Hello. I've bought a set of 4 dining room chairs which I thought would be a good project. I have been interested in learning to do upholstery, and these looked perfect to me. Old, beaten up, and needing to upholstered, I got them for $5. When my girlfriend saw them, she thought they might be older than I had guessed. From what I can find, we think they are about 80 years old. They were made by the York County Chair Comapany. Might it be wiser for me to find something a little newer to start with? I like the chairs and I have been using 2 of them as they are, but one is broken at the leg and the wood under one of the seats has split badly. I had planned to totally repair and refinish them and use them in my kitchen, but now I feel like maybe it would be a bad idea. What to do?

Hello Friend,
By all means if you are going to use them as everyday chairs then go ahead and restore them.
I am attaching a before and after picture for you to decide.

Respectfully,

Ralph Jones

Now here is the after picture.

There is always a question about how much restoration and repair to do to furniture depending on it's age, state of original finish, scarcity etc. because sometimes a piece is best left alone to preserve it's value.

Posting pictures is the best way to get some help regarding what you have and what the best plan will be - if they are 80 years old, or so, they might just be Arts & Crafts style and this is the right place to get advice, as a result