I am SO excited to share today’s post with you! You may recall the pair of chairs I picked up at a yard sale back in August. It took three months, but they now officially have a new lease on life! This was definitely my largest and most involved refurbishing project to date, and I had anxiety at almost every step. Most of it was completely unnecessary worry, however, and I know that next time everything will be much smoother. I hope this post will encourage some of you to try something similar, since I lived to tell the tale! As a reminder, here’s what we started with: walnut-ish wood, pale pink velvet upholstery. Luckily for me, the chairs were solid wood (not veneer), they weren’t stained or painted, and they weren’t terribly grimy. They were also in good shape, with only a few rough spots. The first step was to lightly sand them down to give the surface a little “grip.” I used 80 grit first, then followed that up with very fine (220) grit. I then wiped both chairs down with a slightly damp rag, and let them rest overnight. I completed this step inside, and everything stayed pretty clean. The next step was to prime these babies. I used Kilz Original Oil-Base Primer and a cheap bristle brush. I was very anxious about this step, because there was no going back once the primer was on, but I needn’t have worried. I followed Sherry’s advice (wood painting tips here + here) and didn’t worry when the coat of primer looked a little rough. The toughest part was coating the caning without having the paint drip, and getting to all sides of the back poles, since there was only a small space between them and the caned back