Celebration Chair

So, a long while back I got an idea from Studio 5 to buy an old chair and paint it to be the birthday chair – a place where your kids can sit at the table on their birthday.  It’s been in the back of my mind and I finally found the perfect chairs to do it with!

  My amazingly talented sister Kourtne is one of my most trusted consultants :) and we worked on this together.  We thought that you could take this idea any way you wanted – paint the chair a few different fun colors and draw some birthday balloons somewhere or cut out some fun animals with birthday hats on their heads, etc.  Then, as we talked about it, we decided to make it more simple and generic so it could be used for any big celebration in the family.  We then thought it would be fun to make it a family journal of sorts and have the kids sign, date and write a little description as to why they sat on it that day, ie: Emery – 7-11-10 – 4th Birthday. Or Jane – 6-5-26 – HS Graduation…that’s scary!:). We feel like it will be a great piece of family history to have over the years!

What You Need:

-  A STURDY used chair…………I got mine at DI for $5 in the outdoor garden area – kind of the secret place for special surprises. Things are usually priced a little cheaper, but you may have to do some digging.

- An electric hand sander…….if you don’t have one already, you may want to invest in one.  They make any project SO much faster and easier! I was surprised at how in-expensive they are - about $12 and up.

- Paint……..I just used left over in-door wall paint.  Durable and covers well.  But any craft paint would do, I think.

- 4-5 different double-sided scrapbook papers…….if you choose from the same line, the color shades will be similar and will all go together.  If you can’t find double sided, then you may want to get more sheets. You’ll want about 8-10 different designs.

- Mod Podge and foam brush………just about $4 for a small jar with a coupon.  And you won’t use the whole thing, so you’ll have leftovers for other projects! (We used their matte-finish)

How To Do It:

Step 1:  Sand and wipe down your chair so the wood is smooth and ready for paint

 Step 2: Find a bowl or other round object that will help you draw a half circle on the back of the chair. Trace it to a piece of paper and cut it out to make a stencil to trace.  We started about 2 inches in from the outside edge to make room for our banner pieces. Depending on how big the back of your chair is, you may have to play around with this part a bit.

Step 3: Randomly cut out a bunch of different sized triangles from your paper and arrange them along your rounded edge you made above so you know how many you need.  This is the fun creative part to mix the colors and patterns together! Make sure your flags are not so big that they will dip down below the bottom of the back of your chair.

 

(these are the front and backs of our paper)

Step 4:  Then we used a dark (brown or black) sharpie to draw the flag string darker so it can be seen on the chair.

 

Step 5: Mod Podge your pieces to the chair along your line. First, cover the entire back of each piece with the Mod Podge and press hard onto the chair making sure there are no air bubbles. Allow to dry.  Apply the Mod Podge on top of the flags – at least two coats.  TIP: For best results on your top coats, allow the first application to dry completely.  This will keep your pieces from bubbling.

Step 6: Use your chair for any fun celebration your family is having and don’t forget to document the event, right on the chair!!:)

Time & Money:

-We did it on two different days, but start to finish, about 5 hours.

- Really the only thing I bought was the chair and paper.  So about $7 for me.  If you had to get everything, I would say between $12-15 – but everything you get, you’ll have extra of or can use again! You may be a little hard-pressed to find a chair that inexpensive, but be patient and go often – there’s always something new!