A Pair of Chairs

Meet my side chairs, which were given to me by a friend a few years ago, and which lost all their feet. They each had two feet in the back, and two extremely crappy little plastic ball casters in the front, which cracked and broke off their stems.  For a while, my cool chairs were on the floor:

This is not a terrible-looking chair;  in fact, I think they're really pretty. They're super comfy, and while there are some cat scratches in a couple of places, the microfiber fabric is in really good shape.

But sitting on the floor? No way. Too hard to get out of, when your butt's below your knees. Plus, it made them look like I got them out of a dumpster.

Here's the underside.  Scrim removed, and wooden support blocks for the feet removed.

Here are the support blocks that I removed.
It wasn't difficult.

I also removed the rear blocks (you can see them in the previous pic), and copied all four blocks onto a scrap of 2x4 I picked up for a dollar at Home Dope's scrap bin.

Here are the new front and rear blocks; along with four flat plates I made to affix to the bottom of the chair.


They're screwed and glued into the frame, the support blocks, and the frame strut in the rear of the chair that each rear block is affixed to.  In other words, these chairs are now freaking SOLID.

Here's the first finished chair. The wooden support plates barely even show; I finished the edges to match the feet (and the TV console, it's the same stain) so where they do show, it looks like it belongs there.

Here's the other chair, with the coffee table chest I put together over the weekend. They're about 3" higher than they were originally, before they ended up on the floor, so they're quite tall.  As a woman of some height, myself (5'10"), I think they're perfect.



















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Rory approves of this chair. 

Next Up: 

Art supplies storage! 

SCA Crossover: Refinishing A Chair

 I recently refinished a piece of wooden SCA furniture for a friend in the group, for his campsite.  It had definitely seen better days:

(all of these pics are halfway through sanding, to show just how much *crud* is in/on this wood)

Don't get me wrong, it's a good chair.  It's extremely well-made, sturdy, and not a joint is out of place, though it looks horrible.  What you're looking at is several years' worth of

• rain/water damage
• sun exposure/oxidation
• corroded varnish
• sweaty fighter butts (ewww)

Not only was the finish shot, but the wood was so swollen with weather and age in places that the chair wouldn't fully open OR close...rendering a really nice chair completely useless. 

I'll be honest, I was dreading the prospect of sanding allllll those pieces individually.  I guess the chair, or the Universe, or the Powers-That-Be heard me - because I could NOT get this thing apart to save my life.  I tried every tool at my disposal, got friends to help me, even tried to grind the hardware out, but it appears to have been made of naquadah-enhanced unobtanium, and sealed with black magic.  @_@  In the end I had to sand and stain this thing WHILE FULLY ASSEMBLED.  I'm here to tell you that was a bitch. 

BUT I got it done: 

(I could no longer feel my hands after this...and it still needed more sanding)

Here's the first coat of stain, applied very, very carefully, with a small brush and a lot of paper towels.  The chair is solid oak, and pretty well weathered and seasoned; still, I didn't want to chance the stain swelling the wood and undoing all the work I put into buffing down the seat pieces so that this thing would move properly again.  Rubbing stain into the wood with paper towels keeps too much stain from soaking in and swelling the wood, and it also gives you a LOT more control over the depth and amount of color.  

(oooh, aahhh)

After two more coats of stain, and several coats of spray poly-acrylic (for a low-tack, matte-sheen clearcoat, rather than a polyurethane which could stick in hot weather), it was finally done:

(The dark area of the back piece was severely stained, deep enough that I couldn't surface clean it out, or even sand it off the wood.  It's the same on the reverse of the piece; in fact, it's worse on the other side.  I have no idea what caused it, but, this was the best I could do with it). 

Sir John's and his lady Bridget's devices painted on the center of the back rest, in acrylic paint, and heavily clear-coated to prevent scratching.

Tada!