Child's Chair Refinished

When I was growing up my parents had some small chairs and a table for my sister and I to color and play at. I ended up with one of the child sized chairs and decided to refinish it so that when there are kids visiting they can use it if they'd like. Given the extent and type of work this little chair would need it became a basement project. 

For almost any project I do in the basement the first step is to tune the radio to the classic rock station, so that's where I started.

I removed the wooden back and seat from the metal frame 

and started sanding the paint off. 

Then I sanded the wooden parts of the chair.

I knew I didn't want to just paint the chair a solid color but would add some kind of design elements so I started with a yellow base coat. 

I decided to to some birds on the chair back so I did an internet search and found some images I liked, printed them on card stock and cut them out to make stencils. 

I taped the stencils to the chair and using a foam brush and dabbing technique colored in the stencils. Removing the stencils from the chair pretty quickly after painting so the excess paint would not bleed through. 

For the seat I decided to add green stripes. I created stripes with painters tape and painted over the yellow that was exposed between the tape lines. Again I did not wait too long before removing the tape to try to keep the lines crisp. 

One the back and seat were dry I put a clear coat of poly over them to try to preserve the design and make it easy to clean. 

I used spray paint to paint the metal base white. 

Once everything was dry I reassembled the chair.