Before and After – Wooden Chairs

April 2009 we hosted a yard sale at my boyfriend’s dad’s house. It was fun for me to go through all the stuff with them since there wasn’t an emotional attachment. Some items weren’t even theirs but past family member’s items. That’s when I came across these chairs.

I looked up any information I found printed on these chairs to find they were from the 1950s from a now defunked manufacturer in Fort Wayne Indiana. We suspect they are from my boyfriend’s grandma’s neighbors due to some family information we received. I liked them. I liked that they folded yet were still wooden surfaces. I kept these in the back of my head for when we owned a place.

February 2010, we bought our first home. I knew I wanted these chairs but I wanted to redo them to be more modern. I love Design Sponge‘s Before and After series so I thought I’d try it myself.

I did some research online and found out about using chemicals and scrapping off the old paint. Of course this was more time-consuming than I thought.

After a few coats of the chemical materials and scrapping paint, two coats of white paint to repaint the surfaces and a new fabric and foam for the chair cushion, I now have two DIY (do it yourself) chairs as extra seating in our new home!