REFINISHING DINING CHAIRS

A few weeks ago my mom and I were walking around Goodwill and we spotted these matching dining chairs. I’d been on the hunt for a while but no chairs had really stood out to me. At only $4 bucks a pop how could I say no! It’s not that I don’t have chairs already in my dining room; it’s the fact that my chairs are wimpy, and having some sturdier chairs is a necessity at this point. Now don’t get me wrong- these chairs were in pretty amazing shape and I could have easily left them the way they were but I wanted to have them match the color of our existing furniture.

Tools needed:

Sandpaper or sanding block

Wood stain (I’m using Weathered Grey)

Polyurethane top coat

Rags

Small or medium angled paint brush

Drop cloth

Instructions:

I started by giving the whole chair a light sanding, and especially focusing on the corners and edges.

With one of my clean rags (or a paper towel) get it a just slightly damp and wipe all the excess sawdust off the chair.

Taking the paint brush I dipped it into the stain and brushed it all over the chair. During this part of the process, it’s ok to make a bit of a mess. The main focus is getting the wood stain on the chair. After letting the stain sit for 2-3 minutes, begin rubbing the stain with a clean rag. Make sure to follow the direction of the wood grain.

Follow this process for the whole chair, wiping away the extra stain until there was one thin even coat over the chair.

The stain takes about an hour or so to dry.

As I waited for the stain to dry I cleaned up my work space and made sure to wash my paintbrush before the stain dried onto it.

At this point the hour had passed and it was time to seal the chair with a coat of polyurethane. Using my clean brush I started sealing the chair.

This particular formula of polyurethane is pretty thick, you only need to do one coat and it will be medium to thick coat.

It takes longer to brush it around so make sure there are no drip marks on the furniture in places the poly could have collected.

Once the chair was sealed I moved it to a corner where I knew it wouldn’t get disturbed and let it dry for a full 24 hours.

After adding a pop of color with the seat cushion the project was complete!