Up-Cycle Follow Through

Finally following through….

I always have eco-friendly “up-cycling" projects in mind but never seem to have the time to follow through with them. Well I am happy to report that I am on my way on at least one project. (Cue the Rocky Music)

Over the weekend I got things moving with a project that I have been meaning to do for my little guy. Several years ago I purchased a used wooden high chair from a garage sale. (I talked about it in a previous blog post - Here it is for reference:  How to Stay Green While Buying Extra Baby Items)

John Warren trying out the
chair before we started the restoration.
Didn't fit totally yet so
had to use some pillows!

Project time.  Remove blue...

I have been using the chair at my parents' house when we would go down there, but decided that it would be nice to have that high chair in our new, larger place. When I purchased the high chair it was always my intention to restore it, but of course I never had the time. Until now! So we strapped the baby into his bouncer chair and set to work.  

As you can see in this first picture - the chair was painted a not so desirable blue color. As was the food tray.

At first I figured I would hand sand as much as I could and spray the whole thing another color. But it dawned on me that maybe it would be a good idea to keep the tray unpainted so my little guy wasn’t eating food off of a painted surface. Paint is usually more water based now, but I had no idea where the seat came from so thought it might be a good idea to remove as much of the old paint as possible .

Working to make the
food tray more baby food friendly. Steel wool
helped to remove any excess
paint and tighten the wood.

Food friendly mineral oil.

Paint thinner can be scary but we did find a splash-free kind and worked with more of a gentle "paint on" technique. After spending some time scraping and scrubbing, I found a beautiful blondish color wood under the blue paint. I finished the tray off with some non-toxic mineral oil to give it some protection from food penetration.

I am currently waiting for everything to dry….waiting is so hard.  But overall, I think this project has cost about 40 bucks plus my labor. I can’t wait to see my little guy in his new high chair and will share a picture when he tries it out for the first time!

The now yellow high chair drying and waiting for one more final coat of paint!
Waiting is the hardest part...

On a side note along with the high chair - here are a few other baby geared furniture items that I think would make good “up-cycle" projects: 

1.  Baby cradles and cribs

2.  Wooden toys

3.  Little Chairs and tables

4.  Rockers

How do you up-cycle?  Comment below.