Find a restorer that canes, or learn to yourself. Supplies are available online.

Will check it out. Didn't realize they sold the stuff separately. Thank you..!

If I am not mistaken, this is not actual hand caning. Instead, it is channel caning. Most antique chairs are hand caned. Modern ones, like yours, tend to have channel caning. To be sure....turn over your chair. If there are individual holes through which the cane is threaded, then you must locate someone who can re and your chairs. This can cost around $100 per chair, minimum. (I just had 4 Eastlake chairs re-caned, so I know!). If you do NOT see individual holes, your chairs are probably channel caned. This means that a sheet of caned material has been cut to size and wedged with a strip of wood into a channel that encircles the seat. Sheet caning can be purchased along with the wedge strip. You can find supplies online. The trick is to have enough tension in the sheet cane to be tight and firm and not sag. To achieve this, the cane sheet is usually soaked in water and the cane, after inserted, is permitted to dry and shrink, tightening up. In any event, I suggest that you try and locate someone who can do the job for you! Good luck! I hope this helps.....

Thank you so much. They are as you suggested wedged with wood. I'm thinking they will just do this again, even if I can find someone that has the experience to re-do them. At that cost, not sure they are worth investing that much more into them. I may have to come up with another solution to be able to use them for some time...

Another option might be to have a thin piece of plywood cut to the shape of the seat and have it lightly padded and then upholstered in a fabric that you like. This is what many owners of antique cane seated chairs do when the cane breaks. You might consult an upholsterer in your area to see if they would do this for you. And it will last longer than cane!

If you look on line for Van dykes restoration they have every thing to do this your self,I just finished two of four of my chairs
Not too hard,good luck

I have an antique caned chair and I have to have it redone about every three years or so when I use it often. It's an antique I like a lot, so it's worth it. I found a guy in my city that does it for a fairly reasonable price. My caning looks identical to yours.

I can't remember how much I paid to have my Knoll chairs recaned, but it certainly wasn't $100. Cane seats always do this; it's the nature of the beast. Get an estimate from a furniture restorer before you give up on them.

If you look for someone, try to find someone who does just caning. I checked with a furniture refinisher that also does caning and the price was very high. Then, I found a tiny shop that just does caning and it was quite reasonable.

Julie...I LOVE your chair(s). I'm thinking you bought them because you love the look of them too?? Part of that look is the cane seat. You can do this, Julie. Replacing the caning is not difficult, nor expensive. Please maintain the integrity of these lovely old chairs and replace the caning. When I saw your picture, my mind immediately went to French Country, one of my faves. Ok, so you have to replace the caning once in a while. Still the look of the chairs is so cute. My vote is re-cane! Good luck.

Thank you all for all your help. I'm going to try to find someone local to do the chairs now that I have all the information about them. I had no idea, just thought I bought bad chairs. I'd like to think I could do them myself, but figure I'll leave it to the professionals :)

I suspect you are not the first owner of these RH chairs to encounter this problem. A construction flaw? I would not hesitate to inform RH of your issues with the chairs.. Good luck!

You purchase cane to repair them yourself here is an idea for now :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmwru7N1BpY

Not bad for price either :)

http://www.amazon.com/Chair-Caning-Replacement-Repair-Breuer/dp/B00BEXVTMK

I did inform them ptreckel, I bought my dining room table and chairs (match counter chairs) all from them. They just emailed and said they would let the design dept. know. Although, I haven't had any problems with the other chairs. These get much more use at our kitchen island.

Ann, where did you find someone that does the old fashioned caning individual strips vs the sheets? I looked into it locally and all but one shop had closed. The one place that did restoration/repairs wanted $600 for each chair. :( UGH!!!!

I don't think it's hand caning he's doing Elaine. It looks identical to Julie's chair. Is that machine caning?

Elaine, mine is definitely the channel caning described above, not the individual strip caning. The guy I found is an old hippie that has a tiny shop near all the pot shops in Denver. It's a hysterical part of town - a stretch of a few miles on a main street with one pot shop after another:). Years ago, I think he charged about $50 to do my chair. More recently, I think it's about $75.

I'd contact RH. Unless these are very old, they shouldn't do that.

I did contact them.

I found some to do the seats and charges $3 per inch which doesn't seem bad. Around $25 for supplies. We do use these chairs on a daily basis but doing this every couple years, maybe I should consider something more durable.

Donna, thanks for that great info.

My Stanley dining room chairs have cane seats. The chairs came with custom chair pads. Cane seats should have a pad. If not, they will sag or break.

Oh, beg your pardon. I have cane seat chairs with the original cane, over 100 years old. no pad
they're real, hand woven cane. not modern dropin junk.

RH furniture is overpriced and subpar quality. Worst of all worlds. And their customer service is nil. Just google problems with RH furniture and you'll get a wealth of complaints. On top of that they are financially in very poor shape, so who knows what the future holds for them.

Donna is right about it all. I bought 8 of these chairs. After one year I ended up putting 3 on the curb with my garbage ( so sad but someone took and hopefully enjoy) as the quote I was given ( multiple quotes from various professionals) to fix due to the difficulty of re-caning would be a minimum of $150 per. It was cheaper to replace the whole chair. Now another one has torn and I plan on having wood cut to size to cover the seat and use the cushions that are sold by RH to cover. Note: I attempted to re-cane myself but having to take apart the seat / chair was too much work. Thanks for your info Donna!

I bought 6. Same thing happened to all of them. I called Restoration Hardware. They said they only guarantee them for one year. I didn't want to buy disposable furniture and expected better from them. Disappointing.

So disappointed! I have similar RH bar stools and was all ready to recane them but could not take the legs off. Will have to throw them out.

In the end, these chairs are designed to fail, so you'll have to buy new replacements. Avoid them. I charge $180+ per chair to recane a seat on one of them, and I'm in the more moderate range for caning...

This summer I recaned a seat on another imported pile of junk where the seat was 1/2" thick (or thin), and was built from "reclaimed wood" - a buzzword that should make a buyer want to avoid buying. 1/2" is too thin to support an adult sitter, and the factory had additional "support" nails and screws through the wood, although carefully puttied. Red flags right there. Someone sat in the chair, and the frame cracked and broke along 2 rails. What started as a normal job (the caning is actually pretty easy) in a fairly new chair (<10 years old), came to a screeching halt. The frame on one side was rotting from the inside with powder post beetle damage - that fancy buzzword "reclaimed wood" has repercussions. My advice to the owner was to burn the chair. They were heartbroken and love the set, which was no longer being sold (that's another issue altogether). Wonderful, so they have more potential kindling for the fireplace. Their contact person begged me to please do something. I took the chair to 2 separate woodworkers who refused to touch it. Reported back to the owners, who were heartbroken again, and begged for me to please do something. Brainstorming with a carpenter friend, we came up with an idea to put a toilet seat-like frame under the seat. The chair's design had skirting, so the new frame was concealed. I used 3/4" sanded plywood, and drilled holes through the old holes. The chair they bought for <$100 (caned for pennies a day in a third-world country, likely by a child), now had a price tag of $400 (I did give them a break, because I felt terrible about the chair), with my caning, the 3 trips to woodworkers to assess this pile of crap, make the frame, and redo the seat.

Pro-tips:

• Save yourself the heartache and money. Don't buy RH, P1, PB crap. Their business model is to make cheap, sell cheap, with cheap customer service. Disposable furniture with repeat customers is their mantra. Ask yourself, why is such a specialized weaving technique priced so cheaply? I will no longer offer or suggest woven replacement seats from a so-called "Made in USA" company. They sell a $75 replacement seat that I know most caners will charge $300 to do. Why are the frames so cheap? That particular type of weaving can't be automated. It takes 15-20 hours to work on a frame like that, so how can they sell it for $75?? Someone is getting paid very cheaply.
• Buy some antique chairs. Facebook Marketplace has tons of them. They're made from better quality wood. Recane them yourself, or have them professionally recaned. You'll help keep a small business solvent, and it's a blow to overseas child labor.
• The imported stuff today is riddled with insect damage. You don't want that in your house. My woodworker guy trained in a museum, and he says the only remedies for powder post beetles are throwing it onto a fire, or placing into a freezer for a month. How many people have the facilities to do that?

Sorry to rant. It's been a few years since my comment above, and I've seen more and more of these imported chairs come into my workshop.

Same thing happened to my RH chairs. So disappointing! Not sure if I should give away/toss or try to repair (if it’s even worth it).

Cane chairs have a weight limit and should not be sat upon if they are wet. They will disintegrate. Check your local city for caning experts.

I cane chairs, and these are junk. I can't tell you how many of these I have redone. Not only that, but they are made of resin, not wood!

I had some high end British Colonial chairs, that i loved but knew from experience would propably fail with use. so i had my carpenter put some braces under the caning and used with a cushion - lasted 20 yrs and still going.

i bought 6 of these and what I did was cut plywood seats nail them to the chair and painted everything ultra-matte slate gray. Target sells vintage color spray paints It looks like something RH would sell. I added linen gray and white nubby fabric stiped chair pads that look like the age of the chairs. I like what i did better than the org chairs I ordred!

Would love so,e picture of your end result. About to do a similar repair to these as well.

Same thing has happened to two of my eight RH chairs - but I must blame my two wild boys for placing their fingers in the holes and pulling them apart over time :( I wish I could replace the chair or the seat of the chair.

Cut a piece of wood to the same size add padding and upholstery for a much more comfortable seat.

https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Furniture-HERCULES-Cross-Chair/dp/B075JQ8GZJ

https://eventseating.net/vinyard-estate-mkii-cross-back-chair-antique-driftwood/

Hi, I found this old post. So same thing happened to most of my 8 RH chairs. Now I could have SWORN RH offered a lifetime warranty on all their furniture back in 2015. I know this sounds too good to be true, but I really remember this. Now of course I can’t find it in writing. I’d like the company to take some form of responsibility, in addition to the cane seat the wood strip in the back broke. Any suggestions to fix that?

Hi - I'm wondering if anyone is selling one of these original Restoration Hardware chairs? Even if cane is broken, I'm interested. Please call Carol 206-730-1955

I’ll sell mine!