Tips for refurbishing rundown chairs

(FOX 2) - This week, Jill Washburn, our Jill of All Trades, shows us how she renovated a set of chairs that she found on the side of the road.

A FOX 2 viewer tipped Jill off to a set of table and chairs that were out on the side of the road with a sign marked "FREE." They had been sitting out in the elements for at least a week. Jill went and grabbed them and decided that they were fixable. That said, they were in pretty rough shape. They had clearly been abused.

Jill decided to start with the chairs. One of the chairs had a broken leg that had been duct-taped back together. After peeling off the duct tape, Jill had to clean the gunky adhesive from the tape off the leg of the chair. She decided that the best way to do that would be to use mineral spirits, or paint thinner. 

That worked pretty well. The trick, says Jill, is to wipe some mineral spirits on and let it soak in for a minute or two before you start to rub away the gunk. It took off the adhesive pretty easily. 

Next, Jill set about fixing the broken leg. 

The legs of these chairs are oak, and the break was pretty clean. There are a couple of ways that she could have fixed this break. She could have lined the pieces up and driven a screw into the back of the leg, or she could try gluing it back together. Jill decided to try gluing the leg first. If that failed, then she would take the second option to repair it with a screw.

Jill turned to her favorite glue for fixing these types of things, Gorilla Glue. Gorilla Glue is phenomenal at repairing many things and many different types of materials. It works really well on wood and the hold is very durable.

The trick to using Gorilla Glue is that you have to get the surfaces damp first. That, says Jill, gives you a better hold. 

After you dampen the surface, you need to apply the glue. Jill got the glue into the crack as best she could. Then she wiped away the excess. Gorilla Glue tends to foam a bit and expand as it dries, so it will fill gaps pretty easily. After it's dry, you can chip off, or sand off, any extra glue. 

Once Jill had the glue in place, then she had to find a way to brace or clamp the leg until it was dry. Jill chose to use a hose clamp to accomplish this. 

She wrapped the clamp around the leg of the chair and screwed it tight enough to hold. She left it that way for a couple of hours. 

Gorilla Glue can take up to 24 hours to dry completely, depending on the situation. Jill checked it after a couple of hours and removed the clamp, to make sure that the clamp didn't get glued to the leg of the chair.

With the repair complete, Jill took a paint scraper and scraped the excess glue off the leg of the chair. After that, it was time to paint.

Jill took the seats off the chairs and put them aside. She chose to paint them a different color. For the remainder of the chair, she chose to use a white paint. Jill opted for a good spray paint and sprayed each chair with a few light coats. The chairs were so dry from age, and from being out in the elements for so long, that they really soaked up the paint.

With the main part of the chairs done, Jill turned her attention to the seats. She was wanting to paint them navy blue but couldn't find a spray paint that was dark enough. She bought the darkest blue that she could find and then applied two coats on the chair seats.  

That was still a little too bright so, before the seat was even dry, she then misted a light coat of black spray paint on the chair seats, not covering them completely. The black darkened the blue just enough to make it more of a navy blue.

After letting everything dry thoroughly, Jill put the seats back onto the chairs, finishing the re-do. Next week, she'll tackle the renovation of the table, to make the set complete. 

PROJECT RATING: Medium (more time consuming than difficult)

To watch Jill take you through the process, just click on the video player above.