Hand Painted Kids Chairs

 I was asked to paint some crummy, chipped, faded red kids chairs. Sure, remove the paint or sand it down, how hard could it be?

Grrrrr....

These simple chairs should have been a piece of cake, instead I couldn't wait to get them off my bench.

The paint, layers upon layers of paint - a whole rainbow of paint under the top layer of faded red - would not come off.  I think there was so many layers of paint that nothing could seep in enough to melt it away. So out came the electric sander, Dremel sander and elbow-grease sander...Oy! I did my best.

After getting the remaining paint as flat and smooth as possible, I spray painted everything black.

Sketched everything in chalk. I wanted it cartoony and playful. Then I just colored in the lines with acrylic paint. Using white paint and a short bristled brush, I used my thumb to pull the bristles back and sprinkled white paint over it to give a "star" effect.

Spray down with a high gloss acrylic sealer (3 coats) and they're done!

This was not my favorite project and some of the placement of the pictures was done to distract from the problems with the underlying paint job.  If I had this to do over again .... I wouldn't have accepted this job. Small chairs equal small nooks and crannies and too many years of layered paint that would just not remove easily. The majority of my time was spent trying to get a paint-able surface.  I love upcycling old furniture but wonder if a different approach would have been better for these chairs.