Highchair Makeover

With Charlotte's first birthday quickly approaching, I have been scouring Pinterest for photo ideas. We have actually booked with the photographer who did her newborn pictures for her 1-year pics BUT I also want cute pictures for the party itself. We have decided to have her party at my parent's house this year and so I started to think about where we will do the smash cake. After seeing lots of pictures on Pinterest, I decided I would keep my eye out for a wooden highchair.

About 2 weeks ago, I had my annual physical (which I haven't done in 2 years since I was pregnant last year) and I noticed a kids consignment shop across the street so I decided to pop in and see what they had in. First thing I saw when I walked in the door was this little guy sitting by the door.

It was pretty beat up and I had a hard time removing the tray. The shop owner helped me fix the sliding tray so that everything was functional. Everything else was cosmetic and could be fixed with some sanding. The shop owner ended up taking $5 off so I scored the highchair for $20! 

At this point I wasn't really sure how I wanted to refinish it. I honestly wasn't expecting to fid a highchair so easily. I found lots of ideas that I liked but these were some of the top contenders: dark stain, Teal chalk paint, or a basic white. 

In the end, I was a creature of habit and decided to go with what I knew I would love. I also wanted it to be something we would get use out of AFTER the party. So while a teal/aqua colored highchair would be fabulous to have at her party, I wasn't sure how much it would get used after. So I decided to go two tone, just like Charlotte's dresser. 

I didn't take step by step pics BUT it was fairly simple. This particular wood did give me some trouble so there were a few more steps then usual. 

1) I wiped everything down with deglosser.

2) I started with the roughest grit sandpaper for the tray and worked my way to the finer stuff until the tray was back to raw wood.  I used three different grits with the finest being 220. 

3) I used the 220 grit paper to rough up the surfaces of the highchair itself. Because I was going to paint that part I did not need to strip it completely. 

4) I removed all the dust. This was the hardest part!! 

5) I used Valspar White Satin paint for the "chair" part. It took 4 cans in total. LOTS of thin coats. The issued I had was some texture that would arise after painting. It was not noticeable but I could feel it so I ended up sanding it down between coats, removing the dust and painting another coat. This did help but it made the process much longer. 

6) The top also has the same issue with texture and the wood really ate the stain. It took 5 coats of stain and 2 coats of poly to get the right shade and sheen I wanted. We applied the stain with cheesecloth and used super fine steel wool between coats to remove any texture. The stain is my go to stain: Minwax "Red Mahogany".  Followed by Rustoleum's gloss spray poly. 

And the finals results are perfect:

I spent $20 on the highchair and $20 at Lowe's on spray paint and poly. I already has everything else on hand from my last project. Not too bad for $40!