DIY: How to Refinish Your Dining Room Chairs

First off, you should know that this was my first attempt at refinishing wood chairs. This is basically me, telling you, that I am FAR from being an expert. With that out of the way, let's dive in!

Here are the chairs:



The one on the far right is the original chair with its original stain. When I took this picture, I had done only a light sanding with the palm sander but as you can see, there was still a ways to go.

The middle picture is after a full sanding with the palm sander. See that sander dust all over the chairs? Do this project outside - not worth the clean up inside, trust me.

After I got all of the chairs looking like this middle chair, I then applied a Miss Mustards Seed Milk Paint wash purchased at my local Annie Sloan stockist here in town called Patina Home and Garden. Patina has a wide range of Milk Paint products and the store owner talked me through what I needed to do to get these chairs looking the way I wanted.

After I applied that light wash, I let it dry completely. It didn't take long.

See the chair on the far left? This is how the finished product looks! I lightly sanded (just with sand paper) the milk paint wash and then sealed it with hemp oil. The wood absolutely glowed once I was finished. Without necessarily meaning to, this is the EXACT finish I was going for!

Finally, I sealed the wood seat with a clear poly and let it air dry for several days.

I highly recommend working with milk paint. This was my first go at it and I loved how easily it moved on the wood surface and how easily I was able to affect change with simple sand paper and hemp oil.

Give it a try!