Nelson Hess holds a wicker chair that could be easily spray painted to match a room’s decor.

By Kate Elizabeth Queram

Daily News-Record

With the economy slipping and many Americans struggling to make ends meet, now may seem like a less-than-ideal time to consider redecorating. But if you don’t mind doing a bit of the work yourself, thrift and fabric stores can offer a wealth of possibilities for a fraction of the cost of professionals. Here, Harrisonburg locals offer tips and tricks to rehabbing inexpensive finds.

A good place to start is a used furniture store — such as the one housed in a cavernous, stuffed-to-the-gills building like Hess Furniture downtown.

Owner Nancy B. Hess and her husband Nelson have been in the furniture business for 54 years. The clientele that browses their packed showroom varies from antique collectors hunting for a bargain to local college students looking for apartment pieces. But the most successful browsers, she said, are the ones who will come in open to the idea of changing the furniture to suit their needs.

“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, we have to use it just the way it is,’ ” said Hess, 75. “And that’s not true. There’s so much you can do.”

Walking around the upper level of the store, she paused in front of a tiny wooden chair. The teal paint on the seat had chipped, showing a light purple underneath, and the entire frame was badly in need of repainting.

“You’d look at something like this and wonder who would ever buy it,” she said. “But somebody did this to it, and somebody will take it out and do something else.”

Since the economy began its decline, Hess has noticed an increase in customers looking to do just that. And after working with furniture for more than half a century, she knows a thing or two about tackling a furniture rehab project. She offered the following tips.

n Don’t try to rehab what Hess called “sawdust” pieces — those made from fake wood, whose wood grain pattern is actually a paper covering. “They don’t take to painting,” she said, explaining that the material is too absorbent. Metal and plastic pieces should also be left as is.

n Varnished wood pieces can easily be painted, but they must be primed first. “Without primer, the paint won’t stick,” Hess said. “Over time, it will peel off in strips.” Pieces already covered in paint, however, can be repainted without primer.

n Finished wood pieces must be stripped in order to be re-stained, Hess said, and if the wood has faded patches, the results may be uneven. “The worn spots will stain dark, and the dark parts will stain light,” she said.

n Wicker can be spray painted for a new look, making it one of the easiest materials to work with.

n Wood pieces with brass or silver trim will be “almost impossible to paint,” she said, because the paint won’t stick to the metal. If you want to try, she recommended covering the trim completely with tape before beginning.

Hess said she and her husband never discourage customers from trying to update a piece of furniture. “We just give instruction,” she said.

Her most important tidbit, she said, is to make sure you buy high-quality materials and use the proper equipment, and when in doubt, ask a professional — like an employee at a paint or home maintenance store.

“Because if you don’t,” she said, “you’re going to have trouble.”

After rehabbing your find with paint, a simple re-upholstery job can further update its look. Laura “Belle” Stemper, owner of Ragtime Fabrics, offered instructions for this type of project.

Any chair with a cushion can be updated, said Stemper, 48. The easiest way to determine how to approach the project is to flip the chair over and examine the seat.

“Once you start to look at the skeleton of a piece of furniture, you’ll see screws and nails and staples,” which give you an idea of how the chair was put together — and how you can take it apart, Stemper said.

Usually, the fabric of the cushion will be stapled to a piece of wood, which is then screwed to the chair frame. Removing this is easy — just take the screws out, she said.

If the fabric is in good condition, you can leave it intact and place the new fabric directly over it, she said, but if you want to take it off, the staples are easily removed with a screwdriver or the claw part of a hammer.

Once the fabric is gone, you’re left with a square of foam covered in batting. In most cases, Stemper recommends swapping this out for new samples, which she carries at her downtown store. The foam costs $4 per square, and the batting runs $1 per foot.

Just place the foam on the wood, wrap the batting around it, and staple into place on the bottom using a staple gun. Then the cushion is ready for fabric, which Stemper recommends stapling separately.

Customers in Stemper’s store look for a variety of qualities in fabrics for projects like this, she said. “Some people are color-driven, some people are textile-driven,” she said.

For those customers looking for a permanent fabric switch, Stemper recommends steering clear of drapery and quilting fabrics, as well as satin.

The best fabrics for longevity include vinyl, which can be wiped down when it gets dirty; leather and fabrics specifically designed for outdoors.

Pattern and color choices vary widely among customers, but Bill Yandell Jr., a sales representative with Textiles & Fabrics of the Carolinas, said that the popular fabric types change with the seasons.

“In the spring, people look for a lot of lime green and yellow,” Yandell said. “In the fall, it’s more dark colors, tapestries and velvets.”

Whatever your fabric preference, you’ll need about three-fourths of a yard to cover two chair bottoms, Stemper said. At Ragtime, the most expensive fabric is $13.98 per yard, meaning that including foam and batting, two chairs can be covered for less than $20. After stapling the fabric into place around the batting, the cushion is ready to be replaced. From start to finish, the entire project takes less than 15 minutes.

For this and other reasons, Stemper was enthusiastic about the idea of do-it-yourself home redecoration, even in the face of economically challenging circumstances.

“Just because the economy is bad, doesn’t mean we have to stop being creative and productive,” she said.

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