Rocking Chair Rehab

Happy Monday, everyone! I’m happy to share a Goodwill project with you today. Unlike so many decor and DIY bloggers, I don’t visit my local Goodwill store very often. When I do, I never find anything worth spending money on; just bad timing, I guess. That is, until I spotted a cute little rocking chair in the window of Goodwill one day.

I brought it home for $15 – a good deal for sure, but it needed some repairs. Wood glue secured the wobbly spindles, but there were deep screw holes that I didn’t like the looks of.

To plug the holes I used wood filler (Elmer’s) and a putty knife to smooth the filler down so it was even with the wood.

This little chair was once a Christmas present (probably back in 1982), and the gift tag was practically super-glued to the wood. A few careful go-rounds with a razor blade made it disappear.

Next, I gave the whole chair a light sanding to prepare it for spray primer and paint, and paid special attention to my filled holes to ensure they were sanded smooth and even.

Ugh – this photo is a reminder that we need to re-stain the deck this spring.

After a few coats of navy spray paint, Junior has a shiny new-to-him rocking chair. He loves to climb in and out of it and say “Rock, rock, rock!”

I freely admit that I’m a terrible painter – with a brush, roller, or can. My problem is lack of patience and my inability to paint in thin even coats (like Sherry, the painting goddess). My can of rich, navy spray paint ran out at the last minute. You can’t tell in this photo, but white primer peeks through a bit on the back of the chair. As luck would (not) have it, Valspar changed their whole line of spray paint and my shade of blue was discontinued. So I’m on the hunt for a good match. Good thing 18 month old boys don’t care about bad paint jobs!

Have you spruced up any Goodwill finds lately?