Vintage Highchair Find and More About Floor Refinishing

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Ever since we made our first adoption plans I've been on the hunt for an old-school wooden highchair. To refinish of course. In white. With distressing. And cuteness.

Basically I've been looking for a highchair that will look more like a piece of furniture and less like a neon hunk of plastic in the dining room. If-ya-know-what-I-mean.

So I've seen a few here and there over the past few years but none of 'em came home with me. Some of them had trays that didn't work. Some of them didn't have trays at all (um, where does the food go?!?), and some of them were too ornate for my taste. 

I hit up Kijiiji (kind of like Craigslist) the other day and actually found a vintage highchair listed locally. I drove right over to have a look, bartered the guy down 20 bones from his asking price (yay, me!), and lugged it home.

It needs a makeover ba-ad. Hunter green cushion? Come on now.

But,  it does have good bones. And a tray. Woohoo!

So here it is pre-makeover:


I guess that means I'll have to dust off my sewing machine to make a new cushion, too. Eek! I'm scared!

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In floor refinishing news, the floor guy came over on Monday to look at the condition of our floors, take some measurements, and give us a final quote.

We said yes!!!

Because we are oh-so-crazy, we are getting this done from December 12th - December 16th. That means we will need to empty three bedrooms and put all of the furniture, clothes, and miscellaneous contents of those rooms into our living room / dining room A WEEK before Christmas.  

I'm telling myself that this is totally do-able. I'm also telling myself that it will be a fun little adventure.

Okay I'm lying to myself. I'm freaking out. 

But it'll totally be worth it, right? 

Right???

Right!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

;)

15 comments:

  1. Yes, it will be worth it, and I imagine this type of job is pretty straightforward, and you will be happily setting things back in place on the evening of the 16th, on top of those delightfully smooth and shiny floors.

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  2. Just make sure the chair cushion is washable!

    Once the floors are done, won't you have to put the trim back and paint it too?

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  3. Anonymous,

    Thanks for the tip about the washable cushion. I'll be looking for some super-durable fabric.

    We won't have to put the trim back up because our old house had quarter-round trim all along the bottom which was removed at one point to install carpeting. Once the floors are done, we will eventually reinstall the quarter-round to finish off the baseboards but they will still look pretty good until then!!

    :)

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  4. Hi Sarah ~ I know you will turn that high chair into something totally adorable. I wish you all the best with your adoption journey. We adopted our daughter from Russia when she was 15 months old and she will turn 10 in December ~ it's all so worth it!!

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  5. Cute chair.
    ... will look adorable when finished :)

    Greetings from Australia♥

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  6. Totally worth it! You will have amazing floors by Christmas!

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  7. I had a lovely wooden high chair for my youngest , I painted and distressed it . I just had to install a proper safety belt and it worked beautifully , these take up so much less space , love it!

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  8. Of course you would find a vintage highchair and redo it!! Argghhhh, so jealous!! Wishing you all the best in your adoption journey and cant' wait to hear more about it...considering this for down the road depending on how our next set of IVF cycles go and whether or not we can have another one. Good luck with the floors!!! It will definitely be worth it, although it is a pain in the butt to move everything. We didn't have quarter round and we still have stain on all our baseboards from when they refinished our floors. Have only repainted them white in one room so far! What? Its only been a year and a half since we had the floors redone;)

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  9. Ooh, I can't wait to see what you do with the highchair!

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  10. TOTALLY worth it! Can't wait to see what you do with the high chair.

    xo,
    Shannon
    P.S I absolutely prefer kijiji to craigslist!

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  11. Very cute highchair! I can't wait to see what it looks like when you are done with it!! And I can't wait to see your new floors! Yes, it will be totally worth it!!

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  12. Yes, do it. Having a home you give tender loving care to is totally worth it. Looking forward to pictures.

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  13. Well, it'll definitely be a, umm...challenge (!) to put 3 bedroom's worth of stuff into your living room, but yes, if will definitely be worth it! Can't wait to see the rooms when they're finished.

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  14. Just a word of caution. Old things like this are not always safe. I would try to incorporate something into the cushion that was more like a slipcover on the seat and held the baby in at the bottom. Kind of like the covers that are made for the grocery carts. This seat would create a danger of the baby falling out the bottom otherwise. Good luck and be safe.

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  15. That is why when we bought our 1929 bungalow, all of the carpets were ripped up, and we refinished the floors. It's actually easy, but is messy, and can be time consuming.
    http://www.allevaconstruction.com/services/kitchens.html

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