Restore Not Paint That Dining Room Chair

Restore not paint that dining room chair. Hubby begged me not to paint this chair. I bought it for $5 with every intention of gluing it back together, painting it, and recovering it. I do not always paint over beautiful wood and my husband really liked the way the chair looked (and so did I) so I agreed not to paint it. He also agreed to help me put it back together if I would not paint it so I made the deal.

The wood of the chair was not beat up but it was falling apart so with hubby’s help we glued the chair back together and let it dry for 24 hours. The chair was solid after it dried which made me very excited to get started on refinishing it with my Formby’s Furniture Refinisher. I have had the brand new can of Formbys for ages in the garage because a girl friend of mine had given it to me because her husband never used it. The day I started this project there was still snow on the ground but it was 50 degrees so I dragged the chair outside to work (always work in a well ventilated area and the best area is outside). You can find Formby’s Furniture Refinisher at Lowe’s and other retailers and I would check online to see who has the best price.

To use Formby’s Furniture Refinisher you will need:

refinishing gloves (you cannot use latex because the chemicals will eat away at the gloves quickly)
eye protection
you should also wear a face mask for the fumes
Fine Steel Wool (a package is about $4)
tin or bowl to pour a little refinisher in at a time (I upcycled a aluminum pie tin)
rag to wipe after using steel wool
time (this took a couple hours but the results were well worth it)
follow the directions to wipe the wood in a circular motion and keep wiping off the gunk while working

I used Formby’s because I happened to have it. There are other ways to wipe the gunk and see if the wood underneath shines through like mine. If the finish is varnish (not polyurethane) using mineral spirits can work too. What mineral spirits can do is reveal the woodwork and the finish underneath. I did this with another chair and the results were not great and I ended up painting it.You can use soap and water to clean a dirty grimy piece of furniture- just keep the rag wrung out and keep rinsing it out to clean the piece. You may find a hidden treasure underneath and sometimes cleaning it up is all you need to do. Sometimes you may have to glue a piece back together too and I want to recommend Gorilla Glue (for Wood)-this stuff is great and does expand a bit so make sure to wipe up any excess before it dries. Be sure to follow the directions too.

Sometimes to restore a chair all you need to do is recover the seat. For this chair the seat cover was gross and so was the pad underneath but I cleaned it up and sealed it with spray paint. As long as the pad is not crumbling or moldy, you can reuse it which I did in another $5 thrift store makeover.

I hope I inspired you to uncover that hidden treasure and be on the look out for a $5 find. Oh and I want to give you a recommendation for wood and antique furniture that is dried out- Howard’s Feed n Wax which can be found at many retailers.