Chair Transformation

For this project I will be taking this free chair that I found on the side of the road for free and turning it into a brand new beautiful chair.

To begin this project we need to disassemble the chair. This will help us see what we want to change or add to the chair. Disassembling the chair will also allow us to be able to clean up all the pieces.

• Be sure you take pictures along the way so you know how to put the chair back together.

Anything that is not usable throw away and buy something that will compliment the new design.

• I threw away the cloth seat and backrest and am replacing it with a light aspen wood.

In this step we will be using the table saw to trim up the pieces that have undesirable things on them.

• I removed the rounded edges from the base pieces
• I also removed the angled edges from the backrest supports

The next step is to sand off the finish so we can put on our own stain.

• A belt sander makes this go by much quicker

Trim off anything that is not needed in the new design for the chair.

• First we do not need the base to be so wide so we will slim those down.
• We can also take of the half round edge on the top of the legs because our new seat will be sitting on top of the legs instead of nestled in them.

Remove any rust to make the braces look like new.

• Use a steel brush bit on a drill to clean up all the rust.

My new design does not involve such a wide base so we will be shrinking it down to the new size.

• Cut off even amounts on each side of the base boards.
• After that cut new grooves for the braces to fit into using a table saw
• Only cut halfway into the wood.

Now we are going to build the seat and cut the backrest.

• Glue together the 2 pieces for the seat.
  
  • Once glued, clamp pieces together.
• After they are glued continue to cut them to size.
  • The seats size will be 15 inches by 13 inches.
• Next cut the backrest to 13 inches by 4 inches.

Make sure everything looks good before proceeding.

• Drill holes for the backrest supports in the back baseboard.

To prepare the wood for stain we will sand the boards and round the edges.

• Sand off any remaining stain and smooth edges along with all surfaces.
• Round over the corners of the seat and backrest with a wood file.
• Using a router round the edges of the seat for better comfort.

I chose to stain the legs base and backrest supports with an ebony stain.

• Make sure to apply as many coats as it takes to get the right darkness.

To contrast with the dark ebony stain I used a natural stain on the aspen wood which is already very light in color.

To begin we have to make sure we have all of our screws and bolts. Then we start put the screws in the frame boards with the braces. After that attach the legs with the bolts. Lastly we bolt the back supports to the frame in the wholes that we drilled earlier.

To protect the wood we we use a clear wood finish.

1. Start by lightly sanding the surfaces with 220 grit sandpaper
2. Then use tack cloth to clear the surfaces of dust
3. Using a foam brush put a thin coat of finish on the chair
4. After the chair has dried put 2 more thin coats to fully protect it

Now that the chair is protected we can attach the seat using wood glue.

• Put the glue on the frame then flip the frame onto the seat and position the frame exactly where you want it
• Then clamp down the frame onto the seat and let dry

To attach the backrest we will drill 4 holes into the back supports. Then we use the holes to mark on the backrest where we will drill pilot holes halfway into the board. Using 4, 1.5 inch screws, screw the backrest to the back supports.

We are finished! This chair will never have to be set out on the side of the road for free ever again! Thanks for reading I hope you like my instructable and if you did please vote for it in the contests.