Reupholstering a chair-bed is an opportunity to breathe life into old furniture

The ability to hold tools in your hands will come in handy if you need to properly organize space in a small apartment. To make optimal use of space, you can make a chair-bed with your own hands, and a step-by-step guide will help you easily cope with this task. It is better to choose a simple but reliable model, and the texture and color of the upholstery will make it stylish.

Peculiarities

The chair-bed can be classified as classic and universal furniture. It will fit perfectly into a small apartment and will delight the owners with its aesthetics and original design. As for design features, the product can be:

• frame;
• frameless.

These models differ in form and transformation mechanism.

Making a frame product with your own hands is heavier than a frameless one, but it is quite possible. Frame furniture involves the manufacture of a folding mechanism. It should unfold easily, without distortions or other defects. It is easier to make a product with two folding legs than with four .

Which option to choose is up to you.
In this case, it is worth starting from the general interior of the room and personal preferences. Particular attention should be paid to the materials of its manufacture. For the frame, chipboard, plywood, fabric, foam rubber and textiles for upholstery are used. As for a product without a rigid base, the shape of the chair can be streamlined. Also, such a product will be smaller in size and light in weight. Attention: when making a chair-sofa, it is worth remembering that it should be comfortable when unfolded, since it is often used for sleeping. To make it comfortable to sleep on, the width of the sleeping place must be at least 60 cm.

We make furniture for a wide range of purposes - we make a chair-bed with our own hands

A chair-bed is an alternative to a small sofa.
It can be placed in the nursery or in the living room. When folded, this furniture is used as an ergonomic and comfortable chair, and when unfolded, it is used for sleeping (for a child or a guest). Such a piece of furniture can be either bought in a store or made with your own hands. It is worth immediately noting that the process of making a compact sofa chair is an easy process and does not require special skills and experience .

Material

When choosing materials for making furniture, you should pay attention to them :

• 
  quality;

• hypoallergenic and safe;
• strength;
• wear resistance;
• design.

For the frame you can use:

• Chipboard or laminated chipboard . These materials are distinguished by a variety of textures and colors. They do not emit toxins, are easy to process, are wear-resistant and durable;
• plywood _ This material is easy to cut and saw with various tools, has an attractive appearance, and has high technical characteristics;
• natural wood . It is safe, has an interesting texture and texture. To work with an array, you need to have certain skills. It is better for beginners to start making furniture items from laminated chipboard.

An important role should also be given to the choice of upholstery. For these purposes the following are most often used:

• chenille;
• jacquard;
• velours;
• velvet;
• tapestry;
• genuine leather.

Tip : a tapestry will look good as upholstery.
If you want to make a product that is soft and pleasant to the touch, give preference to artificial velvet.

Scheme and drawing

Before you start making a chair-bed, you need to make a preliminary drawing. It indicates the materials of manufacture, the exact dimensions of each individual element, and fasteners. Some people believe that such simple furniture can be made without a diagram. But, if you do not have much experience in making upholstered furniture, it is better to make a competent and thoughtful sketch of the future item . Then you will not make primitive mistakes when manufacturing individual parts and when assembling the product.

DIY chair bed - drawings and work (video)

Not every person wants to buy furniture that everyone has, because... highlighting your place of residence is one of the natural needs. Anyone can make a chair bed with their own hands, and the drawings can be completely different.

An armchair bed is a very convenient device, especially if you often have guests and your apartment is small.

Developing complex designs is an undertaking for professionals, but for beginners it is quite enough to be able to make a good, impressive stock.

Tools

To make your own bed chair with frame, you will need to prepare the following materials :

• 
  chipboard;

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• Fiberboard;
• plywood;
• bars;
• foam;
• fittings and guides;
• furniture glue;
• upholstery fabric;
• sandpaper.

Tools that will be useful:

• drill or screwdriver;
• electric jigsaw;
• a simple pencil and ruler;
• furniture stapler with staples;
• wood hacksaw;
• scissors;
• sewing machine.

Tip : if you plan to decorate furniture with applique, a stencil cut from a thick file folder will come in handy.

Working with seats

The seats, like other parts, must be handled carefully. You need to remove the upholstery fabric and pull out the old foam rubber, remove staples, screws or nails. It is also important to remove all excess fabric, threads and dried glue from the attachment points.

We recommend reading the article about how to give a second life to your favorite mattress.

As with the backrest, old upholstery can be put to good use. Soft padding can also be used. It needs to be glued to the seat in a diamond shape. Cut off protruding pieces. You can also attach the old backrest gasket here. The joints of the gaskets must be carefully taped, otherwise they will separate during operation.

How to make a frame version yourself?

Making a chair or bed begins with cutting out the necessary parts. To make a wireframe model, work begins with:

1. 
   Case manufacturing. We measure sheets of chipboard, fiberboard and plywood and apply markings on them. We cut out the parts with a jigsaw. We will make the back and sides from chipboard, the bottom from fiberboard, and the folding part from plywood.

2. We connect the supporting side parts with the bottom and back with self-tapping screws.
3. Now let's start making the folding part. We make two frames from timber and attach sheets of plywood to them.
4. For smooth and convenient unfolding of the chair, we use a metal transformation mechanism , which is attached to the sides with steel contours with through hinges.
5. Now let's start upholstering the frame.
6. We glue a cut piece of foam rubber to the top of the frame .
7. We lay the upholstery material evenly on top and secure it with a furniture stapler.
8. The sides are trimmed in the same way. Only the thickness of the foam rubber for this part can be made smaller.
9. Now let's start making the legs . They will be located in the front and middle parts of the frame.
10. Wide bars, previously cleaned and sanded with sandpaper, can be attached as armrests.
11. If desired, such furniture can be supplemented with a spacious bottom drawer designed for storing linen.
12. Separately, you can sew pillows to the product, inside of which you can fold foam rubber or cotton wool.

We looked at the frame model of the chair-bed.

Disassembly

The next stage after preparation is dismantling the furniture. It requires the following tools:

• pliers;
• keys;
• screwdrivers (Phillips and regular);
• pliers.

Disassembly consists of several stages:

1. Remove the back cover and the plywood that is located at the bottom of the chair. If the plywood is in good condition, you need to remove it as carefully as possible so as not to damage it.
2. Remove the foam pad that is located at the bottom of the chair.
3. Remove the upholstery and pull out the soft layer from the backrest. A flathead screwdriver and pliers will help you do this. With their help you need to pry and pull out the staples.
4. Gradually remove all fasteners (brackets).
5. Remove upholstery and foam from all parts of the chair. It is worth remembering that old foam rubber can crumble. Therefore, it is necessary to cover the floor with paper or film in advance.

In the process of restoration

After the furniture has been disassembled, it is necessary to inspect its frame. If necessary, strengthen loose parts and renew the paint.

Frameless option at home

This piece of furniture looks stylish and original. It will become a bright decoration for a children's room or living room. The main advantages of a frameless chair-bed include:

• 
  design mobility . It can be moved from place to place without any physical effort;

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• a light weight . Due to the absence of wooden elements, even a small child can easily and simply fold and unfold such furniture;
• practicality and reliability . If you make a separate cover for such a product, the chair will serve you for many years;
• safety . Due to the absence of metal and wooden elements, it is impossible to get injured or injured on this furniture. Therefore, it is often made for small children.

This piece of furniture consists of the following parts :

• backrests;
• straps;
• strips of fabric connecting pillows;
• the lower seat and its middle and upper parts.

For work we will need:

• foam;
• thick upholstery fabric;
• straps;
• sewing machine;
• lightning.

The manufacturing process will look like this:

1. 
   We cut out the fabric according to the drawing and sew it on several sides, leaving an opening for filling with foam rubber. The standard dimensions of this furniture are 40 by 60 by 10 cm.

2. Sew a zipper into the space left for stuffing foam rubber .
3. We prepare a strip of fabric that will hold the pillow structure together and sew it to the covers .
4. We sew straps to the side pillows . They are necessary for fixing furniture when folded.

Since the frameless model does not have a rigid base, it is better to place the back of the chair against the wall.

How to unfold furniture for sleeping: unfasten the straps and pull the top pillow towards you. The length of the mattress will be 170 – 190 cm .

Advice : in order for a frameless chair-sofa to serve you as long as possible, it is recommended to make a removable cover for it, which will be easy to clean and wash, and if necessary, it can be replaced with a new one.

Wooden chair for country kitchen

What distinguishes this self-made specimen from an ordinary chair is that:

• The back of the chair is tilted by 10 degrees, and the supporting strips are cut not from one board, but glued together from two, which reduces wood consumption
• Made from one piece of wood. The master set himself the task of making a chair from a single piece of 2x4 wood. You will find a diagram of cutting a piece in the photo below.
• In the back of the chair, the horizontal slats have decorative cutouts that you can draw to suit your taste. And also the ends of the back have attractive bevels.

Step-by-step photo master class. Blueprints

Here we see a swinging chair (or rocking chair) in the Adirondack style, which is quite an unusual combination. Pay attention to the height of the backrest, which is made long enough so that you can lean your head on it to rest.

It is very important to make a correctly shaped rocker arm that provides swinging. When making such a chair, carefully study its shape.

Finishing

After making a piece of furniture, it needs to be given a decorative appearance.
If the product was made from natural solid wood and beams, all elements are cleaned, covered with stain and paints . If you used laminated chipboard, the product does not need finishing.

But any chair-bed can be decorated to give it an original appearance. Prints and appliques are suitable for this. It is better to apply appliques to fabric before the furniture assembly process. To do this, you should prepare a stencil and the necessary pieces of fabric of different colors, matched to the main tone.

To prevent the product from collecting dust, you can sew a separate cover on it or cover it with a cape. A piece of faux fur draped over a chair also looks beautiful.

Advice : if you are serious about saving space in your apartment, try making a bed-wardrobe. You may also be interested in a wardrobe or beds made of timber, solid wood, chipboard, pallets and boards.

All about folding chairs

The folding chair has been present in our living rooms for more than half a century. In times of shortage of goods, it replaced both an adult sleeping place and a children's bed. Now, with the abundance of furniture products, these models do not lose their popularity, because they are an excellent alternative to a sofa, and, importantly, save space in cramped apartments. We would like to dedicate this article to a complete review of the models, their design, and also to figure out whether it is possible to independently repair and remake the chairs.