stumbled upon this little beauty:

Now, I am a HUGE fan of blue. and Wing-back armchairs. and tufts. and rolled arms. But I am NOT a fan of smelly furniture with cat hair all over it, stains, worn-out fabric, and popcorn in the seat. Also not a big plus when the springs are broken and you sag to a few inches above the floor when you sit. I got all of this and more in this $20 purchase.
I've been wanting to learn how to reupholster for a while now. I read some really detailed blogs that helped so much. This one was by far the best.
But even so, all of the blogs focused on simple reupholstery...Adding a fabric seat to a wooden chair, making a simple fabric bench, things like that. Everything was pretty simple--nothing has as much work to do as this chair, which is maybe why I picked it...I like a challenge, and I wanted something that I would learn as I went along.
So, here's what I've learned so far!
1. Upholstery is about layering. It's about pulling fabric tight, stapling the heck out of it, and hiding your piles of staples with another layer of fabric, brass tacks, or welting.

(that picture looks weird because the chair is laying on its back, and Chris is kneeling on the back ripping out the front. That's why my leg is hanging out in space halfway up the chair.
2. You need to know how a piece is put together to know how to take it apart and reassemble it. I recommend taking a ton of pictures and studying your piece before you rip into it.
3. When you take something apart, you need to start with the final layers--the final things that were placed on to hide the edges. This probably means ripping off some welting or brass tacks first--these things cover exposed staples.
4. As you pull staples out and remove sections of fabric, write what it is, where it goes, how it folds, and what order you removed it in. When you reupholster, you will want to know the order you took it apart in. For example, I took off the brass tacks, the face of the rolled arms, then the front seat panel, then ripped off the four seams that were hidden underneath the chair, which led me to take off the panels on the sides under the arms, then the outside of the wingbacks, then the back of the chair, then the inside of the wingbacks and arms (one piece), then the seat, then the seat back. So, when I put it back together, I will do the seat back, then seat, then insidewingbacks and arms, back of the chair, outside wingbacks, side panels under the arms, front seat panel, face of rolled arms, and finally the brass tacks to cover those last seams. The order matters, because everything is placed to cover up something else, and if you mess it up you will be back to ripping out stapels.
6. Remember or take pictures so you know how something is constructed. If it is a piece of fabric stapled to a cardboard strip to the chair, and then wrapped over, and that's how they hide the seam, take a picture or write it down so you remember how to hide that particular seam next time.
5. Get someone to help. It took me and Chris about 5 hours to strip the chair down to its bones...it would have taken me triple that by myself (Chris is a fast worker, and after building fences all day, sitting on the floor pulling out staples was relaxing for him. And his hands are calloused all over, so he didn't whimper every time he got stabbed by a staple.)

6. Save what you can. Our chair was in pretty bad shape, and smelled, so we threw away all of our batting, cardboard strips, and foam, but we were able to save some nail strips, some interior cording, and brass tacks.
7. Figure out if anything is wrong with the chair, and how you want to fix it. If it smells, throw away the interior. If it is dirty, get some heavy-duty cleaner and scrub the remaining exposed wood. If you hate the dated wooden legs, sand, prime, and paint. If the springs are broken and the seat sags, get new springs, fix the connector for the surviving old ones, and come up with a new method of construction that suits your desire for a soft but firm seat. Our chair had springs, then batting, then foam, then fabric. We are planning on adding some wooden crosspieces for stability, extra foam, extra batting, THEN springs, batting, foam, and fabric.

So, if you are working on ripping apart a chair, I guess I have this to say: every chair is different. Yours might have welting that was glued over some staples, and you can just pull it off to get at them. Or it might have a metal strip of nails hidden under the fabric that doubles as staples and camouflage, and you need to pry it off with a hammer. Figure out how to take it apart piece by piece, take pictures, and remember how to do it for later.

If all goes well, and you stick to it, you should have this in less than a day:

...and a very messy house that is not at all foot-friendly.

Next step: paint, buy fabric & foam, cut patterns and sew joint pieces together