How to Identify, Repair, and Restore Woven Chair Seats

Woven Chair Seats:

An Ancient and Practical Art

Do you have a cane or rush chair seat? If so, you have an ancient art form sitting in your home.

Artisans across multiple continents have been weaving chair seats for thousands of years.

Unlike typical wooden chairs, cane and rush seat chairs are designed without a solid wood seat.  

Instead, light weight, natural materials such as rush, cane, or paper are wrapped around the seat frame.

These work together to form a sort of trampoline. 

Where one piece of the weaving material would be too thin to survive the weight of an adult, when combined, these materials are strong enough to support their users for many years.

Cane and Rush Seat Repair:

Trust Raleigh’s Antique Restoration Experts

At Mumford Restoration, we specialize in woven seat repair that includes caned and rushed chairs (and more).

And we handle it all right here at our Raleigh, NC workshop.

If your woven seat is sagging, broken, or just showing its age, don’t toss that chair. Restore it!

Reach out to Mumford Restoration, North Carolina’s trusted experts in antique furniture restoration and repair.

We’ll stabilize your chair’s frame and craft a beautiful, long-lasting seat. 

You'll be able to enjoy this classic craftsmanship for years to come!

The Art of Chair Weaving:

Learn from Raleigh’s Antique Restoration Experts

Our experts have been weaving traditional seats for years.

Our clients are always astounded at the beautiful and professional results.

Everyone asks us how we handle these often complex weaving patterns!

Well, we decided to share our knowledge and give you a peek into this time-honored traditional craft.

In this two-part blog series, we’ll explore the different types of woven chair seats and explain how they’re created, restored, and preserved for future generations.

Above: Various sizes and styles of binder that our seat weavers use on caned chairs. 

What kind of seat does my chair need?

You found a beautiful chair for $5, but there’s no seat, just an empty frame.

How do you know if it should have a woven seat or an upholstered seat? 

Upholstered Seats with Springs and/or a Jute Foundation

A chair that requires an upholstered seat will have evidence of tack marks along the outside of the apron and underside, where the upholstery tacks went in. 

Learn more about chair and sofa foundation systems in our other blog entry.

Or get tips on choosing the right upholstery!

Photo on Right: An example of a chair with a mat caned back and an 8-way hand tied spring foundation seat.

Upholstered Drop-In Seats

A drop-in seat is a piece of plywood with foam and upholstery on top.

A chair that has a drop in seat will have a block in each corner on the inside of the chair frame.

There will be a hole through each block, so a screw can pass through the block into the plywood of the seat.

This secures the seat to the chair. 

Photo to Right: An example of a chair with a drop-in seat.

Rush Seats

A rushed chair tends not to have any channels or holes.

The rush is secured by wrapping it around the rungs of the chair apron.

It does not need a binder as caned chairs do.

Some chairs with spindles along their backs will have a slot several inches in front of the back of the seat.

This allows for the cane to be woven tightly along the back, where the spindles would otherwise cause gaps in the weave. 

Splint/Flat Reed and Shaker Tape Seats

These seat frames often look similar to rush seat frames. 

Clients can choose to replace a rush seat with a splint/reed/Shaker tape seat and vice versa. 

The seats are woven from a flat natural material or length of cotton canvas and can have many beautiful geometric patterns in the weave.

Photo, Right: An example of a shaker-tape seat that Mumford wove for a client.

Shaker tape comes in a variety of colors, so you can customize your seat to your decor or just include your favorite color!

Hand Caned Seats (aka Hand-to-Hand caned or Lace Caned)

You are probably  most familiar with cane seats.

The caning process tends to be a bit more complex and time consuming than other seat weaving processes.

A hand-caned chair will have a series of holes drilled around the perimeter of the seat opening, about one-half inch from the opening. 

Mat Cane or Sheet Cane Seats

A mat-cane chair will have a narrow channel running around the perimeter of the seat opening. 

The seat weaver does not have to do any weaving, but they instead are tasked with the tedious process of extracting the glued cane from the channel, cleaning all remaining glue from the channel, and then installing new sheet cane and binder. 

We will devote the next part of this blog series entirely to the additional complexities of cane. 

In the meantime, other woven  seat types will keep us busy enough!

Natural and Paper/Fiber 

Natural Rush

Natural rush is traditionally made from bulrush stems or cattail leaves that are harvested, soaked, dried, carefully twisted together into a continuous rope.

If you have a museum-quality antique rushed chair, we would advise you to use natural rush made of bulrush or cattail. 

Another type of natural rush is sea grass, which is twisted to form the same kind of rope as bulrush or cattail.

Sea grass is more plentiful and easier to find than bulrush and cattail.

This is why many seat weavers use sea grass rushing as a cost effective substitute for traditional natural rush.

Photo Above: A coil of natural rushing material (top right corner of photo) is stored alongside paper rush (bottom of photo)

Paper & Fiber Rush

Paper or fiber rush is made from paper that has been twisted and rolled to resemble bull rush. Paper rush is slightly more affordable than natural bulrush, as paper rush does not have to be harvested at all, but is instead made of a type of kraft paper.  

Paper/fiber rush typically comes in two varieties: 

One-ply fiber rush: a length of a single continuous piece of twisted paper. 

Danish cord : three thin lengths of paper woven tightly together and can be laced (a tighter weave with a rope-like appearance) or unlaced (a looser weave with a slightly smoother appearance). 

Paper rush, unlike plant-based rush, does not have a naturally occurring coating, so many seat weavers will coat their paper rushed seats in shellac to protect them from wear.

This shellac coating makes the paper rushed seat very strong and helps it last up to several decades.

Photo Above: A section of danish cording / 3-ply paper or fiber rush (top) versus a section of 1-ply paper rush (bottom)

Can you make the new rushing match the color of the old rushing?

We advise against any efforts to color or tone rushing.

Materials change color over time and part of their beauty is in their evolving appearance. 

Additionally, because the plant-based rushing has a very thick natural coating, they do not hold toner lacquer well.

If we lacquer your new rush, the new colored coating may begin flaking off sooner rather than later. 

Photo, left: Paper/fiber rush (top) and natural rushing material (below). Note the difference in texture.

How much does a rushed seat cost?

As with any art,  seat weaving depends on the complexity and time involved in the project. 

Larger chairs, chairs with slots that the weaver must carefully navigate, and chairs that require repairs will be more of an investment. 

The type of material you chose will also contribute to the cost.

If you want to use bulrush or cattail rush, it will be more expensive than sea grass rush. 

Both of these will be more expensive than paper/fiber rush. 

How long will my new woven chair seat last?

It depends on how often you use the chair. 

 Overall, natural rush tends to wear more quickly than paper rush. Natural rush was once a plant and therefore can be at risk of degrading over time. 

Paper rush is a bit more durable, especially when given a shellac coating after weaving.

Splint, Flat Reed, and Shaker Tape

Splint/Flat Reed and Shaker Tape

Flat Reed comes from the rattan plant while splint is a very thin, flexible section of wood.

Flat reed and splint produce a seat with a checkerboard, chevron, diamond, or diagonally striped pattern.

Shaker tape is thick, heavy-duty, cotton webbing.

It typically produces a checkerboard-like patterned seat and because it is fabric, it comes in any color the client would like.

 Additionally, seat weavers also tend to include padding inside of shaker tape seats, so many people find these seats incredibly comfortable.

Photo Above: A box of reed, which results in a dense, flat weave.

How much does shaker tape or splint/flat reed chair weaving cost?

There are three considerations that go into price for splint/flat reed and shaker tape:

Size of Area to Be Woven

Seat weavers will charge per inch for this particular seat weaving material and method.

Ease of Working with material

Shaker tape is a bit easier to weave than splint or flat reed, so it is marginally less costly, in terms of labor.

Material Cost

Do you want splint, which requires more time and effort to remove from the tree and process?  

Or would you be open to the more easily obtained flat reed, which will be more affordable? 

Shaker tape is the costlier of the three materials.

Photo Above: A flat reed woven seat.

How long will my new seat last?

Reed and splint are sensitive to heat and humidity and can split over time, especially if they dry out or are subjected to temperature changes. 

As was the case with paper versus natural rush, shaker tape generally outlasts the more natural structures of reed and splint. 

Find the Right Artisan for Your Antique Chair

Whether your chair seat is rush, splint, flat reed, or shaker tape, it’s vital to keep it clean, dry, and in a room with a constant temperature. This will prolong its life and ensure that you can enjoy it for many years to come!

Remember to read our blog article on caned chairs to learn about the most popular woven seat! 

Mumford Restoration has been honored to receive woven seats from all over the United States. 

Our experienced and passionate seat weavers take great care to use the correct material and pattern to suit the client’s desires and the seat’s character and history. 

Whether your chair needs full repair, refinishing, or just a new seat, you can trust Mumford Restoration.

We are the name in furniture restoration in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapelhill area and across the Carolinas and Virginia!

Want to learn more about our seat weaving services? Visit our seat weaving page!

When you’re ready to chat, call our restoration specialists at 919-510-6310 and they will be happy to chat over your options. 

Or you can submit pictures via our online form and we will reach out to you as soon as possible.