Restoring Vintage Heywood Wakefield Chair and Ottoman

Vintage furniture restoration story

Heywood-Wakefield company has been established in 1897 when two prominent furniture companies, Heywood Brothers (est. 1826) and Wakefield Company (est. 1855) merged to create Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company. This company gained popularity in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s with its solid wood mid-century modern furniture.

Here is where the story of this vintage furniture restoration begins – no longer needed, abandoned, vintage 1960s Heywood Wakefield mid century Lounge Chair and Ottoman was sitting next to the curb right before the trash day. It was either going to the trash or it will be restored and reborn and useful again. I couldn’t let this slip and decided to adopt and restore it

Cleaning and disassembling an antique furniture

I find cleaning with warm soapy water is the best way to start making sure all dirt is removed which allows to better inspect the state of any furniture. Followed by careful disassembly and placing each part carefully for easy and correct reassembly later.

Carefully laid out parts for easy re-assembly

Stripping, Sanding and Gluing vintage furniture pieces

It is very common that vintage furniture used for 60 years has cracked wooden parts. Carefully heating glued sections I disassembled the chair into individual pieces.

I find CitriStrip gel to work best for stripping stain, clearcoat or any varnish for that matter and it has very mild pleasant odor of citrus.

Staining and finishing

After the stain has dried it was time to apply clearcoat. I applied first layer thicker than the following ones. After the first layer dried I hand sanded with 220 grit sand paper putting very light pressure. Then I vacuumed the dust of all parts and wiped off with a wet cloth. Waited a bit until all parts dried off and applied several more layers. Sanded with 220 grit sand paper putting very light pressure before applying the last layer of water based Polyacrylic by Minwax. This is when dark walnut stain started standing out. I really like the way dark walnut stain came.

Restoring metal parts

After disassembling all metal parts, I soaked them in White Vinegar. You can get really good deals in Costco and is relatively cheap way to clean metal parts, but it definitely takes a lot of time before you see results. I soaked all the bolts, nuts and ottoman base swivel.

I threw in soda can and a few wood blocks just to raise the level of White Vinegar in the pan. Yes I did use old tooth brush to clean up some rust while parts were soaking in vinegar

It was interesting to see how parts were bubbling for several days. I wish I had done time-laps video of this process.

Once all these parts sat in White Vinegar for several days I took them out and brushed with copper wire brush, then wiped dry with paper towel and spayed WD-40 to lubricate all parts and prevent from rusting.

Chair and Ottoman base stands were hand polished with Polishing Soap. It was a lot of elbow work, but I think it came out pretty nice. This is before polish:

And this is after polish:

And here is a picture of like-new swivel with rust removed and lubricated ready for new life:

Final touches of vintage furniture restoration before putting it all back together

Attaching the chair to the base. It is so satisfying to see the chair being put back together

Replaced original elastic webbing which was very old and no longer provided any support with a new modern Chair Elastic Webbing and Metal End Clips for Rubber Webbing. This is how old and new webbing looks like

Reborn for another 100 years

It is always so satisfying to enjoy results of vintage furniture restoration that was just brought back to life. It also is a great addition for any home that prefers mid-century style and values solid wood furniture over IKEA furniture (which in my mind is a disposable furniture). And this beautiful Heywood-Wakefield Mid Century Lounge Chair and Ottoman will last another 60-100 years.

By the way, head rest is adjustable and uses gravity – yes, it does have a weight on the back that allows to keep it in place – it really is fascinating and it works.

Final result after restoring vintage furniture

See also

Common tools used for woodworking