can you believe i actually found this chair in a dumpster? i love it! it's a louis xvi reproduction. it used to have a really dark, glossy wood finish that showed a lot of wear. the cane seat was also completely broken. for me, i think it has the potential to be a really great looking side chair, kind of like all the trendy ones we are seeing around with the raw, unfinished wood. i'm going to show you how i made the finish so much nicer. repairing this cane seat is an option but it could be quite expensive.
in this case, i'm going to opt to have the seat reupholstered. i've got some fabrics over here as options. there's this really nice cotton duck, it's white so it could be a concern in wearability. there's this gorgeous linen in a stone colour that i really do love because it's quite neutral and could work in a lot of different interiors. there's also this if you're wanting something a bit more gutsy, a black and white pattern could look great. so we've actually already removed a lot of the finish on this chair, but we've still got to finish up this one leg at the front. i'm going to show you how to do that using this great product by natura.
it's called safe strip and it's available through home hardware. all you need to do is give this a really good shake and then pour it into a disposable container. so let's apply this varnish remover. flip this over so it's a bit easier. and all you need is a paintbrush and a nice thick coat all over the leg here. there's no real art to this just make sure you have the entire thing covered. and the goopier the better actually. you can actually see the product already working. it's kind of coming off, doesn't look all that appealing but you know, that means it's working.
this chair has a lot of different details on the legs so you want to make sure you get the product in all the nooks and crannies. and we're just going to let this sit for an hour and then come back and scrape the product off. and it comes off pretty quickly and quite easily actually, using one of these putty knives. and take it along the leg just like that. you can kind of see the finish just peeling right off. and get into the corners as well. this is one of those jobs that might take a little while and a little extra tlc but if you enjoy it, it's kind of relaxing to be honest. next, i'm going to take a sponge with an abrasive side on it and go over the legs again.
this is going to help us get into all the nooks and crannies that the putty knife wouldn't allow us to actually remove. you can see that the leg is actually quite dark right now and that's just because a lot of the product is soaked right in, but as soon as this dries, you'll have a big reveal. i'm sure you're used to us here at house & home saying 'paint that furniture to bring it to new life.', but i guess the cool thing about this project is we're taking off the finish instead of throwing on a coat of paint and having it be the natural, raw wood. it's going to be beautiful. so you might need to repeat these natura safe strip steps a couple more times, depending on the finish that you're removing. in this case, we're ready for the steel wool.
i'm going to be scrubbing it in the same direction as the wood grain. it helps remove any of the leftover bits of stain and gives us a nice rustic finish. so the next step is to apply this, it's safe solutions, and it's going to actually just remove any of the safe strip that's left on the chair. apply it to the leg. and just kind of work it into all the different crevices. when this is dry, i would give it a light sand to just finish it off and then send it off to the upholster. it's a great project for a chair or a desk, any wood piece of furniture you're wanting to reinvent. once this chair comes back from the upholster with a brand-new seat, it's going to look great.
a far cry from the chair i found in the dumpster and is going to look great in my living room.