Done Wright Home Improvement: Wood and Linen Spare Chair Makeover

A thrifted spare chair gets a Restoration Hardware style makeover using just chalk paint and wax.

There are some people who have stray puppies and kittens that follow them home.

For me, it’s furniture. And this time, it was a random spare chair that somehow hopped into my car in the thrift store parking lot.

I couldn’t help it though. Look how cuuuuuute!

It was $25 and sturdy and comfy and clean, which is not easy to come by in the thrift store furniture world. It might as well have puppy dog eyes.

But the orange vinyl upholstery wasn’t really going to work. So I gave it a quick facelift for this month’s Trash to Treasure Transformation Tuesday. (You can see my blogger friends’ thrifty before and afters at the bottom of this post and my months’ past makeovers here.)

I painted and waxed the wood frame first using my go-to DIY weathered wood finish.

You can see the full tutorial for that here:

For dealing with the orange vinyl, I just painted it with a coat of Annie Sloan French Linen, sanded well with ultra fine 500 grit sandpaper, and waxed with Annie Sloan Clear Wax.

It’s smooth as butt-ah! And it still feels like vinyl or leather, except less orange-y.

Robert is convinced it’s going in his office once we get around to giving his space a makeover. But for now I’m enjoying it in the corner of our dining room.

Apparently, this is a popular corner since last month’s Trash to Treasure involved that French wall sconce that was once a piece of thrifted 80s brass.

I’m thinking this French Linen / weathered wood combination needs to happen again on another piece one day though because it is gorgeous! Very Restoration Hardware-esque.