from old to new again

Refinishing furniture has started to become one of my hobbies. The process can be long and tedious but the end result is usually worth it. I have done a night stand, a vanity and bench, and now I just refinished one of our old dining room chairs into a new desk chair for me.

I have been using a padded ottoman to sit at my desk but it was kind of difficult to stay there for more than a few minutes. My back wasn't supported and it was pretty low to the ground so the desk was about chest height when sitting. So I needed something different.

I quickly learned that chairs are not cheap! I've never had to buy one before and it isn't something I look for when I'm out shopping to compare prices so I had no idea how pricey they can be. I remember my parents getting a new dining set when I was little and storing the old one. The table and one chair is now my mom's sewing/gift wrapping table in her craft room and the other chair kind of floats around our house, being used when ever someone needs it for something. So I decided to take one of these chairs and refinish it. The seats had been recovered once but that was probably 15 years ago and the stain finish on them is older than me.


I got some sand paper and went to town! I sanded down every nook and cranny to try and get the glossy finish off so the paint would stick. That took about 2 and a half total hours (longer than I thought for one little chair.) Then I got some walnut brown, satin finish spray paint (one of my all-time favorite products) and sprayed the entire chair. One can was exactly 2 coats!

Then next came the seat. I got some 2-inch thick, high density foam from the fabric store to replace what was on the original seat. I covered that with batting and then fabric I fell in love with at the store. I am not so great at getting the corners to look right so my mom helped me out with that. She's such a good problem solver when it comes to stuff like that--love her! I originally wanted to make curtains out of this fabric but I really needed something darker so I went with some dark gray panels I found. But I couldn't stop thinking about this fabric so I thought this would be the perfect place to use it. I also got some extra because it was 50% off so I can make some pillows later!

And there you have it! Check out the before and after :)