Thonet chairs holiday project

July 14, 2016

Thonet Chairs Holiday Project

Cleaning Up The Neighbourhood

This was supposed to be holidays, but I guess I just couldn’t miss a chance like this. I found these two classic Thonet chairs standing outside my dad’s house. His neighbour was planning to drive them to the dumpster but couldn’t find the time, so the chairs were irritating the whole neighbourhood for weeks. And there I was on my furniture painting vacation/detox. How could I resist? I took them.

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Testing Grounds

I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test some of the products available in Poland. If you have read any of my blog posts, you know I’m a great fan of Lady Supreme Finish (LSF) from JOTUN. I love this oil paint for its durability and matte finish (it comes in 4 different types of finish), but this brand is a Scandinavian specialty, and you can’t buy it anywhere else, so I decided to try something new. I always heard good things about Tikkurilla paints, so I thought I’d give it a try. I chose Acrylic Enamel (Emalia akrylowa) in a strong, mint shade of green. It came in semi matte finish; sadly, it was the only one available. When painting with LSF I always use primer but I couldn’t find anything like that here, so I had to skip it.
After taking the chairs apart I filled the cracks with wood filler (Kit do drewna Liberon) and sanded them by hand to get rid of the old lacquer, and then I was ready for painting. Much to my surprise, the first layer covered almost perfectly, and all in all I just needed two layers and a minor touch up. The paint dried very fast though, which made it harder to apply and harder to archive a smooth, even surface. After drying (only 6 hours, LSF needs 8), it seemed pretty durable. I tried to scratch it off with my nail but it didn’t do any damage. This type of paint doesn’t require any additional protection like lacquer or wax, so my chairs were almost ready. I only needed to wax the parts that were supposed to stay unpainted and put the chairs together.
This project was a welcome distraction from my intense family holiday. The few hours I spent with my chairs kept me sane and composed for the rest of the stay 😉 Painting is my kind of meditation 🙂