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!
At $4? Nice finds!
Our local goodwill thinks their stuff is god's gift to shoppers. Not uncommon to find prices higher than retail! :-(
How do they match up with the other furniture now?
I hope you had good ventilation....polyurethane is potent stuff!!
Peace
Thanks! The goodwill by me is okay, but there is a store called Hope's Outlet that I just found that is like a goodwill on steroids. Way more furniture and even lower prices, I couldn't believe it! They now look like they belong, I should add a picture of that! and yes, I make sure to have TONS of ventilation, so stinky!
Wish we had a "Hope's Outlet" nearby!
Thanks!!
Peace
Good find. I just retired my set of 6 last month. Just so you know what you just purchased, these are the Ikea Ingolf. They're about $50 new. Some decent Scandinavian pine.
Yes! exact same ones I found! I can't believe the price difference!
Haha...how cool is that!
What was your upgrade?
Picked up 6 of these from Wayfair. I like them. https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/lark-manor-lorient-dining-chair-lark1244.html
Oh I love it, Wayfair has so many great finds!