refinished Danish design chair

Whew!  Finally got a project done that has been lingering for a while now.  With school keeping me busy during the week, this is quickly becoming a weekend only blog.  

This project, like many starts with trash day…
I found a chair by the side of the road on trash day before school started, back in August.  I was biking with Eric to work and then the plan was for me to ride home.  I was on my way through neighborhood streets when I found a lovely chair.  I thought perhaps I could ride and carry it, but I am not quite as talented as Eric on a bike.  So I raced home, got my car and drove back as quickly as I could.

The chair, I discovered, had nice bones, but a funky odor.  It was clearly a Danish design style chair, and despite all that I have learned on Antiques Roadshow about refinishing, I wanted to update it to suit my home and its non-smoking atmosphere.

I started by taking the seat off of the chair.  Then, I continued to sanding the chair by hand, quickly switching to an orbital sander.  This made the stripping of the finish an easy evening job.  Eric and I took turns doing this while grilling dinner one night – that way neither of us had to lose all feeling  in our hands.  Masks and eye protection are a must for this step!

After sanding, we glued the chair with wood glue and clamped it together.  I wiped the entire chair down with a dry rag and used a wax finishing paste to give the chair a nice clean finish.  I like the finishing wax because there is no dripping whatsoever.  

 

While there I found a remnant cotton upholstery fabric that matched too many things in my house too well.  The remnant bin is maybe my favorite section of the entire fabric store. I traced my foam with the wooden seat, cut it out to fit perfectly, laid my seat on top of my fabric, stapled it all together, and lastly used a rotary cutter to trim excess fabric.