At Home During the Pandemic: The Chair Project

With everyone in the house and most of our usual activities cancelled, we did a lot of home projects this year. Sometimes, those projects were ones of necessity – a flooded ground floor had to be repaired — other projects were just because we wanted to upgrade our space.

One project started off as a need — I had to clear out more space in the basement for bookshelves for my growing Etsy bookshop. Down there, I had a set of four chairs that we had inherited back in New York City about twenty years ago.

The chairs had started their lives as a well-made wooden set with a stamp of a Virginia furniture maker from the 1930’s. But over the years, they had a rough life. The seats were destroyed. They wobbled. I tried selling them on the Internet, but nobody wanted them. Rather than donating them or leaving them out for the trash guys, we (me) decided to fix them up together (mostly Steve).

Steve glued some loose joints, sanded them down, and painted them Farrow and Ball’s Hague Blue. I had the seats recovered in Meadow Blue/Green from Calico Corners. The teal/blue-green chairs pick up the accent colors in our common areas. We’re pleased.

Here are the before and after pictures:

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One problem. We only refinished four chairs, so we need to find two more chairs that are similar and paint them the same color.

We’re so fond of that Farrow and Ball paint that we might paint other pieces of hand-me-down and dumpster dive pieces in our living room.