Bentwood Ice Cream Chairs

[olga]

My parents dug these four bentwood chairs out of some rotting warehouse. They were in terrible shape, most were about to fall apart. My dad fixed the structure and I did the decorating. The process was exceptionally long for something so simple, but before I could start doing anything to them, I had to strip the old paint off. Chemical stripper is not a pleasant experience, especially on such thin and curved surfaces. Each chair took more than 2 hours to strip, not to mention the fumes and burning fingers. After the paint came off, I realized that they were beyond any hope of re-staining, I had to resort to painting them. The red took 5 coats, the rest 2. Then a coat of oil based varnish, and all new seats and seat covers. I'm so freaking glad it's done, I don't want to think about these chairs ever again, whew.

BEFORE

They were much worse then this picture can capture.



AFTER

[sweets4ever]

Wow!!  They are beautiful!  I really like the color palette you chose to work with.

I'm sure it's easier for me to say (because my fingers and eyes aren't burning!), but I think they were well worth the time!

[Ducky2010]

Gorgeous! They are so colorful! 

I love furniture recons, I think it's a combination of my being a college student with the craftster in me. I have a bunch of furniture I got from my Gparents that are all good, but kinda ugly finishes. I'm thinking of doing something similar to what you have done here! Thanks for the inspiration I had almost given up hope after all my roomate's negativity!

Great job! Well worth the effort!

[honeyfresh]

I'm in the process of fixing up some chairs myself! Very inspiring! And it definitely looks as though all your work was worth it. These are fantastic!

[rubytue]

Those are beautiful!  I love the colors.  Great job!

[AGFH]

I love the color choices. Wonderful job!
It's so satisfying to rescue something like these isn't it.

[RockstarMom]

Those are excellent!

[QuincyLovesYou]

These are gorgeous - I especially love the plaid!!

[DanielSmith]

Wow these are very cool you should be so proud of all of your hard work because they look great and very professional. Do you mind me asking what kind of paint you used and what finish?

Awsome job, all of your work is very inspiring

[olga]

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments! To answer your question DanielSmith, the paint I used was just plain old Behr from Home Depot. The paint finish on most colors was satin, but it really doesn't matter to me whether it's satin or flat, because I cover everything in a satin oil-based poly at the end.