Monday, January 16, 2012

My First Chair Refinish




This chair has been mentioned in my exploding eggs post.  Which was actually my first post ever.  And more recently here.  Well it's finally done!  After 2 1/2 years of sitting in my garage, bouncing back and forth between my house and my mom's, and causing a little mayhem, this chair can be marked as a completed project.

First I have to say anything I know about refinishing furniture I learned from my mom.  She showed me how to recover the seat, talked to me about pretreating the wood, and the best way to apply stain.  She's amazing.  What's even more amazing is she is self-taught in all of these things, and much of her learning happened before the wonderful world of the internet.  She's somewhat of a Jill of all trades, and she taught herself most of those trades before google searches and youtube invaded our homes.

One day I went over her house to borrow her staple gun and hear her tips on how to recover the seat.  I was excited with how simple of a process it was for this chair.  I should have known better, and realized that this feeling of ease was misplaced.  When I got back home and placed the seat on the chair I realized something.  We had recovered the wrong chair base.  The one we did was too big!  I don't know if you can tell by the picture, but look for the space between the chair and the seat.  It should be nestled in the sides, not sitting on top like that.  :)

I had to apply the polyurethane in one of my bathrooms.  The garage was too cold!
Well, I got the correct chair base recovered and set about staining the chair.  I would highly suggest pretreating the wood.  It does help!  I mixed a walnut and golden pecan stain to get the color I wanted.  I'm happy to say I love the color the wood turned out.  If you've never stained wood before, I suggest giving it a try.  It so beautiful to watch how the stain accents the wood grains as you apply it and wipe it off.  There is truly something gratifying about the process.  I was even a good girl and waiting the appropriate amount of time between coats and the polyurethane.  I'm not very patient, so this was a big accomplishment for me!

This chair will find a new home in my sewing room  I'm so excited to use it!

14 comments:

  1. It looks great. I think it's going to look nice in your sewing room :)

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  2. Oh this is so cute! I have used walnut a lot because I love the darker color, but I am going to have to try mixing in some pecan next time because this is a gorgeous color. And I love the fabric. Nicely done!!

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  3. Sounds like quite a saga but now it's finished and it's beautiful. Thanks for joining the Link It Up Thursday party.

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  4. Everyone is doing the most awesome chair redos!! I need to do one :). Thanks for sharing! Glad to have you at Things I’ve Done Thursday!

    http://www.bearrabitbear.com

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  5. Wowiee! Looks great; so glad you shared at Shine on Fridays!

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  6. this turned out great! I hope you'll add it to my What We Wore and Made Party over at http://raegunwear.blogspot.com/search/label/WWWMW

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  7. Congrats on a successful first refinishing project! I would love if you would consider linking this up to my "Drab to Fab" Link Party this Friday :) The theme is turning the ordinary into extraordinary using a little creativity. This post embodies that, so I know my readers would love to see it! Here's a link for more info on the party.
    http://www.amynjesse.com/p/drab-to-fab.html
    Hope to see you Friday!

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    1. Thanks for the invite! I'll get it added to your party today! And thank you for stopping by. :)

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  8. Brittney,
    Thanks for sharing this at Drab to Fab. One of these days I will be brace enough to try something like this too. For now I will just admire your work from afar :) Have a great week! I'd love to see you back next Friday with more of your great ideas :)

    Amy @ Sugar and Spice

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  9. Great work on the chair - so nice to do a project with help from mum too!


    Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
    Hope you have a fabulous week!
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

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  10. I love the chair, and way to go on the first recovering!

    <3 Another Impossibilities challenger,
    Megan

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  11. Awesome job!

    Thanks so much for linking up to our Impossibilities challenge!

    Linda
    itallstartedwithpaint@gmail.com

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  12. Your chair came out great! I love the fabric!

    Thanks so much for linking up to the challenge! Karah

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  13. Beautiful! Love the color of stain you used!

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