As I go from 5th grade to 1st grade, I am taking the wood/metal cafe look of my 5th grade classroom and transitioning it into a woodland look for my 1st graders. A lot of my flexible seating options are the wrong size since I will have much smaller students, so I have spent time this summer creating new options to fit with this rustic woodland theme.
I found these two wood chairs at Michaels on the clearance aisle. They were $15 each, and were made with unfinished wood. I could’ve left them like this, but I wanted to give it a more shabby chic look, so I bough a grey wood stain and a special walnut wood stain.
First, I covered the chairs in the grey stain. I didn’t stir it well enough though, and it ended up being really thick on the seat. It also looked more blue than I pictured. I panicked a little but I knew I wasn’t finished yet.
After the stain dried, I sanded down the all of the chairs with a power sander. I left some stain all over it, but sanded sections of it where there was very little stain showing.
Next, I covered the chairs with special walnut stain.
After it dried, I sanded it down again. I tried to sand the edges the most, and sanded sections of the seats more heavily than others.
It turned out very different than I was picturing, but I love it. It almost reminds me of animal fur which is perfect for our woodland classroom.
Teach Like You Mean It 