Lime Away

A couple of years ago I purchased a set of 6 dining chairs at a rummage sale and I think I paid about $12/chair for them.  We sanded them down and recovered the seats with new fabric and they've been our day in and day out dining seating.  

A year or so ago, one of the cane backs on the chair ripped and I called a place to see what it would cost to fix it.  As it turned out, it would cost $235 to fix the caning.  Ouch.  

In other words, our set of 6 chairs went down to a set of 5 because I just couldn't commit to $235 to fix a chair that I paid $12 for.  I've been wanting to find another set of 6-8 chairs but the price hasn't been right: it's kinda hard to beat $12 per chair.

We got an email last week from Perry at Hope Street that one of their residents is graduating and will be moving into an apartment.  He needs some items to get his new place set up.  One of the items needed was a set of dining chairs and we decided to donate our set of five.

I checked out Craigslist and some consignment shops.  I found this set of 6 in the "make an offer" section.  Well, don't mind if I do.  The chairs had some rad 80s fabric and it looks like the wood had been limed.  But I liked the shape, they were really comfortable and are made of solid wood.  Done.

When I brought them home, I tried a little bit of hand sanding and an orbital sander just to see what I was getting into.  In a few minutes, I could see that this was going to be a time consuming job because the layer of finish on top was really thick.  I took a chair into the basement and put some stripper on it.  

A couple hours later I did some scraping and there was still some finish left, which would mean that after I stripped them I would still have to sand off the remaining finish, which is more time than I'd like to commit right now so I think I will just reupholster them and leave the limed finish (for now).  

I looked on Pinterest for some limed chair inspiration and here's what I've come up with:

I hope to get to the fabric store this week to score some non-80s fabric for the chairs. Keep you posted on that progress.

If anyone is interested in donating to Hope Street, there's still some items needed to furnish his new apartment.  If you have pots/pans, couch, chair, kitchen table, bed or dresser that you'd like to donate, let's talk :)