red highchair

At the end of last summer, we ran across a wooden restaurant-style high chair at a car boot sale (flea market) a couple of miles from the house. It was $5. I snapped it up, since Baby P's shins had a habit of hitting the high chair we were using. I took it as a sign he was starting to outgrow the high chair, and as I found out at his two-year appointment, he had, in fact, surpassed the weight and height limits set by the manufacturer.

But a new problem presented itself when his shins also hit the cross bar in the new high chair. Imagine there was much cursing at this new discovery. I only imagined it, too, since the bebe repeats everything these days.

I'd resigned myself to getting rid of it via Craigslist and buying a booster seat to strap into a dining chair . . . until I saw a post on another blog about repainting an old wooden high chair, sans tray. And inspiration struck.

Remove the lap bar and straps, and suddenly, we have a functional chair that can we can scoot up to the table without our swiftly growing kiddo getting banged up.

Here are the bar and straps, after.

This is what's left after snipping the straps off of the bottom.

A screwdriver and a pair of pliers take care of the rest.

And thank goodness I ended up pulling the thing apart, because now I don't worry about all the restaurant grime left in and around the straps.

Here's what the arm rests looked like after removing the bar (loosening a few screws made removing the bar very simple!).

And here's the chair, scrubbed, sanded, and de-glossed, ready for paint.

I decided to paint the underside first, using the same cherry red Krylon paint+primer I used for the magazine rack . . . and our front door. Three light coats, with about 20 minutes dry-time in between.

Then I let it dry overnight before flipping it over and painting the top side.

Also three light coats + touch ups.

And there you go! I let it cure outside for about a week (the weather was still cool back in March, so I waited until the smell of spray paint faded).

I added some self-adhesive furniture felt to the runners to keep the chair from marking up the floors, and brought it inside. The kiddo is a big fan! How about you?

The paint has held up really well over the past several weeks; no scuffs, scratches or dents in the surface yet. And that's it for red, for awhile. My next spray paint project is pool blue and leaf green, so stay tuned!


(p.s. you can make these pictures bigger by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.)



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