A finished chair

Yep I did it!  I finished my little orphaned chair.  He's bright, clean, shiny and new again.


So here's where I left off:

After scraping off all the old stain and finish, I wiped down the chair and let it sit for 24 hours.  Then I purchased a semi-gloss polyurethane as my topcoat.  (I decided against stain since I really liked the grain and nature of the wood alone.)  Once I put a coat of polyurethane on, I let that cure for about 48 hours in my garage.  (Some say as little as 8 hours and the average is 24 hours but I just wanted to make sure, sure sure!)

After I let the finish set, I began to polish it out with some fine #0000 steel wool and furniture polish.  This evened out the finish, brought the gloss to more of satin, and any rough little bumps that might have dried with the finish were smoothed out.

Meanwhile, I enlisted Thom's help to tackle the seat cover and the remove all the old staples.  I couldn't believe how fast he got them out.  Lucky for him, it only took about half an hour, whereas I have been trying for two weeks!  Once he removed all the staples, we were surprised to find not only one old dingy seat cover but two.  I guess my little chair has already gone through a makeover.  :P

 Once the cover was ready, I had the oh-so-grand opportunity to go to the fabric store and stand there in complete disabling misery, since I couldn't decide on what kind of fabric to cover my chair with.  Also, I was not prepared for the overwhelming selection.  But I finally settled upon the most loveliest of crushed velvets in a subtle mint green.  I think for me, the touch and feel of fabric is very important, especially when upholstering.  I really needed to get a certain kind of emotional response from the fabric that I settled upon.  And with this one, I did.  I love the iridescent shimmer and the feel is just luxurious.  (Seeing that it was originally $67/yd, it better have been!)  Thankfully I got this fabric for a steal at a modest $17/yd and only buying half a yard, my total came to a little over $9 with tax.  Being in that store and seeing the different qualities of fabrics made me do a side by side comparison with another cheaper crushed velvet that looked similar.  The difference was day and night.

 So here are my project before's and after's:

I am so happy and completely satisfied with this project.  I think in total I spent about $65 in supplies and materials.  But this project wasn't really about being thrifty more than enjoying and trying something new.



Just some extra info:

Here's the beginning post on this adventure. 

Here's a great tutorial on staining and finishing wood.

Here's a great tutorial on upholstery basics.