Before and After

I acquired my dining room chairs from an auction in 1997.  They were bargain-priced and have served us well but over the years, but were never especially comfortable.  Over the years, a few have also grown rather rickety and though T was willing to give a hand toward fixing that, it seemed a rather large chore for chairs that had never really been comfortable.  I few weekends back, we stopped in to a local unfinished furniture store and spotted some lovely replacements; chairs that were sturdy, looked great, and were comfortable.  The investment seems well worth it and we decided to try our hand at staining furniture.  

Rather than start with the chairs, we opted for a small plant stand with plenty of detail work. It started life as a plain wooden item.

We choose a MinWax stain with polyurethane built-in and set to work on Labor Day weekend.  

An hour later, the stand was ready to dry and we were sold on the idea of finishing the chairs ourselves.

We are confident that we can stain the chairs and so now new chairs are in order.  A staining weekend or two is planned for later this fall.  By Halloween, we hope to be sitting in sturdy comfort.  That’s happy!